Tables

The rather random topic of 'Tables' produced some thought-provoking writing and discussion at SHINE yesterday. I thought I would include here the poem we used. (It was translated into English from the poet's native Turkish.) We explored what it meant then wrote our own 'poems'. For those of you who were not there, why not have a go now?

That´s What I Call a Table

A man filled with the gladness of living

Put his keys on the table,

Put flowers in a copper bowl there.

He put his eggs and milk on the table.

He put there the light that came in through the window,

Sound of a bicycle, sound of a spinning wheel.

The softness of bread and weather he put there.

On the table the man put

Things that happened in his mind.

What he wanted to do in life,

He put that there.

Those he loved, those he didn´t love,

The man put them on the table too.

Three times three make nine:

The man put nine on the table.

He was next to the window next to the sky;

He reached out and placed on the table endlessness.

So many days he had wanted to drink a beer!

He put on the table the pouring of that beer.

He placed there his sleep and his wakefulness;

His hunger and his fullness he put there.

 

Now that´s what I call a table!

It didn´t complain at all about the load.

It wobbled once or twice, then stood firm.

The man kept piling things on.

Edip Cansever

Writing prompt 1:

What would you put on your table?

Writing prompt 2:

Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to sit round your table for a meal, and what do you think you would talk about?