crowded street – dverse
All those people
And still the world remains
A lonely place
Sometimes the hunger
Just to be seen surpasses
All other need
The Bushmen of Africa
Would welcome strangers shouting
“I see you, I see you”
But strolling the avenue
Where eyes must never meet
Leaves a smile wasted
Eden must have been
A better place
For everyone was needed
bwfiction 
An eloquent and honest piece of work. Especially loved the last two verses. It leaves an impact on the reader (me) long after its been read. Beautiful penning!
I think that the best compliment a poet can get is that the poem touch another. 🙂
thoughtful…..!!
thanks, sunny day
This made me think of the homeless and how we walk by without looking at them…the hungry in our own country.
Nice write.
thanks – they’re all over, people without a tribe.
I don’t much care for crowded streets…it’s a double-edged sword…I fear being noticed as much as I fear not being noticed…I’m sure I mis many a smiles. very nicely written.
…and Eden had fruit! 😎
in the fruit course, veritas 🙂
i think that is the biggest loneliness…if you’re in a crowd of people and there is no connection… that is tough
yes – a friendly face can be very important.
As much as we all seem to be both fascinated & repelled by our technology, still it does provide us with a place to be seen; in our case the dVerse Pub, a microcosm of poets, a pod–and several times a week we reach out to each other, to strangers, to visitors who say nothing but smile at our rants, smiles, jeers, cajoling–& we should be grateful (I certainly am) that we can say, ” I see you” & really mean it.
Me too, Dverse is a good tribe to belong to.
I agree!
“I see you” what a wonderful greeting, that seems to have touched something in fellow readers. I also like the idea that paradise requires that people need each other.
Interesting commentary and one that we all talk about in real life. The terrible thing …it’s not going away and will only get increasingly worse. It does not forebode well for the future.
Yes, I think in increasingly dense population areas tribalism is reinforced by the isolation of the masses
Today, many of us seem to shrink from personal contact fearing the time required to initiate and then sustain a resulting relationship. A well-written, but sad, commentary on our current life styles, Bill. (I like the “I see you” greeting–says so much.)
Thanks VB, I think “I see you” is the ultimate acknowledgement of a person.
We all do have the need to be seen, I think…..and more so than out of the corner of another’s eye. Something for us all to remember, I think, as we walk the trail of life. A smile and a word of greeting sometimes means so much!
We often feel the loneliest in large groups..some prefer that, though, the autonomy it offers.. there is no commitment to meet anyone… if one doesn’t want to..can be unhealthy 😉
Wanting to connect is a natural thing. But it is not convenient to pick someone to talk to from a crowd. The cell phone is a savior. One is not short of having another to communicate with. Wonderful write bill!
Hank
And we spend all our energy not seeing people here.. a few thrive at being invisible.. but most of us has replaced the: “I see you” with pressing the thumbs up on face-book .. amazing to see the sub-way nowadays .. everyone looking into that screen they carry.. It seems to be the true purpose with it — to hide (and to be seen somewhere else).
Such a sad and poignant poem about the anonymity of our cities and days? I remember being on holiday in my grandmother’s village as a child with my cousins and everybody knew us, she could let us roam all over the place.
OH.. lord.. i hope i’m not repeating the story.. but oh goodness.. the tribe is too big.. and eyes are too many for what is evolved.. until now…
And it takes a hurricane.. the size of Ivan.. to bring the eyes of my neighbors and i and food sharing together 2.. i remember that hurricane.. and loved it true.. for the connection that a lack of electricity and scarce food brings back to me then….
But brave enough to dance everywhere i go now..
everyone is a friend.. well most everyone..;)
as i only have to say things with my body..
to get a response back..
in the nonverbal language of emotion.. that does ring…
skin deep..:)
yeah… reminds me of how (almost) everyone walks around with their heads buried in cell phones… Life was much more interesting before the smart phone craze and random people were more willing to connect, say hi, etc. etc.
If I don’t see you, you can’t exist.
i think in some way we all want to be seen…
maybe even known a bit…life is full of too many passing
acquaintances…which of course the wind blows on
soon enough cause they lack depth…
We do everything ourselves, or hire others, and there is no space to help one another. Friendship arises out of helping.
Poignant and thoughtfully stated. “I see you!”
Thank you, when I was reading about the Bushmen of the Kalahari from Laurens Van Der Post – and I read about that small people who use that greeting – it really touched me that here was a greeting that touched a person.
Van Der Post, now a bit disgraced, had a love for the land and conservation which are his true legacy. I think the book was “The Lost World of the Kalahari”
If you have young children or grand children, they might like you to read his “A Story Like the Wind”, I know my kids enjoyed it when we read it aloud.