Poem: The Discovery of Making Do"

[ysabetwordsmith]

This poem came out of the January 5, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired and sponsored by Anthony & Shirley Barrette.


"The Discovery of Making Do"


I grew up in a family
that practiced the skills
of making-do, and I
discovered ways
of going along.

There was the broom
to fend off the attacks
of a psychotic rooster,
the soup can to fix
a busted muffler, and
the screwdriver to open
a can of soup without
a real can opener.

I played baseball with
landmarks in the yard for bases,
a tennis ball, and a strip of
quarter-round molding that
taught me a lot about physics.

When I visited Russia, I was
the only one in our tour group
who did not  embarrass America
with a complete lack of jerryrigging skill.

Comments

Simple form, complex ideas

[dialecticdreamer]

Which is another way of using 'making do' to one's advantage!

A lovely glimpse at growing up.

Re: Simple form, complex ideas

[ysabetwordsmith]

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed this.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

People don't know HOW to improv anymore. It's been drummed out of them by the Amerikan "education" system. If it breaks, throw it away and get a new one.

I was actually *disgusted* by something I saw yesterday in one of the two best bookstores in Seattle (this one happens to have a rather extensive art supply section in addition to a kick-ass SF section and the resources to draw names like, oh, Neil Gaiman...) ...

A *disposable* fountain pen.

The whole POINT of a fountain pen is it's old school, takes *time* to maintain, "an elegant weapon, for a more civilised age." (I can just imagine, a fountain pen whose handle is dressed up like a lightsaber hilt... ) To have that, too, join the 21st century disposable society.... It's just WRONG.

[ala-bibi.livejournal.com]

That's exactly the kind of thing that makes me realise that, as much as I was raised *right*, it wasn't exactly standard.

Because everything in that poem seems perfectly normal, and basic common sense, until you get to that last verse, and realise it's not.

I had a similar realisation last year, in my 'Introduction to sculpture' class.
When half the class look at you like you did magic because you're too close to the deadline and use cheap jewellery chain to pattern your scales, stand there staring when you keep the lunch cheap grapes-and-cheese cup to hold your paint mixes, and legit call you a witch for *badly* sewing the cloth inside-out so your terrible stitches don't show on your improvised sleeves, And even the ones who use *exotic materials* in their works think you hung the moon because you dug out a roll of strong strings from somewhere and jerry-rigged them a *level* hanging shelf with it and a couple left-over bits of planks from the wood-working station when you don't even know anything but basic knots...

Apparently there are advantages to being raised on a "figure it out yourself, make it (up) and make do" basis.