By Brenda S. Cox
Greetings, friends. It’s been a while since I’ve posted—I have so many ideas, but so little time. Here’s a little treat for you.
I’ve been reading a book called Poetry as Spiritual Practice, by Robert McDowell, on “Reading, Writing, and Using Poetry in Your Daily Rituals, Aspirations, and Intentions.” I’m having fun with it! The author challenged us to turn some favorite prose into poetry, and here’s what I did with it.
The Truth?
“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.”— Pride and Prejudice, chapter 1
Everyone knows
Who is everyone?
You know
All of us
Maybe all of them
Maybe not
Anyway, we all know what they say
Who are they?
Not us
Or maybe us in disguise
They say
“No wife . . .
no life.”
He is alone
Everybody needs somebody
They say
Who needs you?
Who needs me?
Who do I need?
Who do you need?
He needs She
Any She will do
Won’t she?
If and only if
He (and/or She) has a good job
(Lucrative? Fulfilling? Beneficial? Respectable?)
Money in the bank
(A little? A lot? Earned? Inherited?)
A house
(Ranch house? Condo? Town house? Manor?)
A car
(Sports car? Minivan? Station wagon? Barouche?)
Because he + she will equal more than two
Before long
Tell the truth
She needs He
If He needs She
They become We
They belong
It’s the truth.
Is it the truth? What do you think?
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Faith, Science, Joy, and Jane Austen 
Well done, Brenda! I love the way you showed it’s an international truth by using the Indian saying “no life without wife.“ And you made it a timeless truth, mixing in “barouche“ and “manor” with all our modern homes and conveyances. There are so many interesting thoughts that you’ve woven in here. I love it!
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Thanks very much! You got it–no life without wife comes from the Bollywood version, Bride and Prejudice. In some ways attitudes are not so different today, and in other ways they’re very different. It was fun to weave all that together.
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Your poem reminds me of Psalm 85:10, where mercy and truth meet. Separately, they allow extremes that have the potential to overwhelm. Together, they balance each other and bring a beauty that transcends.
Psalm 85:10 Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
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Lovely, thanks!
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