I love this ode to your orange bedroom...and this line: "his fear felt like a kind of love" Oooooph, visceral. The fact that you have such a long history with this room also fascinated me, because I've moved so many times in the past 20 years, and I don't have a strong connection with any sort of home. But, I did think of a room that has…
I love this ode to your orange bedroom...and this line: "his fear felt like a kind of love" Oooooph, visceral. The fact that you have such a long history with this room also fascinated me, because I've moved so many times in the past 20 years, and I don't have a strong connection with any sort of home. But, I did think of a room that has profoundly impacted me. Here it is:
This is so clever! I love the idea that zoom has been a church basement, a tai chi studio, a party venue, etc. it’s pretty wild to think about the full range of experiences that happen in that 8x12 room.
I love this, Keith! It was so fun that it was set up riddle-like; it took me an embarrassing number of lines before I got it. I misread 8"x12" as 8'x12' and thought it was your car until you talked about packing 500 people into it. ;) I love all the tender examples you gave of who and what and why join you in your room of Zoom.
Haha, the packing of 500 into my car sounds like a Guinness record-like feat (it would have to be 500 very, very small bodies). I'm so glad you liked it :)
This is brilliant Keith, and the most expansive and articulate poem to our Zoom era I have read. What a creative way to give voice to the spaces we have created with our virtual access via Zoom--Zoom Rooms are here to stay. You have an amazing and expansive vocabulary, and it is delightful to read your lyrical gems!
Thanks so much, Larry. I was feeling stumped as to what room could possibly be my muse for this prompt, then it was suddenly very clear! And yes, I sort of love-hate the zoom room at times, but mostly, as I reflected on it, I felt profoundly grateful.
Incredibly creative and such an amazing description of this technology which allows people to be together when time, distance, or global pandemic did not allow them to do so. Funny you mention the "lower extremities" - my husband has worked from home since 20 and most of their calls are voice only but he had an on camera meeting this week and had to don a collared shirt. But waist down was athletic shorts per usual!
I love this ode to your orange bedroom...and this line: "his fear felt like a kind of love" Oooooph, visceral. The fact that you have such a long history with this room also fascinated me, because I've moved so many times in the past 20 years, and I don't have a strong connection with any sort of home. But, I did think of a room that has profoundly impacted me. Here it is:
Never
could I ever have imagined
a single room might afford
so many views of
so many faces in
so many locations.
Nor that this modest room
could and would span time zones,
oceans, cultures, nations.
That, notwithstanding such modest
dimensions (8”x12” on any given day),
it could stretch to become
so consistently capacious, fitting
1 or 500, all the same.
In the beginning,
this room was reserved
for mundanities, mostly work meetings.
Then it was pressed into service as
an exam room for my doctor,
an office for my therapist,
a church basement for 12-step meetings,
a classroom,
a tai chi studio,
a disco,
a party venue,
the room at my dad’s nursing home
where I said goodbye to his body.
I’ve met the most incredible friends here,
gotten to know their insides
and the fronts of their faces
yet I can’t be sure they have bodies
or lower extremities, or even
whether they really exist
outside this strange room without
walls or doors or floors,
this room called zoom.
This is so clever! I love the idea that zoom has been a church basement, a tai chi studio, a party venue, etc. it’s pretty wild to think about the full range of experiences that happen in that 8x12 room.
Thanks, friend. Yes...so many hours of life spent in that "room" over the past 4 years, with *such* an array of experiences.
I love this, Keith! It was so fun that it was set up riddle-like; it took me an embarrassing number of lines before I got it. I misread 8"x12" as 8'x12' and thought it was your car until you talked about packing 500 people into it. ;) I love all the tender examples you gave of who and what and why join you in your room of Zoom.
I did the same thing!
Haha, the packing of 500 into my car sounds like a Guinness record-like feat (it would have to be 500 very, very small bodies). I'm so glad you liked it :)
This is brilliant Keith, and the most expansive and articulate poem to our Zoom era I have read. What a creative way to give voice to the spaces we have created with our virtual access via Zoom--Zoom Rooms are here to stay. You have an amazing and expansive vocabulary, and it is delightful to read your lyrical gems!
Thanks so much, Larry. I was feeling stumped as to what room could possibly be my muse for this prompt, then it was suddenly very clear! And yes, I sort of love-hate the zoom room at times, but mostly, as I reflected on it, I felt profoundly grateful.
Incredibly creative and such an amazing description of this technology which allows people to be together when time, distance, or global pandemic did not allow them to do so. Funny you mention the "lower extremities" - my husband has worked from home since 20 and most of their calls are voice only but he had an on camera meeting this week and had to don a collared shirt. But waist down was athletic shorts per usual!
The key is to remember to have something on the bottom at all times, just in case of a video glitch!
LOL!