In The Waiting Room Comments

i liked it. bri ;) not too funny though.

Smart writing giving vivid image of the happenings.I enjoyed it, thanks for sharing.

it was winter. It was dark - i like these two information. both are important. cold and dark outside, artificial (early XX century) light inside; that rules the ambient.

Since Bishop was born in 1911, one can safely assume that she was recalling an existential moment when she was 7 years of age in 1918. What a spellbinding poem this is! She has achieved something I never imagined a poem could do, which is to transport us back in time and place to see reality as it really was through the eyes and mind of a small child with such concentrated detail and power.

joys and sorrows interwoven in human life. An inspiring piece of writing

this poem is a timeless beauty for so many reasons. The struggle we all go though for identity marking it certifiable through the years. But you travel into the poem, it is not 1918 but 2008 and the colors taste just the same on paper. We all have sat in dentist office, asked questions that lead to more, and we are all confronted by National Geographic of Big Breasted women with ashen skin who remind us that underneath it all we are all HUMAN, so what does it all mean, that land of I-We underneath the skin. Stunning really.

gosh! got me. I'm always pondering the mystery of me being an I, as opposed to anything else and suddenly becoming something else if I'm evil. evil yes, evil makes me into what I'm not. truly a masterpiece from the heart of a master who is an I

One of Bishop's handful of masterpieces