IDEA: by FLORA-JO ZENTHOEFER

Poet Flora-Jo Zenthoefer, age 10











In a restaurant
... Written on an old napkin
This Idea takes form

Not really an idea
More an ambition
An ambition to have a shape
To have a form

To live in this world of
Reality and
Specialty

To be a person
Rather than an idea

A noun rather than a verb

Three dimensions all of which you take for granted
I’d like to have even one

I am an Idea


Flora-Jo Zenthoefer is the daughter of the poet Joanne Arnott, whose work and blog links also appear on Schroedinger's Cat. Flora-Jo's marvellous graphic of a cat, made of special tape representing  the cat's fur, painted seeds for eyes, a penny for a nose, and a rose petal for the mouth, is now the logo for this blog

In my mind, the "idea" Flora-Jo's poem addresses is the basic unit of imagination, the expression of the wish and desire to bring something new and different into the world.  Half-formed ideas, as they struggle for concrete realization, are obviously one of the fundamental elements of poetry. Flora-Jo's poem gives voice to this longing and desire so purely and completely that it cried out loud to be included in Schroedinger's Cat, the place where things are always on the verge of coming in or going out....jr