a
penny
once shiny
and bronze, presented
to a small child on a birthday,
now tarnished, collecting
dust, behind silken
cobweb veils
connecting
black
coils of
the refrigerator
to the wall, unable to make
change for the two
cents everyone
has to give.
he feels
this
way, under
the weight of his
diagnosis, and cookie cutter
therapeutic
solutions.
she
feels this,
with each false
prophet who visits
her village, to tell stories
of hope by the one
well, shared by
hundreds,
thirsty
like
her.
they
feel this
way, as another
new year slips into the sun
without a resolution,
once found, now
lost at the
bottom
of
the
change
dish, on everyone's
bedside table, waiting for
someone to get
desperate
enough
to
think
of them. find
your penny, enrich
their lives.
About Me
- Brian Miller
- Married to the most amazing woman and dad of two adventurous boys. I am figuring out what life has in store next. Enjoy the journey.
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72 comments:
hi Brian, hope you had a wonderful holiday. Even us once new copper pennies tarnish with age. I know people who don't bother with pennies at all, just leave them lay or even throw them away. I have a change jar full of pennies myself, pennies makes dollars!
I don't know if pennies tarnish with age, but they do tarnish with out touch. I like your challenge of touching lives this year! :)
I can never make change for the two cents everyone has to give. I try, bit it seems pointless.
Even if we don't have a penny, we can enrich for free...with a smile, a touch, kinds words instead of harsh..
I want to do a little of both. Give of myself and give my pennies. It's totally doable.
Another fine effort here, made me think!
I like your chosen theme today. My mind filled with thoughts as I read. Blessings to you.
Is that what they mean by "A penny for your thoughts?" that was a lot of info!
Now I feel guilty for not slipping some money to the homeless dude outside the grocery store.
This poem is not only visually pleasing but thought provoking. We don't often give a lot of thought to the little things in our lives.
Well, Brian, I am not sure how many more times I can read it before the meaning jumps out at me, but I am drawing a blank? It is definitely me, I am always lost, I think that I have a reading comprehension problem.
brilliant... please share your secret
this isnt a post about giving money, as much as it is about the pennies that slip through the cracks. sure people talk about them occassionally when they remember them, but think of all the pennies you have found laying around. the two pennies i chose are th kids i work with and the kids i dream of in Africa...sure they get rhetoric sometimes or canned solutions, but...sometimes for the rhetoric to be heard you have to feed a hungry person...sometimes you have to hear the person before you know what they need...i dunno...just something rambling around in my skull today...but i do appreciate your two cents. smiles.
betsy...i love that line about tarnish without touch...
I loved reading the responses to this post almost as much as the post. :) Beautiful
This is good, generating thought and discussion, the many functions of a copper penny and its metaphores.
I was a bit lost too, but that is for you to decide who is your audience, one artist will say, "f___ the audience, real art is not about pleasing the audience" and another will say, "It must be accessible, to exist as a conduit between the creator and the recipient." So, I welcome ALL constructive comments on my work, for I want to make it "better" and clearly accessible. Thanks for the stimulating writing, AGAIN.
You always bring out the best in my thoughts. Thanks Brian!
Ah, and how about the metaphorical pennies?
There are different ways of taking this...the first time I read this, I thought about how each one of us starts out shiny and new and over time without care we can become tarnished, collect dust, become lost or fall to the bottom of the dish. A penny can not know their value and feel cheap and not worthy in comparison to others that seem to have more value.
On the flip side I think about all the pennys I've known and know today and how desperate they are to be found...to be known...to just know they have value...to know they are not cheap and that someone wants them.
Really isn't that what we as humans all want but not everyone admits to wanting? XX Lori
I actually look for pennies when I'm out and about. When I was a single parent when I found a penny I felt like it was a reminder that God was going to provide for me. Now I still think of God reminding me He is always there for me. Even my kids are starting to pray out loud, "Thank you, Lord." when they find pennies. I think I find them because I expect God to be blessing me.
"sometimes you have to hear the person before you know what they need"
we need to listen more Brian, I agree. Oh, how I agree!!!
Seems we are busy making assumptions, and you know what happens when we assume things!
I like this piece Brian.
Happy New Year to you.
