Here’s a look at what’s been inspiring me this week. Not included: all the Springsteen image searching I did for “research.”
“Good Bones” by Maggie Smith
This poet, who is based in my beloved Columbus, will see her piece “Good Bones” read on tonight’s episode of the TV show “Madam Secretary.” That’s really cool. I love seeing how words and writing can live in a culture that keeps telling us print is dead. Go, Maggie, go.
GOOD BONES
by Maggie SmithLife is short, though I keep this from my children.
Life is short, and I’ve shortened mine
in a thousand delicious, ill-advised ways,
a thousand deliciously ill-advised ways
I’ll keep from my children. The world is at least
fifty percent terrible, and that’s a conservative
estimate, though I keep this from my children.
For every bird there is a stone thrown at a bird.
For every loved child, a child broken, bagged,
sunk in a lake. Life is short and the world
is at least half terrible, and for every kind
stranger, there is one who would break you,
though I keep this from my children. I am trying
to sell them the world. Any decent realtor,
walking you through a real shithole, chirps on
about good bones: This place could be beautiful,
right? You could make this place beautiful.
“Born to Run” by Bruce Springsteen
I talk about this song all the time. It’s the greatest god damn love song ever written.
Everybody’s out on the run tonight
But there’s no place left to hide
Together Wendy we can live with the sadness
I’ll love you with all the madness in my soul
I stumbled upon one of its lyrics recently and remembered just how gut wrenching it is. This is how you write about lovers aching for independence, beauty, and the kind of positive grief that comes from sacrificing for your own destiny…
Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It’s a death trap, it’s a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we’re young
`Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run
This lyric video is missing a few apostrophes but it doesn’t matter.
Bruce is bae.
Words on the street (airport edition)
I appreciate when brands find little places to infuse some personality. “Now for something really refreshing: no hidden fees.”
Chicago’s welcome home signs welcome all kinds. This is the world I want to live in.
For the record, I did not do this but applaud the exasperated grammar nerd who did.
