lesson of the moth (day 32)

So for my first essay I had to choose a a poem, story or play from our textbook and write about it... kind of... I had to do a bunch of different free writing and question exercises first and then come up with my own claim based upon personal experience, then argue it. ugh... why argue?! why can't I just write? and I don't want to get personal with people in my on-line class. 

Which I find almost comical because I get personal with all my beautiful blogger friends every day.... but there's a big difference. 

Huge. 

And I will save you 5 minutes and a lot of swear words (in real life I cuss like a sailor... in blog land, I control myself :) ) and not rant about this difference... just know that you are lovely and so many of the people in this state are... well, to put it nicely, not.


Anyway, I found a few wonderful poems and stories but then after I asked for clarification, found out I had to pick something from the current chapter... quite limiting. But I picked this poem...

The Lesson of the Moth
by Don Marquis



i was talking to a moth
the other evening
he was trying to break into
an electric light bulb
and fry himself on the wires

why do you fellows
pull this stunt i asked him
because it is the conventional
thing for moths or why
if that had been an uncovered
candle instead of an electric
light bulb you would
now be a small unsightly cinder
have you no sense

plenty of it he answered
but at times we get tired
of using it
we get bored with the routine
and crave beauty
and excitement
fire is beautiful
and we know that if we get
too close it will kill us
but what does that matter
it is better to be happy
for a moment

and be burned up with beauty
than to live a long time
and be bored all the while
so we wad all our life up
into one little roll
and then we shoot the roll
that is what life is for

it is better to be a part of beauty
for one instant and then cease to
exist than to exist forever
and never be a part of beauty
our attitude toward life
is come easy go easy
we are like human beings
used to be before they became
too civilized to enjoy themselves

and before i could argue him
out of his philosophy
he went and immolated himself
on a patent cigar lighter
i do not agree with him
myself i would rather have
half the happiness and twice
the longevity

but at the same time i wish
there was something i wanted
as badly as he wanted to fry himself

(after doing some reading, I found out the this was written by a cockroach named Archy who has the soul of a poet! it is written in all lower case letters with no punctutation because he cannot hold down the shift key and another key at the same time)

I think I have a pretty good idea and my rough draft is done! I'll share my final draft next week... in the mean time, what do you think of the poem? I know everyone interprets things differently and I'm curious to see what you all get from it!


Day 32 - A picture of a crazy night.

This picture was taken at a Burlesque show in Denver last fall at Jill's bachelorette party. The guy with the mustache was Pierre, he was the host of the show... and he kept calling me his little pumpkin. After the show we all got to go on the stage and he asked me a question... something along the line of a mustache mark. Keep in mind, I've been drinking for a few hours and so I say sure... he proceeded to bury his face in my cleavage and leave a black mark from his drawn on mustache on my chest. It was absolutely hilarious and definitely a crazy night!