Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Please Write

I once wrote about how much I love sending and receiving mail - actual pieces of paper on which someone has written with ink and sealed in an envelope and stamped and dropped in a mailbox. It's about how personal it is, and the connection, however small and taken for granted it may be, that it is to another person.

So when I read "Please Write: Don't Phone" by Robert Watson in "Good Mail Day," I just smiled and thought to myself, "Exactly." I thought I'd share it with you.


Please Write: Don't Phone

While there is mail there is hope.
After we have hung up I can't recall
Your words, and your voice sounds strange
Whether from distance, a bad cold, deceit,
I don't know. When you call I'm asleep
Or bathing or my mouth is full of toast.
I can't think of what to say.
"We have rain?" "We have snow?"
Let us write instead: surely our fingers spread out
With pen on paper touch more of the mind's flesh
Than the sound waves moving from throat to lips
To phone, through wire, to one ear.
I can touch the paper you touch.
I can see you undressed in your calligraphy.
I can read you over and over.
I can read you day after day.
I can wait at the mailbox with my hair combed,
In my best suit.
I hang up. What did you say?
What did you say? Your phone call is gone.
I hold the envelope you addressed in my hand.
I hold the skin that covers you.


Yes, that's it exactly.

8 comments:

  1. Very precise. There is something about getting mail. Especially unexpected mail, that was one of the things I loved about Se'Lah's project. Time seems to stand still when I open that kind of mail.

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  2. I despise the phone for all of those very reasons.
    And letters are precious/ I love when people describe the setting before plunging in to writing (its 5am, the house is silent and still...i am alone in a circle of light the lamp spills into my lap...)
    Excellent, thank you for sharing!
    Have a well written day!
    XOXOXOXO

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  3. I so agree with that.
    I love the sentence...I can touch the paper you touch. How sweet is that?
    We have to write more...I know it makes me happy to receive a handwritten card or letter.

    Have a lovely day,
    ♥ Jeannette

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  4. Rhonda and Jeannette, if you e-mail me your addresses, I'll send you something. I already have the Bodhi Chick's. :)

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  5. Lovely post today! I too appreciate the feel and joy real mail can bring. If you'd like to share your address with me I'd be happy to send you some snail mail!

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  6. I realize that you don't know that I've been visiting regularly because I haven't been writing many comments...SO I want you to know today by my written word that you are loved and I so like visiting here with you.

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  7. Diva - right back at you! send me your address too.

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  8. Oh this is a true delight!!! Gorgeous xx

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