JULIA’S POEM

You ask me what I feel & think
(because the two are distinctly their own)
about the utter absurdity
& pointlessness of life

& out the windows cars go by
& up in space meteors fly
& sitting in this vinyl booth is me;
not alive long enough to know,
but who was seen many injustices–
yet knowing not a thing to do about them,
looks to those next to me,
who have only seen worse.

I do not know why the universe keeps expanding
or why my professor gives Monday exams
or why my poems are all the same
or why people in my life keep leaving
(or why I keep pushing them out?)–
messages marked “read” with no
response or
rhyme
or reason or
rationality.

Maybe the point is that
there is no point

My Response

Hi Julia,

You have captured the angst and visceral feelings of Ecclesiastes well. He does tend to go on about the futility of all our pursuits. On the other hand he also notes that once we give up trying to get ahead we can really enjoy life. “Go and eat your bread with gladness and drink your wine with a joyful heart” and “Life is sweet and it is a pleasure to see the light of day, no matter how many days a person may live, each one should be fully enjoyed.” Its an odd juxtaposition of ideas but so far in life I have found it to work quite well.