Looking for more

by Dave Bradley

Monday 27th July 2009 8:04 pm

Season-ticket holders, origami folders

Kite fliers, Ebay buyers,

Dog walkers, obsessive talkers

Gym haunters, clothes flaunters

Looking for more

All looking for more

Speed demons, speed dating dream-ons,

Romance websites, gloomy club lights

Deeds in darkness, deeds in light,

Deeds of shame, deeds of delight.

Multi-festival attenders, Facebook thousand-frienders,

Write Out Loud addix, readers of Superman comix,

Stamp collectors, meditaters,

Book readers, cat breeders,

Temple goers, seed sowers,

Fish catchers, plot hatchers,

TV watchers, DIY botchers,

Looking for more,

Looking so hard for more.

How we long for more.

Game players, Nintendo dragon slayers,

Painters, artists, sculptors, singers,

Church tower builders and bell ringers,

Boozers, losers, money movers,

Engaged, outraged, just feeling caged,

Gamblers, ramblers,

Shoppers, trainspotters

Looking for more

As Cohen said

(you are, I am, we are)

Looking at the pretty woman

In the darkened door

Looking for more

And then there are the content

Dead between the ears

Dead to ambition

Dead to adventure

Dead to the itch

Sitting still

Marching to a different beat

Sterile

At peace

Dead

Alive

or maybe

Just looking for less

Comments

<Deleted User> (6353)

Tue 4th Aug 2009 10:01

To me, it is better to have an engaging poem, without meaning than a meaningful (or even 'nice') poem, without being engaging. This is very definitely engaging! Not that it is without meaning, that's not what I'm saying - but you could have been talking about nothing at all with this and I'd have read to the end, because of how it engaged.

Do you think there are people in between the two extremes you write about though?

Dave Bradley

Tue 28th Jul 2009 15:10

Thank you all. Re-reading it, yes it does seem negative and even dismissive towards the blessed contented, and that wasn't the intention. People are contented for all sorts of reasons, so the intention was to raise more questions than answers. I'd like to revise it now to make that clearer but have a lot of trouble re-visiting poems once launched - a weakness, I know

Cate Greenlees

Tue 28th Jul 2009 14:28

Hi Dave, a clever, witty poem. I can see where Cynthia is coming from with her comment though. Does contentment necessarily mean these things? Maybe it depends where we are in our life. Sometimes we are go getters full of enthusiasm for a project, and sometimes we just need to rest and be content with what we`ve got. Very few of us reach the nirvana stage! I really enjoyed this poem though, and think it`s very well written.
Cate xx

Cynthia Buell Thomas

Tue 28th Jul 2009 09:56

I enjoyed this outpouring of wit in good scansion, Dave. But I found the end, the self-appointed antithesis, very unkind, perhaps even arrogant. I actually felt a bit bad.

Anthony Emmerson

Mon 27th Jul 2009 23:55

Hi dave,
I like list poems when done well and with a purpose. This was both.
Regards,
A.E.

winston plowes

Mon 27th Jul 2009 22:32

Hi Dave, An easy to read poem which keeps you engaged with its runaway rhythm, favourite stanza is -

Stamp collectors, meditaters,
Book readers, cat breeders,
Temple goers, seed sowers,
Fish catchers, plot hatchers,
TV watchers, DIY botchers,

good read. Winston

Isobel

Mon 27th Jul 2009 22:28

A brilliant poem Dave - in structure, language and message - you have the whole package - very, very clever.

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