I want to ask Sophie Blackall about her hand
exercises
and whether they’re for carpal tunnel or what
and if she thinks I might have carpal tunnel based on
the symptoms I will enumerate for her right here
at the children’s book convention where she gave a rousing
talk on living our life full of days (at this
point in the reading of this poem when I perform it somewhere
I will look up and with a small grin say
“This is based on a true story” which will get a little
chuckle or maybe even a good laugh out of the crowd
if the weather is right and they’re in a good mood) and she
will smile in that way that I know I would if I
were a Caldecott-winning author and illustrator and someone
were soliciting medical advice from me after a talk
that I gave at a children’s book conference which is to say
she will give a wan one that is if she is anything
like me at all which I should not presume in fact I’m sure
that she is a much nicer person than me even if for no
other reason than that she is much more successful
though now I’m not giving credit where credit is due
and I have lost the plot of this poem so let me just say this:
and whether they’re for carpal tunnel or what
and if she thinks I might have carpal tunnel based on
the symptoms I will enumerate for her right here
at the children’s book convention where she gave a rousing
talk on living our life full of days (at this
point in the reading of this poem when I perform it somewhere
I will look up and with a small grin say
“This is based on a true story” which will get a little
chuckle or maybe even a good laugh out of the crowd
if the weather is right and they’re in a good mood) and she
will smile in that way that I know I would if I
were a Caldecott-winning author and illustrator and someone
were soliciting medical advice from me after a talk
that I gave at a children’s book conference which is to say
she will give a wan one that is if she is anything
like me at all which I should not presume in fact I’m sure
that she is a much nicer person than me even if for no
other reason than that she is much more successful
though now I’m not giving credit where credit is due
and I have lost the plot of this poem so let me just say this:
Sophie I was at your talk and it was absolutely
wonderful
it made me want to make things in a way I haven’t
wanted in a long time and honestly it was just what I needed
to hear at just the moment I needed to hear it
I wanted to write a poem about it since that day and I had
a lot of false starts and sort of did something
that resembled the feeling but now I’m writing this I think
that it’s the poem about that talk and while it may not
be exactly what I wanted (or really anything at all like
what I wanted I’ll say snidely to the crowd do you remember
the crowd Sophie they’re there listening to me now)
it is what it ended up being so it’s up to us (mostly to me
but sure let’s say to us) to live with it and hope
that it’s good enough to call our own when people ask about it
it made me want to make things in a way I haven’t
wanted in a long time and honestly it was just what I needed
to hear at just the moment I needed to hear it
I wanted to write a poem about it since that day and I had
a lot of false starts and sort of did something
that resembled the feeling but now I’m writing this I think
that it’s the poem about that talk and while it may not
be exactly what I wanted (or really anything at all like
what I wanted I’ll say snidely to the crowd do you remember
the crowd Sophie they’re there listening to me now)
it is what it ended up being so it’s up to us (mostly to me
but sure let’s say to us) to live with it and hope
that it’s good enough to call our own when people ask about it