All About Books discussion

This is to say
I know
You wish you were in the woods,
Living the poet life,
Not here at a formica topped table
In a meeting about perceived inequalities in the benefits and
allowances offered to employees of this college,
And I too wish you were in the woods,
Because it's no fun having a frustrated poet
In the Dept. of Human Resources, believe me.
In the poems of yours that I've read, you seem ever intelligent
and decent and patient in a way
Not evident to us in this office,
And so, knowing how poets can make a feast out of trouble,
Raising flowers in a bed of drunkenness, divorce, despair,
I give you this check representing two weeks' wages
And I ask you to clean out your desk today
And go home
And write a poem
With a real frog in it
And plums from the refrigerator,
So sweet and so cold.

This poem always makes me laugh.

R. J. Ellmann is still alive, I believe. I don't know if she's written anything else.

LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thanks Nichole

My sympathies are with the poet.
I knew it was time to retire when I no longer had the patience to put up endless, pointless meetings and ineffective policies. And for sure at my University the H.R. department was one of the most sclerotic.
Sadly, I cannot create a poem from a frog and a plum.

I'm glad you were able to retire. It must have felt wonderful to be finally free.

Free - yes but I would’ve happily kept working if my department had not lost it’s way.

I know the feeling. But congratulations anyway!

I have to admit I’m enjoying retirement - it gave me time to complete the Proust year long group read.

Joan wrote: "Free - yes but I would’ve happily kept working if my department had not lost it’s way."

That's too bad Joan, sorry to hear this! I'm glad you're making the best of things though.

Nichole wrote: "This poem always makes me laugh.

R. J. Ellmann is still alive, I believe. I don't know if she's written anything else."

Nichole, I wonder if Ellman wrote it with a particular real-life person in mind? She has a sharp wit - I wouldn't want to cross her! :)

Sorry it took me so long to answer, Greg. I think she might have had a particular real person in mind. The situation of the poem is very "exact" (I can't think of a better word).