I live with an unruly mind

[PrinceMyshkin]

I live with an unruly mind
a thicket of wayward paths that wind
and unwind according to their own choosing,
sometimes finding, sometimes
losing, sometimes both at the same time.

And each path, it sometimes seems,
has a mind of its own, in which are embedded
hitherto and possibly forever
useless facts, such as

TAlon 6177, 237 Villeneuve West,
two doors east of us lived Lottie,
the yenteh, the embodiment of good-natured vulgarity,
and Beryl and Mendie and Lionel
and Muriel and Norma and Myrna
(who grew big as a battleship and came
sailing after me decades later...)

My first-grade teacher, Mrs, Hoffman,
and fourth grade Miss Gamerow
from whom I got the first scent
of adult sexuality, and Brenda Hyatt
who betrayed me with Arthur Brandman...

[sundays50]

i enjoyed this poem.
and i got lost in the first stanza haha
'sometimes finding, sometimes
losing, sometimes both at the same time.'
the 'same time' at the end got me

is this poem finished? why not continue it?

[ampoule]

So now I'm thinking of my first scent...hehe. I love it when you are unruly. Love the way it rambles but doesn't stray.

[PrinceMyshkin]

So now I'm thinking of my first scent...hehe. I love it when you are unruly. Love the way it rambles but doesn't stray.

I'm so appreciative of this last sentence of yours, how you seem to have appreciated that the "unruly" mind would naturally ramble, and contrary to what the previous poster wrote, it might not - could not - arrive at a ruly destination... There were a few lines beyond what I posted but I judged them to be just information. We can always find a few more words to say, can't we? But for me the art is in knowing when to shut up!

[AuntShecky]

I like the sounds in this piece, rhymes and slant rhymes. The jagged structure of the lines underscore the theme of the "unruly" mind. And the specifics in the last two stanzas or
strophes make this piece unique. Good job.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I like the sounds in this piece, rhymes and slant rhymes. The jagged structure of the lines underscore the theme of the "unruly" mind. And the specifics in the last two stanzas or
strophes make this piece unique. Good job.

thank you so much, AuntShecky. Whatever merit there is in this poem stems from the opening line, as is so often the case for me. There was (as I saw it) more or less equal measure of self-recrimination and anarchic joy in that line the rest was just filling it in...

[firefangled]

Such an interesting description and rapid transport from one point in time to the other.


and Myrna
(who grew big as a battleship and came
sailing after me decades later...)


As Auntie pointed out, this sounds great read aloud.

I loved those old phone numbers. Why do they remain in our heads when I can't remember the phone number of last house only 4 years ago. Mpty years ago it was LUdlow 2550.