A Canadian-American Friend's Poem, Former U.S. Poet Laureate Billy Collins, And Chautauqua Institution - An Intellectual-Artistic "Playground" For Adults

 

Dear Arthur,

I love your poem!

It has a certain "Billy Collins quality." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EjB7rB3sWc

I had the pleasure of hearing Billy collaborate with Paul Simon in their intermittent "road show" about the creative process.

The venue of our gathering was Chautauqua Institute's (recently re-constructed) main pavilion which also happens to be home to the Massey Organ -- yes, the Canadian Massey's! -- the world's largest "outdoor" organ. (You can tour the organ's "innards" a "trek" over three stories. (I think you would love a week at Chautauqua... and think you'd be likely to return, as do most folks who have experienced the Chautauqua magic. If you ever stay at Chautauqua during its 9 week summer season, please remember my sister Janet who has spent at least a week there for over 30 years and has regularly invites me to share her onsite Chautauqua "home." 

Paul Simon And Poet Laureate, Billy ... - Pax on both houses

paxonbothhouses.blogspot.com › 2013/08 › paul-simo...

Aug 19, 2013 — ... And Poet Laureate, Billy Collins, Share Stage At Chautauqua Institution ... Their Chautauqua presentation was the most deeply satisfying ...

Billy Collins' TED Talk, "Everyday moments, caught in time"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddw1_3ZVjTE

Pax tecum

Alan

On Thu, Oct 29, 2020 at 7:56 PM AC M.D. wrote:

Our overarching purpose for the weekly team practice sessions is to steadily build our powers of creativity.  John Cleese has given us a working definition of creativity: New ways of thinking about things.  However, Dietrich Dӧrner would tell us that we need to define our goal more clearly. 

What exactly should we focus on at team practice, so that those who show up at team practice are improving their creativity skills week by week?  That is my good question for you for our team practice session on the first Wednesday of November.  Take that general definition of our goal and define it in a more detailed and inspiring way, to guide how we use our time and develop our potential at each and every team practice.

If you can think very creatively about this BEFORE I send you the Zoom link, your contribution to the team practice on November 4 will probably be brilliant, because your first thoughts will then go through that re-writing that John Cleese emphasizes as so important for writing screenplays. 

Okay, that’s your mission, should you choose to accept it.

I’ve appended the poem I wrote today for the poetry quest I’ve embarked on.

Carpe diem,

Arthur

 

Today I had a ten o’clock appointment

at the bank and I arrived early

and asked if I could use the washroom

and was told they couldn’t allow it

because of the pandemic.

So I drove to the shopping mall just a block away

and went into their indoor food court

and walked past it to the washroom

and the sign read Temporarily Closed

Sorry for the Inconvenience.

I asked someone working at a food outlet

whether there was another washroom open

in the shopping mall and he said he didn’t think so

and I said this is madness they can’t just close

the washrooms and I went back outside

and asked a man standing there if he knew

where I could find a washroom and he said

there was one across the street at the filling station.

Well I wasn’t planning to fill up the tank,

planning to empty it really,

but I drove across the street and sure enough

they had a washroom open

and I relieved myself and felt like a new man.

As I was leaving, I thanked the fellow at the cash register

and said I was planning to write a short story

about all this and I would give him a copy

and he thought that was funny.

Well I haven’t written a short story about it yet,

but I did write this poem

and I got back to the bank

only ten minutes late for the appointment

and I was feeling really fine.

So, if I add it all up,

I think I came out ahead,

and I hope you enjoyed this poem.