What is there in a smile?

The Glare, Bicycle Rickshaw Passenger, Chandni Chowk, Old Delhi, India

I saw your smile
He said
I wanted to meet
The man with such a smile
Said the stranger
Asking for a selfie of us

Shortly after
He paid for my lunch
And we talked
Of countries and cultures
Of love and religion
And politics and travel and life
Then we parted
Never to cross paths again
But two worlds a little richer
For the single crossing

Later, I straddled the median
Of Chandni Chowk Road
Photographing the east bound traffic
Faces in the crowd
Of multitudinous faces
And every one different
In appearance
In countenance
In presence

Only months later
Would I put together
The differences
And their effects

I remember the moments
I photographed the smiles
The engaging eyes
But lost utterly to memory
The moments
I photographed the scowls
The disengaged minds

Which brings a thought to mind
I choose my path
I choose my fate
I choose my friends
I choose my world
Consciously or unconsciously
With something so simple
As opting between
A smile and a scowl

The Scowl
Chandni Chowk Road
Chandni Chowk
Old Delhi, India

Taken during travels, 2017

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1

Manisha Sareen on Dec 30, 2017 at 9:10 am
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Hi Patrick this is truly amazing. The creativity with which you depict your experiences are truly very meaningful.
What got you interested in poetry?
Thank you for sharing!

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- 2
  
  Patrick Jennings on Dec 30, 2017 at 10:17 am
  Reply
  
  Oh, thank you so much, Manisha. =)
  
  <smile> Before starting this blog, I would have called myself a writer who wrote the occasional poem. Something about this format of using photographs for inspirational prompts brought out the poet … in spades.
  
  People have long been telling me that much of my prose reads like poetry. I realize this is because I’m almost always conscious of the way words sound when I’m arranging them, and I make choices about their arrangement based on this.
  
  I’m also fascinated by the way different word arrangements affect the meanings of the sentences, phrases and even the words themselves. I love finding interesting ways to arrange words to express an observation.
  
  All these … traits … make for a poetic expression, so I guess the most direct answer to your question is, I kinda stumbled into it, though in quite a natural progression.
  
  There’s another element, the process of writing, and the more I talk with other poets and writers, the more I realize most of us share a similarity in our process. We tend to write with a quiet mind, words fed to us by what some might call ‘an inner voice’ or ‘muse’. We tend to engage our intellectual, rational mind actively only — or primarily — in the editing process, after we’ve already set down a complete first draft.
  
  This is especially true with my poems, and I tend to be most satisfied with the result when my active mind is least involved in the process. The more I relax my consciousness and allow something deeper — something, I suspect, beyond even my unconscious — to speak, the more poetically the words come.
  
  So, literally, I look at the photographs and listen for the words, which almost always arise, and set them down until they sound ‘right’ to the inner voice.
  
  The most difficult part of becoming a poet, I think, was learning to quiet my mind and listen, patiently, for the words.
  
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  - 3
    
    Manisha Sareen on Jan 4, 2018 at 4:04 pm
    Reply
    
    Thank you so much for your response Patrick! Do you meditate as well?
    
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    - 4
      
      Patrick Jennings on Jan 5, 2018 at 12:05 am
      Reply
      
      You’re most welcome, Manisha.
      
      I’m a bit off my meditation practice these days, unfortunately. 😦 Though I do use meditative techniques frequently. For example, I often rely on breathing exercises to de-stress or get to sleep, essentially brief meditations lasting not more than a few minutes.
      
      I do really need to return to a fuller meditation practice, though.
      
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5

existenceartistique49 on Dec 30, 2017 at 11:48 am
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une apparence trompeuse parce qu’il ne sourit pas,car il est dans son monde,ailleurs vers un voyage sur ses pensées…et l’autre qui le conduit est prêt à le transporter vers ce monde d’hypocrisie où la beauté n’est pas que physique mais bien intérieure…

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- 6
  
  Patrick Jennings on Dec 30, 2017 at 12:53 pm
  Reply
  
  Absolutely true, and as least so far as google translate tells it, well said.
  
  The scowl or the smile, these often represent more than a facade or a manifest expression of inner being. But they are also ephemeral representations of an ephemeral state of being which may be conscious or unconscious, or some mix of both. They can also be intentional or unintended. As often as not, I suppose, the mask I wear at any one time hides as much about my inner being as it reveals.
  
  The poem is about the effect the masks I wear have on those who see me, those who interact with me, those who, themselves, can affect my life in the moment and the future. The smile mask tends to open doors, while the scowl mask tends to put up walls.
  
  Thank you, for this and all the other insights you’ve been sharing on this blog. =)
  
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7

Sushmita Gelda on Dec 31, 2017 at 2:22 am
Reply

I love the lines:
“And every one different
In appearance
In countenance
In presence”

They have beautiful rhythm – sounds very serene.

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- 8
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jan 1, 2018 at 4:51 pm
  Reply
  
  Mmmmm…. thank you, Sushmita. =)
  
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9

Fabs on Jan 23, 2018 at 2:37 am
Reply

Oh! love love love! Keep smiling:)

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- 10
  
  Patrick Jennings on Jan 23, 2018 at 7:51 am
  Reply
  
  <smile> Thank you! The world’s a little better wearing a smile. 😉
  
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