My response to Ed Varney’s poem titled Happiness

I love a great used bookstore that is filled with the owner’s love and passion for books.  My favorite bookstore is Dark Horse Books in Victory BC.  The owner Robert is straight out of a Kerouac novel: an old time hippie who can tell you real stories about Haight-Ashbury, traveling, and much more.  His shop is filled with exactly what I love to read about.  Books by Artist who were possessed by Love, Magic, Miracles, Travel, Art, Beauty, Freedom, Poetry and much more….

That’s where I found this little poetry book by a Vancouver artist named Ed Varney.  In this book, I found my first piece of literature that I felt compelled to respond to with a poem of my own. I am by no means a poet, far from it to be honest, but his poem made sense to me and I just wanted to write my own version.

Here is Ed Varney’s Poem titled Happiness from his book What the wind said

A man gets up, goes to work, works & goes home.

He gets up, he goes to work, he works & he goes home.

He does this for five days, then he has two days off.

This is called the weekend.

On the weekends he cuts the lawn, washes the car,

plays tennis, does some work around the house & takes the kids to a movie.

This is called Fun.

A man goes through this fifty times in a row.

Then he gets two weeks off to do what wants-

that is, if he can remember what he wanted to do.

The pressures, the decisions, the routines, the boredom,

the obligations, the interruptions, the confusion, the frustration,

the constant appraisal & reappraisal have scrambled who he was &

washed it down the drain of his ambition until

all he can think of is lying in the sand on a beach

drinking gin & tonic

to drown out the last shreds

of his imagination.

This is called happiness.

What the wind said The Caitlin Press

This is my response to Ed’s Poem titled Happiness.

The happy man’s response

Man gets up, Masturbates, then smiles.

Man enjoys both a hot and then cold shower.

He goes to the park for fresh air and sunhine.

He reads, he writes, he paints, he smiles.

He does this for as long as he likes.

This is called the good life.

In the good life he smells the lawn,

Enjoys his health while cruising in the car

Man allows himself to feel good about his accomplishments,

And always seeks entertainment with loved ones.

This is called fun.

If man goes through this infinite times in a row.

Then man’s life is a Vacation to do with what he wants.

He can’t remember the pressures, the rules, the pains of past.

He washes then down the drain of the Now.

He smiles wide, smells the freedom of the Ocean

and feels wonderful beach beneath his toes,

all the while Drunk on love and imagination.

This is called Happiness.”

By JMH

Related Posts: E.Y.D The Author Page

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