Poetry Corner Thursday

Why We Tell Stories

by Lisel Mueller

I
Because we used to have leaves
and on damp day
sour muscles feel a tug,
painful now, from when roots
pulled us into the ground
and because our children believe
they can fly, an instinct retained
from when the bones in our arms
were shaped like zithers and broke
neatly under their feathers
and because before we had lungs
we knew how far it was to the bottom
as we floated open-eyed
like painted scarves through the scenery
of dreams, and because we awakened
and learned to speak

2
We sat by the fire in our caves,
and because we were poor, we made up a tale
about a treasure mountain
that would open only for us
and because we were always defeated,
we invented impossible riddles only we could solve,
monsters only we could kill,
women who could love no one else
and because we had survived
sisters and brothers, daughters and sons,
we discovered bones that rose
from the dark earth and sang
as white birds in the trees

3
Because the story of our life becomes our life
Because each of us tells
the same story
but tells it differently
and none of us tells it
the same way twice
Because grandmothers looking like spiders
want to enchant the children
and grandfathers need to convince us
what happened happened because of them
and though we listen only
haphazardly, with one ear,
we will begin our story
with the word and

I like how she says that its a natural instict for children to think they can fly. I certainly did when I was a child. I heartily believed that one night Peter would knock on my window and I would float out into the night air with him.
And what a beautiful image of sinking in water, holding your breath. The deep end of the pool was such a scary place and then one day you would get the nerve enough to sink to the bottom of it, and stay down there as long as you could, listening to the deafening quiet.
And in the second stanza, I believe she is saying that stories help us survive... Yes? Can you imagine your life without the story of the Good Samaritan? Or Cinderella? Or the story of Frodo's journey? I myself would be lost.
Lastly, I think I will begin a story with the word "And." How intriguing. Our stories aren't THE beginning. We are entering the Story, so it makes since that our own stories should begin with the "and."