I don't understand this poem entirely and read it three times, loving it and not knowing why. Not much of a critic, I guess. I like the evocation of it, the silky dust, the black coils, the useless penny in the change dish, not useless really, just a little tarnished and overlooked. I'm not even reading your comments to see what others think. I'm glad you wrote it, and I don't know why. Someone told me once that a good poem has a mystery. So there.
Chris
I was comparing it to some one lost and sitting, waiting, to be useful or to be used but not to be wasted. Then I read your definition in the comments ....it was nice to hear your thoughts behind your words.
My problem is that I tend to over analyze and then I talk myself right out of the meaning. I do not like interpreting others thoughts, because I know how many times that my points may get misread.
A penny for your thoughts....
Great post!
Smiles
If I had a penny for every penny I got on my birthday. Well, I could almost buy a stamp. PIF, I dig that.
This poem made me sad...thinking of the penny as someone waiting to be wanted and useful.
On the bright side of pennies...I was told if you find a penny face up...an angel was there for you. Similar to Corrie's thoughts on pennies found.
Isn't it interesting the different ways that this can be taken. Enjoyed!!
Would you bend over to pick up a penny? A penny saved.... Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves....
Clean, fresh water. Now there is a thought worth more than a couple of pennies.
Tarnish tells more of a story than shiny does. Wonderfully put, Sir!
Very creative!!
Find your penny.
Wonderful advice that even I understand. This is one of my favorites, Brian. It even looks pretty.
Hi Brian:)
Height of creativity, beautiful composition, stylishly arranged and wonderfully presented. The words seem to float like radio waves upsided down.
I do save pennies for a rainy day. When I am in short of money I look for my pennies in a bottle. Sure enough there enough to buy me a breakfast or lunch.
Of course, I don't look for pennies when I have to buy breakfast or lunch for poor people. The impulse is sudden and I do it on the spot depending on how the situation is.
Once, I met a man who appeared to need money. I told him I will buy something for him to eat. But he isisted he wanted money. I did't give. You know why? There are people walking around asking for money so that they can buy themselves a drink:):):) Sometimes we can be tricked into parting with money.
Here in India we don't have pennies. We have paise. These paises are not made out of copper. But made out of worthless metal. They are so light that you can blow it away. If you give 50 paise to a beggar he will throw it on the road and laugh at you mockingly. So you can see how valuable our paises are:)
SEASONS GREETINGS AND A WONDERFUL NEW YEAR.
JOSEPH:)
i've always been known for giving my two cents...hehe...not too sure they would apply here. Christmas was wonderful! and looking forward to ringing in the New Year! Hope you and your family have a blessed year to come! I look forward to reading the wit and charm of which you apply here.
bravo brian! i'm off to get that penny from behind the fridge...
Interesting structure- perfectly crafted actually! I thought of the lost pennies as unfulfilled intentions and broken resolutions. Brian, it is amazing what 'rambles around your skull' sometimes :)
A penny! Sometimes craved for, sometimes abandoned... but it says a lot about life. I liked this, Brian.
my grandfather was born near the ha'penny bridge in Dublin. this post was both artistically arranged and worth much more than its content. but even something small as a penny (or ha'penny) can signify a vault full of depth, meaning and inspiration. i'm glad you put pen to penny (and your money where your mouth/laptop keyboard is). cheers, Brian.
Beautiful poem and I find I am still pondering it. At first I felt hopelessness...tarnished pennies and tarnished words. Interesting!
Hugs
SueAnn
That's some village, if they've got a fridge....
:)
Happy EVERYTHING, Brian :)))
Important content laced in beautiful words. Love the pattern you made with the poem Brian.
I love this...And when these pennies are needed, they almost feel like you hit the jackpot...I gather them when I am down and out and cash them in :) So, they do serve a purpose
Find your penny. Down to the common denominator we all share. -Jayne
I've a jar just full of pennies! Old and new; tarnished or other-wise. Each one a memory passed over for another...
@Betsy, yes m'dear, they can!
I have a lot of pennies that need attention. I do not want them to languish in the dish.
