Routine with a splash of asparagus
“Song of Welcome” by Joseph Brodsky
Full-disclosure: I did not cook this asparagus. But I did assist with cooking in an actual industrial kitchen, and it was amazing.
Aside from the addition of asparagus to my day, it followed much the same as most every week this summer. While I don’t resent routine, I do worry about becoming complacent, and about what effects my routine has on my overall happiness.
Joseph Brodsky’s “Song of Welcome” showcases the routine of life with it’s six groups of three stanzas and its matching rhyme scheme. As I read through the poem, I felt the monotony, the constancy of life that scares so many people. His use of words such as “corn on the cob” “divorce” “X-ray” and “paycheck” pangs of middle-class American drudgery. Each stanza has something insightful to reflect on, but I’m going to focus on the last three stanzas.
“And here are your stars which appear still keen
on shining as though you had never been.
They might have a point, old bean.
Here’s your afterlife, with no trace
of you, especially of your face.
Welcome, and call it space.
Welcome to where one cannot breathe.
This way, space resembles what’s underneath,
and Saturn holds the wreath.”
The image of stars being “keen” to keep on shining whether you are there or not really fascinated me. It alludes to the beauty of nature while acknowledging that when you’re in the middle of life, you are so preoccupied with the “rat race” that you may not ever look up at the stars.
Then the speaker says “Welcome to where one cannot breathe…” describing death, where one literally cannot breath, and continuing “…space resembles what’s underneath.” This connection suggests that the speaker considers the classic life focused on money to be suffocating.
If we are all working until we’re dead, when do we get the chance to breathe?
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Read the full poem here:
