Passau Poet

If Goethe had had to prepare supper, salt the dumplings;
If Schiller had had to wash the dishes;
If Heine had had to mend what he had torn, to clean the rooms, kill the bugs,
Of the menfolk, none of them would have become great poets. 

       - Emerenz Meier, Bavarian Folk Poet

I took this photo, in Passau, Germany, of the bust of one of Bavaria's greatest poets, Emerenz Meier.  She was also an inn keepers daughter and she was also - as you can see when you read this poem - really frustrated.

I can relate.

I was frustrated and worn out much of my life.  Somebody always needed me.  That's not all bad, but it's hard when all you want to do some days is read and write.  Following is a poem I wrote in the 1970s that pretty much says it all:

I was finally able to meet
The eminent psychiatrist,

Me in Passau on October 28th.
I now have all the time in the world.

Everyone had been talking 
      about.

He shook my hand,
And,
(As I was trying to think of 
     something intelligent to say)             
He said, 
"I've read about your husband
     in the papers,
He's quite a guy."

And I said,
"Oh yeah,
Well, I think they should put this
In the headlines."

CECILY CROSSMAN DID 18 LOADS OF
     WASH THIS WEEK!

Now why did I say that?


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