Aasof’s Reflections

A speech I came across written by a Jon Skeet and submitted as an entry for the Hooper Declamation Prize, begins:

In writing the phrase, “I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother Me,” I feel A. A. Milne summed up his whole world view as seen through the ideas of Pooh Bear. However, only in the context of the rest of his slightly paranoid but nonetheless beautiful parody of our world does it achieve its full potency.

I’m an aficionado of Pooh Bear and reading a comment on the now defunct My Telegraph blog site implying that a fellow contributor was ‘navel gazing’, prompted me to write the following:

Navel Gazing

Some of those who travel,
See each day their lives unravel,
Who life cannot surprise,
Dull is the mind, blind are the eyes.

Some now nearing journeys end,
See life only as a friend,
Who time is now making able
Contemplation of their navel.

Travel is an allusion to The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost, which led me to the following (having read The Most Misread Poem in America):

More Navel Gazing

Some who choose that road less travelled,
See at each bend plans unravelled.
So seeking succour from life’s game,
Censure all to ease their pain.

Some stride that road and at each bend,
See life embrace them as a friend,
So settle sweetly in its arms,
Cede the mind to thought that balms.