TheRealLJIdol-week 1-Quality

[krispykritter]

You gaze at the stars.
I enjoy the quiet of the night and the soft chirping of the crickets.
You admire a very handsome stranger as they pass by.
I stop to listen to someone’s voice that if they were even reading the dictionary I’d be entranced.
You talk about the amazing cinematography in the latest film.
I hear the music from the same film’s score and ask you if you noticed how it added to the magic.
You talk about reading the latest bestseller.
I tell you about how the narrator in the audiobook made the story come alive.
You drive your car everywhere in your solitary bubble.
I walk in companionable steps with my dog at my side, stopping to chat with a passerby.
You admire the changing of the leaves in the fall.
I smell the first cold snap of autumn in the air.
You admire the holiday light displays at Christmas.
I catch the first snowflakes on my tongue.
You ask why I am so happy.
I smile, scratch my dog’s ears, smell the fresh cut grass and listen to a distant crow calling its friends.
That, I say, is quality of life. Can you say the same?

Comments

[drippedonpaper]

You did a great job showing how...using the other senses can help someone more richly experience life. I do believe we find what you look for.

Your poem is lovely and reminds us that happiness exists if we listen for it, taste it, etc.

I really enjoyed your poem :)

[marjorica]

Fantastic!

I used to work with (and am still friends with) a lot of visually impaired people and I got to learn about the bird-listening expeditions and what more you can get from ascending the Eiffel Tower if not just the view. It’s a whole different and valuable perspective.

[eeyore_grrl]

a brilliant moment of quality of life.

[serpentinejacaranda]

What I like about this piece is how it reads like a screenplay, almost like there's an invisible line separating the speaker from the other figure, like splitscreen in a movie. At some point the line disappears and they melt together, or one of them disappears. I don't know if that was your intention, but I enjoyed it!

[used_songs]

The world has so much in it to appreciate! I like how you showed this as a conversation of sorts between two different people.

[bleodswean]

Such a nice compare / contrast going on here. I also enjoyed the fact that you allow your reader to conclude about the senses of abled / other abled. Nice response for this prompt!

[kizzy]

Oh, I love this! All your other senses heighten when one sense refuses to play. That's what your husband is for, hahahaha :wink:

[simplyn2deep]

This is a beautifully gentle reminder that joy lives in the details, the kind we feel, not just observe. Your words celebrate presence over performance, connection over consumption. And yes, that is quality of life, authentic, grounded, and deeply alive.

[fausts_dream]

Very emotive and wonderful short piece.

Different people appreciate different things. I'm a notorious enough movie snob that people roll their eyes when I recommend a film.

I have a literature degree so I know what good literature looks like but I often choose to read hard-boiled detective novels and urban fantasy.

With music on the exact opposite of a snob there isn't much the Beatles on my Spotify playlist, but there's quite a bit of Britney Spears. Cuz sometimes I just want to dance.

This is really good stuff

[adoptedwriter]

This is beautiful.

[muchtooarrogant]

I enjoyed this, great contrasts showing how different people experience the world they live in.

Dan

[halfshellvenus]

The contrast between someone more visually-driven and more auditorily-driven was really interesting here. I wouldn't say that one is generally higher in quality than the other, but the visual person seems to lean more toward the impersonal and "accomplished", and that makes a huge difference.

[rayaso]

This was so beautiful and evocative. These are such wonderful moments that you captured. I enjoyed the line about the voice. There are a few actors who I would pay to read the dictionary just to hear there voices.

[legalpad819]

Yes! I love the special moments this piece evokes.

[wolfden]

I really enjoyed this. It is such a great description of observing with all your other senses.

[xeena]

I have synesthesia and I absolutely lived the sensory feel of this

[mollywheezy]

I love the conversation happening in the poem and especially how one person is finding joy in small, every day things. :)

[alycewilson]

Interesting contrasts here. I had to read it a second time to realize that the "you" of this poem is experiencing things primarily through their eyes, while the speaker of the poem is appreciating the world through other senses. Well done!

[gunwithoutmusic]

This reminds me of the Lisa Loeb song "Firecracker." I liked the back-and-forth a lot, it made for a very interesting read. :)