537

Rummaging around in the deeper, darker recesses of my cwchdanstar is proving more and more revealing as each day passes.  It's also increasing my rate of melancholy sentiment and nostalgia.  This morning, hidden underneath an immensely long and colourful Dr Who scarf and a really ‘cool’ denim jacket I haven’t worn for over 35 years, I unearthed a book that, almost unimaginable years ago, was very precious to me indeed but whose beauty and significance had faded as the years have come and gone; that’s the passage of time, and advancing sourdough maturity, for you.

But, through all my changes of residence, jobs, relationships and tastes, it’s been there at the bottom of the box, waiting for its moment to re-emerge and re-assert its sheer wonderfulness.

I’m so glad that, through all the ups and downs in my life, I never threw it away.  And now I know that I never will.

It’s called Grooks and it was written (and drawn) by a Dane called Piet Hein who, in one lifetime, contrived to be a scientist, mathematician, Danish Resistance fighter, inventor and designer.  He entered my life, however, as an author.  A poet.  The man who composed grooks - hundreds of them.

So what, I hear you ask, are grooks?

Well...

They are short, rhymed epigrams - and much, much more.  They are pithy, pertinent, witty and wise.  They are gentle and kind.  Rather than slap you in the face in an ‘aren’t I clever to have thought of this‘ kind of way, they tap you softly on the shoulder and smile with you.

I could go on.  But by far the best way for me to explain what a grook is is to show you some, in the hope that they will affect you in the same way they affected me all those years ago - and endear you to the remarkable Mr Hein...

THE FINAL STEP
If they made diving boards
    six inches shorter -
think how much sooner
    you’d be in the water.

THOUGHTS ON A STATION PLATFORM
It ought to be plain
how little you gain
by getting excited
    and vexed.
You’ll always be late
for the previous train,
and always in time
    for the next.

THE WISDOM OF THE SPHERES
How instructive
    is a star!
It can teach us
    from afar
just how small
    each other are.

SMALL THINGS AND GREAT
He that lets
the small things bind him
leaves the great
undone behind him.

TIMING TOAST
There’s an art of knowing when.
    Never try to guess.
Toast until it smokes and then
    Twenty seconds less.
 
STONE IN SHOE
If a nasty jagged stone
gets into your shoe,
thank the Lord it came alone -
what if there were two?

THE UNATTAINABLE IDEAL
We ought to live
    each day as though
it were our last day
    here below.
But if i did, alas,
    i know
it would have killed me
    long ago.

And here are my two favourites...

WHAT PEOPLE MAY THINK
Some people cower
    and wince and shrink,
owing to fear of
    what people may think.
There is one answer
    to worries like these:
people may think
    what the devil they please. 

WHAT LOVE IS LIKE
Love is like
a pineapple,
sweet and
undefinable.

I hope you liked them.

* * *

* * *

CONTACT ME
Post comments on this blog or email me:  truckshunters@googlemail.com