How to Listen

I love reading poems from Poetry 180. I came across a new one today that is worth noting. I think we all need to stop our lives and focus a bit. Sometimes we go in fast forward for so long that we don't stop to even listen to anything around us or talk with friends or family that we should.

I'm finding that the work week can do that to you. Sometimes you go on autopilot and forget to reconnect with your interests and with yourself. You can lose touch with your surroundings and your passions. Sometimes it's just nice to listen...

How to Listen

by Major Jackson

I am going to cock my head tonight like a dog
in front of McGlinchy's Tavern on Locust;
I am going to stand beside the man who works all day combing
his thatch of gray hair corkscrewed in every direction.
I am going to pay attention to our lives
unraveling between the forks of his fine-tooth comb.
For once, we won't talk about the end of the world
or Vietnam or his exquisite paper shoes.
For once, I am going to ignore the profanity and
the dancing and the jukebox so I can hear his head crackle
beneath the sky's stretch of faint stars.

I really enjoy the way he describes listening, like a dog. Animals are definitely keen to this, even though they cannot decipher our strange language. I am astounded with how well their senses do pick up as compared to human's.

Even the images he uses shows that he's paying attention to his surroundings. I think that I don't pay as much attention to my surroundings (noises, scenery, etc) than I really should. Again, it's this stupid auto pilot thing...

So what do you think of "How to Listen?