"How to Listen"
I am going to cock my head tonight like a dog
in front of McGlinchy's Tavern on Locust;
I am going to stand beside the man who works all day combing
his thatch of gray hair corkscrewed in every direction.
I am going to pay attention to our lives
unraveling between the forks of his fine-tooth comb.
For once, we won't talk about the end of the world
or Vietnam or his exquisite paper shoes.
For once, I am going to ignore the profanity and
the dancing and the jukebox so I can hear his head crackle
beneath the sky's stretch of faint stars.
Major Jackson
http://www.loc.gov/poetry/180/172.html
Listening is being present and attentive. Instead of the usual meaningless small talk and avoiding the obnoxious drunk, listening to that drunk.
ReplyDeleteThis poem is a nice reminded that the people we usually try to avoid or have whatever opinion about, can offer or teach us something if we allow them the opportunity. I could do this more
Complete presence. This idea really struck me when I first got to Hawaii. I would sit for hours and hours on the beach just trying to breathe and feel the waves and watch the surfers being present so that I, too, could feel the rhythm of the island.
ReplyDeleteIt interests me the activities that he is choosing to follow to find this presence. Simple things. A certain one man. Why this man? Why not dancing? Dancing seems very present, and in fact, so does profanity a lot of the times. Instinct is presence...like animals. Just doing, not thinking.
Not talking about the past or the future, but listening to sounds. I actually just read that hearing is our first sense that we get in the womb and the last one to leave (I am not quite sure how they figure this out??). But it can be a gateway to our perception far greater than the other senses. That is why I started to listen to more audiobooks!
I like how he relates good listening to dog's listening. Inquisitive and totally present!
I really liked your comment on trying to listen more to people we try to avoid. I will try this too.