ABPA - Australian Bush Poets Association

The Crack on the Wall

“You are old. You have lived. You are weary and worn,”
I said to the crack on the wall.
“You are ancient and tired and lonely and torn,”
I said to the crack on the wall.

“I’ll fill you. I’ll sand you. I’ll coat you with paint,”
I said to the crack on the wall.
“For I am a sinner, and you are a saint.”
I said to the crack on the wall.

“I’ll stroke you, caress you, I’ll polish and bless you.”
(This to the crack on the wall.)
“I’ll patiently dress you, I’ll finely finesse you.”
(Again, to the crack on the wall.)

The crack on the wall was a crack on the wall.
It had not the power of speech,
Yet full well I knew this meant nothing at all.
Inanimate objects can teach.

Mutely I gazed at the crack on the wall.
And mutely it answered me back.
I slowly submitted unto its great thrall,
The thrall of the ragged old crack.

There’s so many lessons I’ve picked up through life,
Yet none have exceeded at all
The one from this harried survivor of strife,
The one from the crack on the wall.

© Stephen Whiteside 01.06.2014

I suppose as good a subject as any for some verse.

The cracks are starting to show Stephen! What it must be to be inside your head some days!

Heather

Up at the crack of dawn to read The Crack on the Wall. Should it not be the crack in the wall?
If it was on the wall it would be protruding, whereas cracks don't protrude (except Aunty Mabel's )

Sorry Stephen, I'm sounding a bit pedantic. Sorry Neville that's your job . I do like this poem though, putty there's a typo in the first line.

Marty

Cracked me up !

Bob

Cracking good read.

Hard to fault your logic, Marty. I'm going to leave it the way it is, though. (Thanks for the proofreading, too.)

Seriously, these sort of things are very good I think.
Whether they are going to work as published pieces or performance I don't think is relevant.

I have said this before but I believe it bears repeating, I have a video where the Australian artist Peter Sharp goes out onto Lake Mungo and stands on the salt flats where he says to the viewer that he is not going to try and do the " big picture" he says this has been done before and very well. He advises to look at the small things right at our feet that otherwise go unnoticed.
He then proceeds to crouch down and draw a small rock with it's shadow that's on the ground near his feet He later goes back to his studio and makes a large modern painting from the image, an image that evokes the whole idea of the vast dry lake.

I think the same is in poetry. We try to make images of the whole of a country town, or a mountain range or desert vista , or the whole history of some person's life and adventure and it doesn't work, too many words, too many trees obscure the wood. The big picture, as Peter Sharp says, has been done before and maybe much better than we could do.

Maybe just a crack in the wall or some small moment of time is the idea of poetry. As some person has said "poetry is pressing the pause button on life ".

I think your little verse is a good example Stephen, of what I am trying to think through above.

I remember a poem Kym wrote about toothpaste - who'd have thought you could write a poem about toothpaste - or a crack in the wall? Well done Stephen, I couldnt' do it.

Heather

Ah Stephen..I loved it! What a great little poem and it condenses so much into so few lines.

Mal