Life's Manual

7 Comments

Poem Commentary

Another Bus Poem... Written in the back seat while commuting to work. As always, comments are welcome.

Life's Manual


Life's manual seems to be bereft
Of adequate detail,
Like how to score your first time kiss,
Or how to raise that bail.

It doesn't touch the common sense
That wisdom should produce,
Like making sure your brain is on
Before your mouth's turned loose.

It doesn't say in black and white
That "Acids are corrosives.",
Or "Clumsy folks had best avoid
Sharp objects and explosives."

That manual is so dreadful thin
It doesn't explain why
We wound up here in the first place,
Or how we are to die.

Poem Comments

(7)

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Chaos128 commented on Life's Manual

09-18-2010

Ah… yes… about that… empirical data is still be collected and collated, and you will be notified as to when the publication, in question, will be made available to the general public. Don’t call us! We’ll call you… and… don’t hold your breath : D

simoneaugustus commented on Life's Manual

08-18-2010

I found the second and last stanzas to be the most powerful here and I just loved this piece!! Exceptional!

Teardrops commented on Life's Manual

08-17-2010

I love this and have a copy of that manual somewhere . I stopped reading it when i jumped from a plane and the it says with a p-shoot . This is a great poem Glenn thanks for the smile Marie

2poemsforu commented on Life's Manual

08-15-2010

gm, You are a breath of fresh air with this whimsical poem of Life's Manual. I was grinning and nodding as if you were a preacher on a pulpit. Clever! ginga

gmcookie

08/15/2010

Ginga, Lol... I'm glad you liked it. It was just a whimsical impulse... At least I think it is whimsical - or is it? Glenn

rsalassi commented on Life's Manual

08-13-2010

Well, I do like this, Glenn, even though non-existent parallels have been drawn. Actually, they do exisit, but I'm not willing to admit them, yet. Good job here. Wish I had read it fifty years ago!

Poetry is not a turning loose of emotion, but an escape from emotion.

T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) American-English poet and playwright.

gmcookie’s Poems (186)

Title Comments
Title Comments
Wonderment 0
Bora Bora 3
Twister 1
A Deal with Death 2
Frodo and the Ring 1
Glacier 0
The Earth Was Far Too Fragile 2
Clyde 0
The Wars That Men Have Fought 0
The Oracle of Tuckahoe 0
Down the Drain 3
Isabella 3
I Write Because 5
I Never Thought I'd Live to be a Hundred 3
Singapore River 1
Remember Why We're Here 0
Ghosts 4
Most Definitely More or Less 2
China Doll 1
Imagine 2
How to Feel 2
With Regrets 4
A Melancholy in the Land 0
The Borneo Fogcutter 1
January 21, 2013 3
Limerick 5 4
Kress Five and Dime 1
Beowulf 2
Icarus 3
Universes 5
Human Race 2
Requiem for Earth 1
Fathers and Sons 2
Goldfish 5
Robin Adams 1
Peaches 5
When We Were Young 3
Unknown 1
Solstice 1
Nkosi 1
Day's End 0
Outliers 2
I'll Be There 2
Mystery 0
Grafitti 0
Brand New Day 0
Leaves 0
Oedipus Rethunk 1
Language 0
Fire 2
Arthur Kleinfelt 0
The Last 0
To the Ants 0
Is Love a Lie 2
A Cat, at That 0
You Weren't Here 0
Sacred Ground 0
Rats 0
Greed 2
Breathe! 2
One Percent 1
Hands 1
If God Had Not 3
As Once There was a First Time 0
Ghouls 1
Something Evil 0
Blue Dot 0
Against All Odds 0
Spacers 0
Pink Flamingo 3
I Thought 1
The Old Hochstetter Place 3
Sirens Wail 2
Lost 0
Social Insecurity 3
Dandelion 2
Zelda the Zebra 1
Avotcja 2
Virtue 1
Extinct Species 1
Things We Learned 1
Leadership 1
Conundrum 1
Wheels 0
Winona the Widow 0
The Game 0
Willie the Weasle 0
Barney the Badger 1
Priscilla the Pig 1
Free Lunch 2
Candle 0
The gods 0
Street Kids 1
Junkyard of Forsaken Dreams 3
Life is... 1
Time's Villanelle 3
Taxi to Eternity 3
Common Sense 2 1
Enlightenment 1
The Loon 4
Meaning 1
The Best that Money Buys 2
Splendid Orchid 2
The Singularity 4
Ruth 3
Pirates 3
Back Side of the Moon 3
Self Control 3
I Am 2
Dust 7
Lullaby 2
Clones 4
Epitath 3
Algol Sun 5
Children of the Stars 8
Structured Verse 9
Tapestry 4
Punctuation 10
Buddha's Remembrances 9
Sagittarius 8
Limerick 4 5
Keyboards 4
Our Lives 5
Christmas 3
Halfway to Eternity 7
Eddie Noel 9
Limerick 3 5
The Hand of God 9
Invisible 8
Nature 7
Limerick 2 7
Limerick 1 9
Frankie Fish 14
My Children 8
Tribute to Helios 21
Duality 15
Choice 12
Old Folks 6
If I Could Love 17
Common Sense 11
The Shadows in Your Eyes 9
Silence doth become the dead 11
Hung's Story 15
Vietnam Peace 9
Speaker for the Dead 9
Hummingbird 9
Fairies 7
On the point of a pin 11
Life's Manual 7
Ephemeral 5
Tiger in a Cage 8
Time 7
Love's Refrain 10
Destruction 7
Building Life 10
The Past 9
The Cat 6
Grace 7
No Two the Same 6
Effort 6
Cottonwoods 7
Monsters 5
Mayflies 7
Ray's Dream 14
A Thousand Thorns 4
Family 6
Childhood Toys 18
The Kid Down the Street 7
Red Moon 22
Love's End 6
Time is a Brutal Mistress 4
Blessed 3
Boundaries 7
The Reason Why 14
Hope 12
What To Do With Me 4
Pleased 8
The End 10
My Hands 5
Night Time Sky 9
Hung's Book 2
Death does not equivocate 14
I Cannot Say 6
What if 15
Only Words 7
After the Light has Faded 6