Conversations

Last October I had a few hours conversation with a young man with whom I haven't really had any further contact. But, those few hours made me think again about what it means to be a child of God and to enjoy the good gifts He has given us. It made me decide to figure out what kind of music I like and to read books by new authors. It made me appreciate physics in a new way (okay, okay, think at all about physics). It's, honestly, probably a large part of the inspiration for my quasi-theme-for-2010: diving in to the rich oceans of history and personality and culture- which is part of what it means to be human made in the image of God. All of this is to say that I wrote a poem after these conversations. I wasn't overly happy with the poem, as a whole, at that time, because I was reading it through the grid of the one relationship. Now, having other reasons to muse over seasons and friendship and conversation I read it again with new eyes and I liked it well enough this time to share it. So, here it is.

conversations are collisions
between two people
some are mere
paint-chip tradings
that only require
one to put dinner
in the oven at 5:00.
others leave
hearts mangled
and shoes in odd places.
these kind no one likes.

still others,
my favorite, perhaps,
are like movements in space
when stars greet one another
and comets drop to earth.

or maybe some
are like particles
and we only know
what happened
by the remnants
left like Hansel and Gretel's
crumbs.
like the way a meal
is judged-
by the conversation
afterward.

we conversed.
we collided.
what type? I'm not sure.
but, there are books in my room
that would not be there
if you and I
had not talked.

I'd be interested to know your thoughts. I think I know now that relationships are perhaps multiple collisions- some of every sort (and more kinds than I've listed, I'm sure). Do you agree? Do you have any interesting stories of a conversation that radically shook up your life and you? Are you in the stars or lying in the shoes or somewhere in between?