While I am still in the middle of cultivating the voyeur in all of us by taking readers on a tour of the workspaces of authors and illustrators I know, I thought I should find a poem that would keep me in the mood that I am in: appreciating mess. And so I found this gem from Light in the Attic:
Messy Room
by Shel Silverstein
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
His underwear is hanging on the lamp.
His raincoat is there in the overstuffed chair,
And the chair is becoming quite mucky and damp.
His workbook is wedged in the window,
His sweater's been thrown on the floor.
His scarf and one ski are beneath the TV,
And his pants have been carelessly hung on the door.
His books are all jammed in the closet,
His vest has been left in the hall.
A lizard named Ed is asleep in his bed,
And his smelly old sock has been stuck to the wall.
Whosever room this is should be ashamed!
Donald or Robert or Willie or--
Huh? You say it's mine? Oh, dear,
I knew it looked familiar!
My favorite part of the poem above is, of course, the sock stuck to the wall. Been there, done that.
I still need to post my own snapshots of my messy work space.
I am actually trying to let it ripen a bit. My husband came in and cleaned the damn thing up! He does that every once in a while because he actually likes--horrors!-- to straighten up. But in the meantime, here is a blog post referring to a NY Times article about the value of mess, which includes a picture of my diningroom table in it's usual state of affairs.
This poem could describe my house right about now. Gotta love Shel! Thanks!
Posted by: Vivian | May 25, 2007 at 11:42 AM
Hi, Vivian! Yeah, this pretty much describes my house at any given time, but especially my studio. It also paints the picture of my two older sons' rooms, 21 and 17.....eeewwww.
Thanks for stopping by-- I think the best thing about blogging, is discovering blogs that need to be checked out. Now I know about yours and will add it to my blog roll.
Posted by: Barbara Johansen Newman | May 25, 2007 at 01:04 PM
You may be interested in taking a tour of my equally messy but far more colorful creative room, in which I both write and create my fabric art! The photo album is somewhat hidden. Go to the RindaWay Quilts page and click on the large stained glass quilt graphic. It's okay to be messy in the creative room, it's okay, it's okay!
Posted by: Rinda M. Byers | May 28, 2007 at 09:10 PM
You may be interested in taking a tour of my equally messy but far more colorful creative room, in which I both write and create my fabric art! The photo album is somewhat hidden. Go to the RindaWay Quilts page and click on the large stained glass quilt graphic. It's okay to be messy in the creative room, it's okay, it's okay!
Posted by: Rinda M. Byers | May 28, 2007 at 09:10 PM
I don't know if you participate in memes--but I'm tagging you just in case. You can check out the directions at "Check It Out".
Posted by: Jone | May 30, 2007 at 12:22 AM