It’s a lazy Sunday on this rainy, long weekend and I’ve been stuck at home because of the downpour. Sometimes when I’m stuck designing, I write. And when I’m stuck writing, I design. I read this in my first (and only!) participation in a poetry-reading session, organized by my friend Jules many, many, many moons ago. I haven’t really had time to write poetry recently, but I thought I’d share this poem since it still seems relevant now when so many changes are happening around us and we feel uncertain as to how to move forward…
———
The Girl On a Comma
She sat on a comma
She sat in a pause
She sat in that space
Between an effect and its cause
She sat there hanging
Like an unfinished thought
No verbs to move her
Towards what she sought
She sat and she waited
For words to spell out
Her yesterday, her tomorrow
What she was about
She watched and she waited
As characters came
Into her life
Where they would lay claim
She shifted and backspaced
For other’s pleasure
Even shrinking in size
To fit her imagined measure
She never considered
To shape her own text
Creating and molding
What she wanted to come next
She sat and did nothing
To capitalize herself
Never being bold enough to write her life
Down from the shelf
-Tippi Ocampo
*Chanced upon this “Comma” chair online. Don’t you love its clever simplicity?
**Can you tell I’m really into chairs at the moment??
(Comma Chair / Design: Renata Kalarus, Krakow, Poland)
