My blessings, or: My limitations

Posted on by ben Alexander

EPIGRAPH:

Basically, my life is so boring, it’s embarrassing.

–Hugh Grant (b. 1960)
I've never been pimp nor whore
never paid for sex
never went to war
never been homeless never 
been

Don't know
about life on the street
don't know much beyond
what I read in
the

well I do use caffeine
when I'm tired 
though with
it I'm 
both tired and wired and
I often enjoy whiskey nor
is that all - I've also used marijuana not 
to mention 
my anti-anxiety medication

I can speak to death
can wax long upon life 
pen rhymes about my daughter and wife

I can churn out
a poem but sometimes
bemoan that my life is mostly
empty of strife

63 thoughts on “My blessings, or: My limitations”

  3. This is awesome. I’ve been thinking similar thoughts… different details but similar thoughts… I love the way you wrote it.

          1. and mine was an attempt at expressing that my life was “boring” too… though I love it that way, to tell the truth :)) xoxo

  4. This one surprised me but I enjoyed it, David…. I immediately felt like I wanted to give you comfort and advice. *smiles, but that is not really what this is all about. In your examples, I think you didn’t miss anything not being a pimp or a whore…but you are still alive so..all is possible 🙂 I think there does exist experiences legal and moral, that could make you feel not as bored. During Covid, the lockdown…we were all forced to be a little bored…but maybe next year, some travel could be possible….Travel is a waker-upper..🤗🌴🙏

    K.

  5. Bad knowledge, David. You live in Jerusalem! There is all the material in the world outside your front door. You are not boring. I would offer to shoot some dope with you, grab a gallon of cheap vodka and help ya find your inner Buk…but really…you don’t WANT to do that. To come out of it and write instead of drool in a corner braindamaged and broken, that is a thing that cannot be assured. You never know what is down that rabbit hole for you. It could be On The Road…or else it could be cabbage time in the ICU. Those guys that come out of it with material like Buk and Burroughs are few and far between. The rest are dead or dying in ditches. You don’t want an exciting life. It is terrifying and sad. I wish you boring delightful happiness in abundance, with good health and love and glorious family mundanity. Too late for me…but that is ok.

    1. You live in Jerusalem!

      You know, TPS, I think about this… but I’m not sure that I want that to be my defining quality as a blogger… and even if I do want it to be such, I’m not sure that it actually is, ya know? It’s kinda a 2D fact of my life, if you catch my drift.

      2. I know I would be very interested in the occasional piece about the City from your personal point of view – you write so sympathetically-, and some cool photographs….so if you decide to follow that tack, I am sure Im not the only one who would enjoy such posts.

          5. There are a few people that I care about, and consider friends…and you are one of them…the rest of the idiots….they can get lost!

      1. LOL…. 🤣

        Damn….

        I’m herding cats litterally and don’t know what I’m doing.. traping 4 Ferals, 4 feral kittens etc. today I HOPE!!! so wish me luck.. (neighbor moved)
        I’m sure it’ll be a post.

        Shabot Shalom.. (i thought sundays are the rest day. hahahahah

        1. For Jewish people, the Sabbath starts on Friday evening when the sun sets and ends on Saturday night when the sun sets 🙂

          So on Saturday night and on Sunday, we say ‘sha-voo-ah tov’ which means, ‘[have a] good week’.

          ❤
          David

          2. that’s the way it sounds, but when you actually write it in English (the proper transliteration), you write it like this:

            Shavua Tov

            (BTW, in Hebrew, the adjective goes after the noun… which means that ‘shavua’ = week, and ‘tov’ = good)

          4. is Spanish like that too? (I don’t know any Spanish, except for uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez…)

  9. I’d posit that those who write first person accounts of their dangerous lives are feeding an audience of voyeurs. But by the same token many crave the calm seas of a happy life. Writing fiction allows both the writer and readers to embark on a shared journey that is exciting but has the knowledge that “no authors were harmed in the penning of the novel”! Vanilla ice cream pairs well with nearly any thing!

  10. If you’re boring, then so is the rest of the human population. Boring is good and safe, but there does need to be some changes in order to have fun imo. I resonate with this piece—I just write poems, never been through much, so how interesting can I be?

    Many others probably feel this way. Risk is good if you’re willing to take baby steps out of your comfort zone to try something new. Though I agree, 2020 and 2021 have been crazy enough it can make you appreciate the simpler things in life. Even a quick, boring conversation with band mates is something I miss and should have cherished more at the time.

    Beautifully penned, David, and it’s evocative to me. Love how you wrote this.

    1. I resonate with this piece—I just write poems, never been through much, so how interesting can I be?

      Yep ~ that’s me to a ‘T’ 😀

      But, nonetheless, I very much enjoy writing poetry… so I know we’re not only doing it to entertain others.

      ❤
      David

      1. So I actually take issue with the romanticized idea that you can only “write what you know”, that writing has to be rooted in autobiographical truth to be good (some of my best poetry is the least autobiographical), and that writers need to have tons of life experience (aka bad or unique circumstances, or bad or unique decisions) to be good writers.

        To me, being a writer means having the skills to tell stories that aren’t necessarily your own – eg. by doing research, learning how to take feedback and revise, etc.

        My life is fortunate and boring too. Interestingly, whenever I’ve tried to write about one of the more statistically unique experiences I’ve had, I really struggled to write it in a way in which the reader could connect to it. In my case, writing about the boring but common, or the completely fictional, was actually more successful writing.

        1. I’ve just been thinking about Bukowski recently… and it feels to me that much of his success was in writing what he knew – which was grimy and raunchy, ya know? I’m not saying that’s the only way to write compellingly… just that it’s probably the most natural.

          1. It is the most natural and it is common. But I’m not convinced its the only or most preferable. And it has a way of romanticizing terrible life decisions in the pursuit of writing material, which I think is dangerous

          2. don’t worry 🙂 I’m already settled with a family – my life is highly unlikely to get more “exciting” in any unhealthy ways from here on out!

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