“When we step into the family, by the act of being born, we do step into a world which is incalculable, into a world which has its own strange laws, into a world which could do without us, into a world we have not made. In other words, when we step into the family we step into a fairy-tale.”
Motorbike mechanic by ~redmaz on deviantART
Filling Station by Elizabeth Bishop
Oh, but it is dirty!
--this little filling station,
oil-soaked, oil-permeated
to a disturbing, over-all
black translucency.
Be careful with that match!
Father wears a dirty,
oil-soaked monkey suit
that cuts him under the arms,
and several quick and saucy
and greasy sons assist him
(it's a family filling station),
all quite thoroughly dirty.
Do they live in the station?
It has a cement porch
behind the pumps, and on it
a set of crushed and grease-
impregnated wickerwork;
on the wicker sofa
a dirty dog, quite comfy.
Some comic books provide
the only note of color--
of certain color. They lie
upon a big dim doily
draping a taboret
(part of the set), beside
a big hirsute begonia.
Why the extraneous plant?
Why the taboret?
Why, oh why, the doily?
(Embroidered in daisy stitch
with marguerites, I think,
and heavy with gray crochet.)
Somebody embroidered the doily.
Somebody waters the plant,
or oils it, maybe. Somebody
arranges the rows of cans
so that they softly say:
ESSO--SO--SO--SO
to high-strung automobiles.
Somebody loves us all.
poem taken from: http://100.best-poems.net/filling-station.html
Elisabeth Bishop was an American poet and short story writer. One of her many literary achievements was the Pullitzer prize.
Alfred Corn, writing in the 1977 Georgia Review, describes her work Geography III in a way that could apply to all Bishop's work. He praises
a perfected transparence of expression, warmth of tone, and a singular blend of sadness and good humor, of pain and acceptance--a radiant patience few people ever achieve and few writers ever successfully render. The poems are works of philosophic beauty and calm, illuminated by that "laughter in the soul" that belongs to the best part of the comic genius.A little personal note:
I was thinking hard before deciding to post this poem. You know, the author was a lesbian, how does that work towards promoting family? However, she managed to capture a very life-like vision of the family in this poem. Even though the mother is not there in the filthy filling station, she is there in the life of the boys and the father.
Elisabeth's life was not so fortunate. Her father died when she was a child. Consequently, her mother suffered from mental ilness to the point of being hospitalized and so little Elisabeth was tossed to and fro by her more distant relatives since age five. Later she chose to protect her privacy in her work even when dealing with these memories.
For more about her life: http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/poets/a_f/bishop/about.htm
The poem Filling Station clearly shows to me that the family is not just the father with his sons. There is also the mother who provides womanly touch and loves all her boys. Maybe she sits at home sipping a cup of tea and stitches another little thing for her darlings. I like the poem very much. It seems to me almost Dickens or Chesterton like with its vivid imagery and subtle climax.
Let me know what you think in the comments:)
