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Our poet writes: My name is Casey Moritz and I am from Dallas, Texas. I go to Endicott College in Beverly, Massachusetts, majoring in Psychology and minoring in criminal justice. I am a sophomore and currently play on the Women’s Ice Hockey team at Endicott. I enjoy going to concerts, reading, and listening to music.
Dead Weight
The sound of construction
Surrounds the people on their phones.
Do they notice?
Do they hear the drilling and beeping?
My phone, tucked away in my pocket
Wants to burn a hole through,
To be held by me.
No human in sight,
Just nature beckoning me to sit,
Patting the rock.
She asks what is wrong, how she can help.
She’s a good listener.
She doesn’t interrupt
Or judge
Or laugh
She just sits there,
Allowing me to cry on her shoulder,
Allowing me to throw rocks at her.
My tears become the sea.
My laughs join the sounds of waves crashing.
She’s a good listener.
But does she have someone to talk to?
I ask, she responds with gulls squawking.
I understand.
She’ll still be here after the phones are hidden beneath the earth.
I am not the first to talk to her,
But maybe I am the first to actually listen to her.
— Casey Moritz
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To have your work considered for the Lyrical send it to:
Doug Holder, 25 School St.; Somerville, MA 02143
dougholder@post.harvard.edu
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I have been waiting for a poem like this…in a way, most of us stroll the streets while scrolling our phones as if we are deaf to the wonders around us, like construction workers with sound blockers on while drilling the streets with jackhammers. The poet’s unassuming acknowledgment and endearing awareness of nature’s pulchritudinous is pure, simple and engaging. Lines depicting her pocketed phone wanting to “burn a hole through” and wanting “to be held” yet she yields to nature’s “beckoning” deeming her to be a better “listener” who “doesn’t interupt” with social media notifications chiming for attention like that of her pocketed phone..she is content to “laugh” by the sea and listen to crashing waves…She takes comfort in the assurances of the infinity of nature even long after phones have crashed and burried “beneath the earth.” The take away for me from this young poetic voice is STOP SCROLLING YOUR PHONES AND BE PRESENT in your environment! Listen to nature, listen to your souls and listen to each other.Amidst the chaos of a highly mechanized world replete with iPads and iPhones and internet connections, remember to take the time to disconnect from the “internet” to connect to your “inner-net” and be present with the wonder that is NATURE,..–Jacques Fleury, Author of the prose and poetry collection “You Are Enough: The Journey to Accepting Your Authentic Self”