Lyr Req: The Indispensable Man (Saxon Uberuaga)

Subject: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 01:07 AM

I'm looking for the poem that goes

If you want to find out how much you'll be missed
... put your hand in a bucket of water up to the wrist...

Pull your hand out. The hole that's left is the amount you'll be missed.


I suspect it may have been set to music too

Robin

Robin

Subject: Lyr Add: THE INDISPENSABLE MAN
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 01:14 AM

Looks as though this might be the one:

THE INDISPENSABLE MAN

Sometime when you're feeling important,
Sometime when your ego's in bloom,
Sometimes when you take it for granted
You're the best qualified in the room.

Sometimes when you feel that your going
Would leave an unfillable hole,
Just follow these simple instructions
And see how they humble your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,
Put your hand in it up to your wrist,
Pull it out and the hole that's remaining
Is a measure of how you'll be missed.

You can splash all you wish when you enter,
You may stir up the water galore,
But stop, and you'll find that in no time
It looks quiet the same as before.

The moral in this quaint example
Is do just the best that you can,
Be proud of yourself, but remember---
There's no indispensable man.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 01:19 AM

Woof!

That was quick!

Thanks!

Robin


who now is amenable to having this thread thrown open to the normal sort humourous blathering thread creep that goes on...

:-)

Is a Thread Creep a nasty poster?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 01:21 AM

Sorry, we haven't finished...

So who wrote it and when?

Robin

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: katlaughing
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 04:59 PM

My goodness, demanding aren't we? **Big Grin**

Best I've found is "Author Unknown," though there was a reference on one board, where someone else was looking for the same info, to Auden's As I walked out one evening which does have a similar verse:

'O plunge your hands in water,
   Plunge them in up to the wrist;
Stare, stare in the basin
   And wonder what you've missed.

but the rest of the poem is unlike the one above.

So, let's hear it for good ol' Anon-ee-mouse!LOL

kat

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 06:08 PM

Never heard it in this form, but the suggestion that a good way to see how irreplaceable you are is to stick your face in a bowl of water, I've heard that often enough.

Goes in my moind alongside the suggestioin that, if you think you are tired of living, just try to stop breathing, and see what your body feels about that. And who are you to overule your body in such mnatters?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: Barbara
Date: 26 Sep 03 - 08:25 PM

Consider the frog,
Secure in his bog
In rain and stormy weather;
Well, the girl/boy you kissed
Will soon be missed,
But a frog is a friend forever.

Not sure who wrote this one either.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 18 May 17 - 04:54 AM

Appleseeds has it dated as 1959
http://www.appleseeds.org/indispen-man_saxon.htm

©1959 used with author's permission


"Indispensable Man" was originally published in "The Nutmegger Poetry Club under the name Saxon Uberuaga. It has also been published in "Boots" in Spring 1993, in "The Country Courier" 1996, "Rhyme Time" in Winter 2000, and in "Golden Times" in August 2003.

Saxon White Kessinger is a member (and past president) of Gem State Writers' League and a member of Idaho Writers' League. She is an award winning writer, receiving Idaho Writers' League "2003 Lifetime Achievement Award," "Writer of the Year" in 1992, 1995, and 2002 and "Poet of the Year" in 1999 and 2000 from her Idaho State Leagues. She has published various poetry offerings and many articles in various newspapers and magazines. "
Saxon White Kessinger died in 2010
http://lmtribune.com/obituaries/article_0ac3e9c3-7884-5315-880c-b8a73a0beb27.html

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Poem about being missed
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 20 May 17 - 04:25 PM

Here's a source from a periodical called Power, volume 98, 1954.

Here's another: Atlantic Coast Line News, Volumes 37-38, 1956.

Unfortunately, these are under copyright, so only a snippet is viewable.