The Cocktail Party

weheartit
Squeezed together
with drinks and nuts
you have to talk,
circulate with ease,
discuss the weather,
and try to please.
You open yourself
to a person
you like best.
He or she looks
over your shoulder
to see who is next.
We keep sniffing
each ohter,
all smiles and laughter
trying to find out
what the other person
is after.
It is a marvellous way
to get to know people
without really getting
to know them
at all.

This is a poem from Ivar Ditlef-Nielsen's Selected Poems (Poelosophy).

"I"

By Ivar Ditlef-Nielsen
From the book Selected Poems (Poelosophy)

I am the only I.
What I hear, feel and see
Is my world, it is me.
All the other,
The YOU’s, the THEYs,
The HEs and the Shes
Don’t know what it means
To be me.
I am the only I.

I am the only I
With conscience
And will to act
And choose on my own,
And stand alone.
I am free
In a beautiful world
Of my own
Which nobody can see
Like me.

I am the only I,
An unsolved mystery,
An oasis in an abundant
Sea of life.
Unique and alone with
Millions of other Is.
But I never want
To be another I
It is my I till I die.

Alas, the other:
The YOUs, the THEYs,
The HEs and the SHEs
Losing there is
In compromise and expediency
Won’t let me be.
They want me to forget my I
And become part of the whole
“Conform. Do like us”,
So I am told.

Am I losing my I?
Will it be there when I die?
Wo;; O become like
The YOUs, the THEYs
The HEs and the SHEs
With no I-dentity
And no I to survive?

I think I got the book when I was at ASC (Antigua State College). I loved this poem so much that I read it over and over. Then one day I read the other poems and I fell in love with them. The book itself inspires me to put together my own book of poetry because it is so simply made.

I also like the concept of making something that would be coveted by someone else. Be it a cool T-shirt or a poem that inspires.