Happy March to All and Welcome to Poetics! Lisa here as your pub host, offerer/server of liquid refreshment and tasty snacks from the magic cupboard as well as provider of today’s Poetics prompt.

Hoping the weather is treating you well wherever you find yourself on the big turtle shell of this being we call home.

Around here, in Michigan, the sun is visiting the area more often. I can even see a spare splash of green at the feet of the dried detritus in the field out back. Walking to the mailbox this afternoon, I see the ditch water is sparkling in movement. Things are getting “lively” out there again. Soon children will be running on soccer (aka football) fields and hopscotching down sunny sidewalks. Non-human animals will be chasing each other around on the ground, in the sky, and in the water.

When we start getting out and about again it makes me think of playing and how vital play is in our lives. Playing is not just for kids and critters!

Help Guide has an excellent article on it, and I would encourage you to follow the link for more details. From the article, play for adults can:
–relieve stress
–improve brain function
–stimulate the mind and boost creativity
–improve relationships and your connection with others
–keep you feeling young and energetic

Not only that, it can:
–help develop and improve social skills
–teach cooperation with others

One we don’t often think of as a benefit of playing is that it can help heal emotional wounds.

With all of that going for it, why is it that playing seems to fall by the way as we become adults, and really drift off as we become older?

One of the best things about play is that it can be done any way and with any thing that we choose. I didn’t think of it before, but isn’t it interesting that those who make music are regarded as playing it?

Jeff Daniel Marion

Playing to the River
By Jeff Daniel Marion

She stands by the riverbank,
notes from her bagpipes lapping
across to us as we wait

for the traffic light to change.
She does not know we hear—
she is playing to the river,

a song for the water, the flow
of an unknown melody to the rocky
bluffs beyond, for the mist

that was this morning, shroud
of past lives: fishermen
and riverboat gamblers, tugboat captains

and log raftsmen, pioneer and native
slipping through the eddies of time.
She plays for them all, both dirge

and surging hymn, for what has passed
and is passing as we slip
into the currents of traffic,
the changed light bearing us away.

It is easy to think of the fun kind of games, but they can get complicated as we enter the world of cultural expectations and demand as adults.

Rabindranath Tagore

Playthings
By Rabindranath Tagore

Child, how happy you are sitting in the dust,
playing with a broken twig all the morning.
I smile at your play
with that little bit of a broken twig.
I am busy with my accounts,
adding up figures by the hour.
Perhaps you glance at me and think,
“What a stupid game to spoil your morning with!”
Child, I have forgotten the art of being
absorbed in sticks and mud-pies.
I seek out costly playthings,
and gather lumps of gold and silver.
With whatever you find you create your glad games,
I spend both my time and my strength
over things I never can obtain.
In my frail canoe I struggle to cross
the sea of desire,
and forget that I too am playing a game.

I would be remiss in not mentioning one of the favorite games adults like to play: the game of love.

Mathilde Blind

 

Once We Played
By Mathilde Blind (aka Claude Lake)

Once we played at love together—
Played it smartly, if you please;
Lightly, as a windblown feather,
Did we stake a heart apiece.

Oh, it was delicious fooling!
In the hottest of the game,
Without thought of future cooling,
All too quickly burned Life’s flame.

In this give-and-take of glances,
Kisses sweet as honey dews,
When we played with equal chances,
Did you win, or did I lose?

OK, dVersers, it is time to play. Play pat-a-cake with the cat. Draw chalk cartoons on the sidewalk. Flirt in your head with your fantasy lover. Be a Formula One race car driver. Go out and dance under the moon with the faeries. Choose any which way and have fun with it!

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Sources:
top image: collage by yours truly
Help Guide
photo of Jeff Daniel Marion
Playing to the River
photo of Rabindranath Tagore
Playthings
photo of Mathilde Blind
Once We Played