NOWHERE IS SOMEWHERE

"Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere." ~ Carl Sagan

Being a lover of words and a fan of the ridiculous, when those two worlds collide I am inordinately happy. Being a writer, I am always on the lookout for inspiration. Inspiration can come from anywhere. The strangest things spark my imagination.

Today’s poem began as a tiny pebble tumbling through my mind, kind of like a rock in one of those polishing gizmos. It began when I stumbled across the inane fact that there is a town in Caddo County, Oklahoma called Nowhere. Should you ever decide to visit there, you must go to the general store, which is named after the town. The folks there are only too eager to let you know that you’ve officially arrived Nowhere.

The fact that there is an actual Nowhere bothers me. If there is a Nowhere located somewhere, ipso facto it isn’t nowhere. Today’s poem is a bit about that.

NOWHERE IS SOMEWHERE

Nowhere is not a place.
When you are in a slump,
in a lull in life where you do not want to be,
you may say you’re “going nowhere,”
but that isn’t something you can do.
Even when you’re standing still,
going nowhere is not a choice
because even if you’re going nowhere,
you are in a place.

Nowhere is not like nothing.
It is possible to have nothing,
unless you have even one thing,
anything,
because anything is something,
and if you have anything,
the state of nothing goes away.

But nowhere is not a place, and
even if you name it Nowhere,
it is still a somewhere space.