The budding poet and his unique poem

A budding poet was very eager to become a great poet. He worked very, very hard on a poem contrasting his wonderful dreams with his stark reality. He spent hours and hours to get precisely the right words, the right metre and the right tone. Then he mailed his poem to a very prestigious magazine. The magazine specialised in modern poetry, and he was hoping that his latest and finest poem would be printed in that magazine.

Alas, in the middle of the night, the poet woke up and got the shock of his life. He came to realise that instead of sending in the poem, by mistake he had submitted his last grocery bill! It listed all the food he had bought from the grocery store; 2 pounds of cauliflower at $1.27/pound for $2,54; 1 pound of Swiss cheese for $4.97; 1 bag of chocolate chip cookies for $2.97 and so on! He was utterly horrified.

The budding poet went to the magazine editor with his poem in his hand. He pleaded, "Please, please, forgive me! Forgive me! I was not trying to insult you in the least. I did not mean to send my grocery bill to you. Now I have brought you my real poem. That was just a foolish mistake of mine."

The editor looked at the actual poem and said, "I am sorry. My magazine is only for modern poems. The poem you have brought with you today is quite nice, but it has such a common theme and such predictable metre and rhymes. But, my dear friend, the poetic masterpiece that you submitted to me by mail is ultra-modern. Never in all my life have I seen such an expressive poetic creation that perfectly captures the daily lives of countless millions of people! I have already submitted it for publication. Your poem will appear shortly. As I have never seen, read or heard another poem like yours, I immediately accepted it. Please accept my heartfelt pride in you and congratulations to you."

From:Sri Chinmoy,The tiny key in the asparagus soup, Agni Press, 2003
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