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For now, and we know why:
Most at peace when life is simply
Give, give, give and die.
We shrug off incoming praise,
with its trail of expectations.
We feel uncomfortable
In a celebration's afterglow—
We're first out alone when a roof-fall
Buries the church door, though.
Pink fingers melting a shovel handle's ice
Scoop and lift, scoop and lift.
People say “thank you,” walking out
And that is enough.
They welcome us in,
And that is a gift.
We long for their touch,
Everybody we love.
That's the wet in our eyes,
Shovel-head diving in
With “can I help?” “are you okay?”
A sun-cracked smile and nod.
Someone might touch us someday,
But we leave that work to God.
ReplyDeleteTouch-hungry was quite thought-provoking and every time I read it, I got something new from it. The concepts that are addressed between how people like to be alone, to having a hard time receiving compliments, to the touches of religion that flow through the poems, all the way to yearning for a place to help but not knowing where to contribute are all realistic and common problems felt by the public. Beginning with the idea that we all like to be alone and cannot take compliments well seems to me like a result of our current society and world. With social media on a rise and real conversations at a steady decline, we struggle to establish and prioritize real authentic conversations. As a consequence of this reality, it leads us to not being able to be good people who can give and take compliments. What is intended to be a nice gesture in the world has now become a moment of awkwardness and uncomfortability. The church door that gets buried highlights that lack of religion that has begun to consume our society, leading people to shutting the door to ideas of hope, forgiveness and love. Although people try to seek a way into this world of religion, offering moments of help and being there at times of need, this poem also uses the notion that people always end up leaving to illustrate the lack of genuineness that surrounds our communities. People would rather come across as helpful when in actuality they are just looking to get the recognition from others and then leave. This proposes the question of when people help out they can feel good but when they do it for the wrong reason, it could possibly lead to disappointment and sadness. We all struggle to know our place and when and where to help yet all we are searching for in actuality is a place to belong and contribute.
There is a societal standard of displaying composure and acting satisfied, so others do not perceive you as being desperate for attention, but almost each individual has a sense of longing for approval and gratitude from others. As an adolescent, much of what drove me to help others is the warmhearted way they treat me in return because receiving that causes me to feel important and accomplished. However, in a society where praise is less frequent, it makes these actions of gratitude more significant to me because it shows that I truly deserve the verbal appreciation. In some ways this has been a positive effect because it encourages me to work towards the approval instead of feeling important just by doing nothing, so I believe that as long as gratitude is expressed frequently enough to keep the person motivated to push forward it should still be something worth pursuing to receive the recognition. Despite this, I agree with the central claim that many people long to feel the appreciation they are not given, and in this society people need to work harder to express this to people who do service to us because they deserve reward for their work that can only be achieved from the kind words of others commending them for their contributions.
ReplyDeleteThe image also contributes to the message because it connects to the monotonous forward motion of people who long to be recognized because they continue through the snow and across bridges, just to be met with cold and a longer journey. Their goal of finding warmer lands relates to the wish of many people to feel the warmth of the touch of others. The shape of the poem also contributes to this theme because the separation of each sentence creates the dull repetition of someone going through the same motions and hoping for better. All of these features add up to create a very impactful poem that serves both as an inspiration to appreciate the work people do for us and the degree to which one can make someone happier by sharing your gratitude.