Find the Meaning

Meaning by Carl Dennis If a life needn't be useful to be meaningful,  Then maybe a life of sunbathing on a beach  Can be thought of as meaningful for at least a few,  The few, say, who view the sun as a god  And consider basking a form of worship.  As for those devoted to partnership with a surfboard  Or a pair of ice skates or a bag of golf clubs,  Though I can't argue their lives are useful,  I'd be reluctant to claim they have no meaning  Even if no one observes their display of mastery.  No one is listening to the librarian  I can call to mind as she practices, after work,  In her flat on Hoover Street, the viola da gamba  In the one hour of day that for her is golden.  So what if she'll never be good enough  To give a concert people will pay to hear?  When I need to think of her with an audience,  I can imagine the ghosts of composers dead for centuries, Pleased to hear her doing her best with their music.  And isn't it pleasing, as we walk at dusk to our cars  Parked on Hoover Street, after a meeting  On saving a shuttered hotel from the wrecking ball,  To catch the sound of someone filling a room  We won't be visiting with a haunting solo?  And then the gifts we receive by imagining  How down at the beach today surfers made sure  The big waves we weren't there to appreciate  Didn't go begging for attention.  And think of the sunlight we failed to welcome,  How others stepped forward to take it in.

Carl Dennis questions what it means to make a contribution by exploring different notions. He wants to believe that despite appearances everyone in the poem has a part to play. 

Watch simple situations, scenes and human interactions today that provide meaning.

Let them connect to develop a story or poem.