The Red Wheelbarrow

[zsdersw]

By William Carlos Williams:

so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens

On this day of unusually hyper political and ideological zealotry, I just wanted to inject a little self-reflection and introspection.

 

[Moonbeam]

I gots the wheal barrow full of planting soil right out side my kitchen window and there's lots of dew from fog where I live, but I don't gots no chickens. But I get to sit and watch the robin's pull worms. By afternoon the sun will shine and the breeze will warm. The roots of bulbs freshly planted by feminine hands will begin their annual descent into the ground and in a temple somewhere a Buddhist monk chants, 'I vow to save all sentient beings'.

 

[cubeless]

but only 2/5 of the chickens are white... don't the others get a poem, too?

 

[zsdersw]

You should ask Mr. Williams about that.

 

[Moonbeam]

You really have to have a tremendously bad case of self hate to pick our of the photo above the notion that only two of the chickens are white.

You poor fucking white bastard. You wouldn't last a second if you were black and had to live with your current ilk. You need some chalk, but what you need it for is the calcium to grow a spine.

 

[Tristicus]

I could say something but I'd probably be banned.

 

[Carmen813]

The point is that the wheelbarrow will be there long after the chickens become dinner.

At least that's what I'm getting out of it.

 

[her209]

The chickens trying to get to the water?
The red wheel barrow is made in China?
Something with the rooster crowing in the morning?
Chickens lay eggs?

 

[cubeless]

You really have to have a tremendously bad case of self hate to pick our of the photo above the notion that only two of the chickens are white.

You poor fucking white bastard. You wouldn't last a second if you were black and had to live with your current ilk. You need some chalk, but what you need it for is the calcium to grow a spine.

you may be right, i dunno... methinks i'd do ok, though, because i live in a world where people are judged by their ability and character, not their skin color...

i find it hard to say that i would have had less opportunity, etc... were i of color, since i grew up in a poor, single parent household (my pops spent my childhood in jail); did lots of drugs and crime as a youth; got a job at an auto assembly plant as a young man; went to tech school and got a computer job when the plant closed; got a job at a company that hires (and allows me the opportunity to work with) many competent people of different races...

i was just worried about the off-white chickens feeling left out of the poem... i've felt that pain before, even though i'm a white chicken... being white doesn't mean that you can't get screwed over by life from time to time...

 

[cubeless]

You should ask Mr. Williams about that.

i just wonder why he used 'white'... i'm not a student of poetic form...

this is always a problem i have with poetry, i'm too literal in general, and it just kind of annoys me that i'm supposed to be able to decide whether it's all ulterior motives and rationales and deep thinking that the poet is using, or if they just took a word that fit and the shit really means nothing...

it's tough being cro-magnon...

 

[zsdersw]

i just wonder why he used 'white'.

The simplest explanation is likely the right one, all things being equal. The simplest explanation could be that they were the only color of chicken that he saw at the time or the only color that came to mind.

 

[cubeless]

The simplest explanation is likely the right one, all things being equal. The simplest explanation could be that they were the only color of chicken that he saw at the time or the only color that came to mind.

ahhh... so maybe the poem and the picture aren't actually related? it was some photographer, illustrator, or editors oversight that caused me all this mental anguish...

i feel much better now...

 

[Moonbeam]

you may be right, i dunno... methinks i'd do ok, though, because i live in a world where people are judged by their ability and character, not their skin color...

i find it hard to say that i would have had less opportunity, etc... were i of color, since i grew up in a poor, single parent household (my pops spent my childhood in jail); did lots of drugs and crime as a youth; got a job at an auto assembly plant as a young man; went to tech school and got a computer job when the plant closed; got a job at a company that hires (and allows me the opportunity to work with) many competent people of different races...

i was just worried about the off-white chickens feeling left out of the poem... i've felt that pain before, even though i'm a white chicken... being white doesn't mean that you can't get screwed over by life from time to time...

No it doesn't. Anyone can get screwed over. But I can't quite buy that story about being worried about the off white chickens feeling left out. So let me ask you exactly how do you define worry? I like your story about yourself however. I hope that you succeeded in making something of yourself you don't look down on others who weren't so successful or turn your back on them. You are also totally free to write your own poem about the two white chickens.

 

[Turin39789]

ahhh... so maybe the poem and the picture aren't actually related? it was some photographer, illustrator, or editors oversight that caused me all this mental anguish...

i feel much better now...

yes. the poem was written in 1923, a few years before that photo was taken.

 

[cubeless]

No it doesn't. Anyone can get screwed over. But I can't quite buy that story about being worried about the off white chickens feeling left out. So let me ask you exactly how do you define worry? I like your story about yourself however. I hope that you succeeded in making something of yourself you don't look down on others who weren't so successful or turn your back on them. You are also totally free to write your own poem about the two white chickens.

my life experience makes me always feel sorry for the left out... i was a chronic left out and compensated by developing an army of one mentality (and there's not the rest of the army backing me up)...

i am lucky to be a little smarter than the average bear, so i have opportunities that are not available to everyone, if i am willing to pursue them... this is where my dark side comes into play, though... if you are not busting ass and using all of you available capacity, then i am predisposed against you for the most part... this is my prejudice...

i don't care how smart you are or what you look like, there's a place for you in my world if you are willing to try... working at the gm plant embedded in my head that there's a need for simple jobs for simple people... i'll try to find something you can do if you are willing to try do something...

but i'll leave the poetry to the next generation... that's my contribution, i have created 4 kids who all get to go to college and become much more deep thinkers than their pops, who is just a cshspe recipient... one already is a music teacher, so my contribution to the arts is covered...

 

[Moonbeam]

my life experience makes me always feel sorry for the left out... i was a chronic left out and compensated by developing an army of one mentality (and there's not the rest of the army backing me up)...

i am lucky to be a little smarter than the average bear, so i have opportunities that are not available to everyone, if i am willing to pursue them... this is where my dark side comes into play, though... if you are not busting ass and using all of you available capacity, then i am predisposed against you for the most part... this is my prejudice...

i don't care how smart you are or what you look like, there's a place for you in my world if you are willing to try... working at the gm plant embedded in my head that there's a need for simple jobs for simple people... i'll try to find something you can do if you are willing to try do something...

but i'll leave the poetry to the next generation... that's my contribution, i have created 4 kids who all get to go to college and become much more deep thinkers than their pops, who is just a cshspe recipient... one already is a music teacher, so my contribution to the arts is covered...

Well there you are. Your dark side is, in my opinion, a mistake. Just as you were born smarter you were also accidental more driven. And you might have been in different conditions the world's greatest living poet.

 

[boomerang]

I'm waiting to be told what to think.

 

[zsdersw]

I'm waiting to be told what to think.

By whom?

 

[Red Dawn]

By whom?

By Michelle Bachman

 

[zsdersw]

By Michelle Bachman

Oh, the daily talking points.