No. 07 Poetry Tuesday | Pocketsize

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Pocketsize
by Linda Thompson Carlson

Stories are pocketsize.
They appear magically before your eyes.

They can be short or long,
Develop in riddle, poetry, or song.

Stories share joy or sadness,
Frolic, folly, maybe even madness.

Reach in your pocket,
Let your hand slip deep

And you’ll be surprised
At the stories asleep,

Waiting to be roused,
Waiting to be told

As possibilities unlimited
Before you unfold.

 

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Why Linda loves Pocketsize :

“It is my privilege to share a short piece with you that I wrote for a forth grade class one time many moons ago. I have always loved it. My life’s work is in the field of creativity but I have followed through the realms of spirituality and conscious-unconscious mind work along the way. I know where stories come from :) This poem called Pocketsize was my attempt to affirm to the children that each of them had access to stories, and maybe even poetry deep inside them, since I spoke the message to them in a poem.”

 

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POETRY  POST  NO.  07,  THE  BEAUTIFUL POCKETSIZE,  WAS  ONE  OF  THE  FIRST POEMS TO  arrive from someone I had never met. It was also the first time someone sent in a poem that they had written themselves. But you can see why it immediately had to be part of the canon, right? I loved it. Loved. As with all things so elegant and simple, in a few short stanzas, Linda encompasses one of the notions that we storytellers and story-lovers hold so dear: that we all have stories and magic hidden deep inside our souls and all we have to do to unleash them is take the time to look for them.

Imagine if this poem was taught as the guiding principle of every school in the land, from kindergarten through graduate school. For all society’s emphasis on learning facts and developing analytical faculties, aren’t imagination and storytelling the most important tools that our young and our not-so-young should keep exploring at every stage at life? Clearly I’m not suggesting that all facts and more linear faculties be burnt with our bras, but we nix the importance of creative expression at our own peril.

And I’m not alone in thinking so. Our old pal Einstein explained it perfectly when he said “I believe in intuition and inspiration. Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited, whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution. It is, strictly speaking, a real factor in scientific research.”

Amen, brother. And as this poem insinuates, imagination really is the great equalizer. We are all born with stories inside our soul, we are all born with imagination and the ability to wonder. Alas, it seems that as we get older, many of us forget the fact.

I should add that Pocketsize has fast become a favorite of the perusers of the Poetry Post folder. There is something about its simplicity, perhaps the fact that we all know in our hearts that this is a fundamental truth we all share, that makes it a winner. Several friends have asked to photocopy it after they read it, and my friend Jules suggested we print folded up little versions of Pocketsize so that all and sundry can put one in their pocket and remind themselves of the magical stories that they themselves still have inside them.

So I invite you to go, spend a few minutes alone (what a concept) and ask your insides what story has been sleeping inside your soul, waiting to be roused? Then take a pen and start writing. I posit you might be surprised at what comes out, and I can’t wait to hear about it, so please send a note and share!

with love and wishes for a week filled with both frolic and folly,
nicola

 

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