When I saw pollen floating down from the sky today outside the window in this ethereal way like tiny feathers, I couldn’t help but think of wishes. And then I remembered the scene I recently watched in the Michael Fassbender version of Macbeth, where Lady Macbeth, played by Marion Cotillard, is sitting to perform her “madness” scene, and at first, I thought it a little dull, except that she is magnificent. Her facial expressions, alone, tell everything. But the floating dust, the pollen, those feather-like things we often think of when blowing a dandelion not yet mature to make a wish, said something in this scene. It wasn’t a distraction as one might think at first, but an enhancement. And I think it led to the symbolism of the moment, the symbolism of how we lead our lives. Maybe I’m thinking too deeply about it. Maybe it was purely accidental, and the director marveled: "Oh wow. How fortunate." Maybe they did it on purpose to create a dream-like sequence, a sort of ghostly allusion, specters in the air, omens. Maybe they, themselves, didn’t even notice. It might make sense if you really stop to think about it. We make wishes. We certainly did as children, running freely, playing in fields, picking up the flowers and blowing them into the wind as we wished for silly things like later bedtimes or ice cream cones or beach days and sunny days or to be kissed for the first time. But wishes are what we make them, aren’t they? And sometimes, perhaps, what we wish for can become a regret. “Be careful what you wish for.” It certainly became that way for Lady Macbeth. Oftentimes, when we wish, it’s because we WANT something. We want fame or love or more money or…just plain--more. The adage less is more seems appropriate in this light. It seems the moment our wishes come true, we begin to think of the next wish, a bigger wish, a better wish, a wish that gets us what we want all over again. When we get it, sometimes these wishes can come at big costs. Can you think of a time this was so in your life? I wish I had—or I wish to be—or I wish he would—But at what cost? Are we not living but instead wishing away moments?
Perhaps the wish should be just this. Just now. To just live in the right-now moments we are almost always missing, wishing, wishing away, because we’re not recognizing any present moments fully. Maybe the flowers truly know more than us. By blowing them away and wishing, we are spreading their seeds all around, some would even say to make more weeds, rather than letting them be what they could be by staying. Still. In their moment to blossom naturally. Just as we will, in our due time. We have much we can learn from nature. Let’s be still. And listen.
5 Comments
Mark A Morris
5/10/2019 17:56:47
A wish is an admission of powerlessness
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R.B.
6/24/2019 11:54:36
Mark!! What a sad poem...and beautiful at the same time. Share in Nu Poetry?
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Pat
5/29/2019 13:22:34
Wish upon a star throwing a penny in a wishing well or just blowing on a dandelion hoping for your wish to come true sometimes just builds your hopes for nothing.
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R.B.
6/24/2019 11:56:49
We often fall for people's mind and soul. The rest matters very little. For as attracted we are to looks or superficial things, it doesn't last. I, too, have fallen for many a person without ever knowing their ages, looks, or even real name. Connections cannot be explained. And though I don't believe in a religious sense of soul, I do believe the essence of a human is all soul. And that is what we love.
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Patrick Wardell
5/27/2021 16:39:36
Naive idealist dreamer here. Sometimes the real world slugs me in the nose. But that is okay. I'm still going to dream and wish the night away. Write and play with words and see what happens. And then when one of my crazy dreams come true. I will simply have no clue what to do. ., Lovely write Rosemary!
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I LOVE to write and read. I particularly enjoy reading erotic romance that has tons of emotion in it. I hope you will ask me questions and share your favorite authors and novels. I welcome all feedback.
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