Boy, do I love THIS line:
unable to make
change for the two
cents everyone
has to give.
i really enjoyed this -- equalizing pennies to those who have been forgotten for whatever reason. our world is always giving the attention to the biggest, brightest, the noise makers, most have forgotten that even the smallest, pennies who don't shine any longer, are equally important. with proper attention though, even a dull penny can shine. everything is worth something to someone.
excellent post!
warm smiles,
You have touched my life in the old year and know you will in the new. Love you
hmm, raw and true, there is so much we can do, so much we can give, starts with one step, like you do
I never let a penny lie untouched, metaphorical or not. Everything needs to be touched in our lives as you've said so well.
it made me sit back and think.. think about my life and what i m doing with it...
wishing u and ur family a very happy new year in advance :)
Wow! Perhaps 2010 will be a year of change. We can hope.
This certainly is a cheerful place. I must say I don't fully understand the poem or your explanation but I love the vertical wave design!
But Brian, this is your ever so beautiful poem and beauty is in the eyes of the beholder and I saw many beautiful interpretation in the comments. The comment about value of paise in India is also so interesting.
Another great thought provoking post - thanks!
That penny could be many things to many people huh. I have one penny and have just brushed the side of one more, pretty soon to get my two cents in. You touch on a few things in your writing that have certain meaning for me personally, cookie cutter therapeutic solutions and false prophet. Uh huh. Some of your writing is deep and then sometimes your writing is bottomless.
Wow. On so many levels. Liking the way your brain thinks, Brian.
If this isn't a happy new year post, I don't know what is... :-)
Pennies, if it wasn't for Illinois we wouldn't have the damn things. Still, nice poem.
I am way too much an engineer for your writing sometimes, but I sure enjoy trying to figure it out.
This reminds me of a recent event.
We are blessed with enough money to be comfortable in our retirement. We have a nice new house on a lake and enough income to live there and have enough to eat, and if we save a little we get to go on a few trips each year.
At the end of one of our trips, we were pretty broke, and in addition, had Christmas debt and all of our taxes came due on our properties.
We had just enough money to get back home.
I saw a dollar in the parking lot with no one near.
Now a dollar doesn't sound like much, but we were thirsty and I didn't want to get any pop for us to share.
I stuck it in my purse. Because somehow, I knew it wasn't mine.
After we got home and settled, we transferred some money from our savings account into our checking account so that we could make it after Christmas and before our next paycheck.
There was still a Salvation Army person outside the grocery store ringing the bell that so many of us ignore and pass.
I knew then where the dollar was meant to go.
I slipped it in the cannister and smiled on my way into the store.
It could have been a penny, too.
But that is where it belonged......
Because I know I am blessed when so many are NOT...
I loved the poem and the comments and have to tell you it was interesting to read how people interpreted this.
Personally, I thought a penny is at the bottom of the dish covered with dust because no one thinks something so small can have such great value.
I love the memory of my little 6-year old grand-daughter who found a shiny, new penny while we were visiting them. As we walked along, she discussed with me what she would do with it. And then we heard the bell ringing. She walked over to the Salvation Army man, and dropped her treasure into the pot. I smiled.
sonofa....
excellent work brian
just fantastic
nice...loving the stories...
So very well said, my friend. You always have the most enlightening perspectives.
Don't know about you but pennies(cents) are big commodities in our house and go into the piggy bank on the windowsill. I can score quite a cache from the washing machine! No pennies sliding behind my fridge, couch etc. All are put to good use! Cheers :) Then I'm a little afraid to find out what's behind the fridge!
Wow, a lot to think about and in such a beautiful package. Thank you.
Interesting look at the life of a penny.
I like the idea of change being a metaphor for change! Nicely done.
Wow, I will never look at a penny the same way again!
wonderful poem, small things do matter, don't they?
Happy New Year!
I love this poem that you have written. Wow, it is beautiful and poignant.
wow!That one is brillant!
Sometimes a penny is all I need. That penny, then, is enough. I love how you put together the words today.
Namaste
compelling post to do our bit, touching those around us.
Very interesting construction of your poem. Coins have always been a favorite metaphor of mine for life in general. So many applications. I like your line "the two cents everyone has to give" and your challenge to enrich the lives of others.
beautifully done,
love the beautiful shapes of words,
plus the easy flow of feelings...
Brian, I have a big jar full of pennies and my son used to count them when he was a little guy.
Magical write!
And thank you so much for all your visits, I'm touched!
You honor we!
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