The Lanyard

[Aquila calva 10]

"The Lanyard"

 

by Billy Collins

 

The other day as I was ricocheting slowly

off the pale blue walls of this room,

bouncing from typewriter to piano,

from bookshelf to an envelope lying on the floor,

I found myself in the L section of the dictionary

where my eyes fell upon the word lanyard.

 

No cookie nibbled by a French novelist

could send one more suddenly into the past --

a past where I sat at a workbench at a camp

by a deep Adirondack lake

learning how to braid thin plastic strips

into a lanyard, a gift for my mother.

 

I had never seen anyone use a lanyard

or wear one, if thats what you did with them,

but that did not keep me from crossing

strand over strand again and again

until I had made a boxy

red and white lanyard for my mother.

 

She gave me life and milk from her breasts,

and I gave her a lanyard.

She nursed me in many a sickroom,

lifted teaspoons of medicine to my lips,

set cold face-cloths on my forehead,

and then led me out into the airy light

 

and taught me to walk and swim,

and I, in turn, presented her with a lanyard.

Here are thousands of meals, she said,

and here is clothing and a good education.

And here is your lanyard, I replied,

which I made with a little help from a counselor.

 

Here is a breathing body and a beating heart,

strong legs, bones and teeth,

and two clear eyes to read the world, she whispered,

and here, I said, is the lanyard I made at camp.

And here, I wish to say to her now,

is a smaller gift--not the archaic truth

 

that you can never repay your mother,

but the rueful admission that when she took

the two-tone lanyard from my hands,

I was as sure as a boy could be

that this useless, worthless thing I wove

out of boredom would be enough to make us even.

 

Billy Collins was U.S. Poet Laureate from 2001 through 2003. He's been the New York State Poet Laureate since January 2004.

 

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

The Soft Yielding Earth

 

I often mused upon

the many sides of the

Dodecahedron

but

only once did I

think on the angles of

the

Polygon

yet it took

twelve more tries

before I arrived

with enough for the

Dodecagon.

 

from Poetic Moments around the Midnight Hour

by

FB

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

aka, as the boondoggle

[Aquila calva 10]

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/boondoggle

 

 

boondoggle (b n d g l, -d g l) Informal

n.

1. An unnecessary or wasteful project or activity.

2.

a. A braided leather cord worn as a decoration especially by Boy Scouts.

b. A cord of braided leather, fabric, or plastic strips made by a child as a project to keep busy.

intr.v. boondoggled, boondoggling, boondoggles

To waste time or money on a boondoggle.

 

[Coined by Robert H. Link (died 1957), American scoutmaster.]

 

 

lanyard also laniard (l n y rd)

n.

1. Nautical A short rope or gasket used for fastening something or securing rigging.

2. A cord worn around the neck for carrying something, such as a knife or whistle.

3. A cord with a hook at one end used to fire a cannon.

 

[Perhaps alteration (influenced by yard1, spar) of Middle English lainere, strap, from Old French laniere, from lasne, perhaps alteration (influenced by las, string) of *nasle, lace, of Germanic origin.]

 

 

[Fuzzy Bear 12]

"that you can never repay your mother,

but the rueful admission that when she took

the two-tone lanyard from my hands,

I was as sure as a boy could be

that this useless, worthless thing I wove

out of boredom would be enough to make us even."

 

boondoggle