2 Apr 2011

A-Z Challenge: B is for Boredom


Today is the second day of the A-Z Blogging Challenge. I mentioned yesturday that I'm doing an A-Z of human emotions, feelings and mental states. I hope to post a mixture of poetry, stories, quotes, tips, observations, lists, book recommendations, interviews, traditional art, digital art and photography. I hope you'll stay with me for the ride.

Anyway, today is the letter B, and I have chosen to write about Boredom. I had to write this on my lunchbreak at work, and funnily enough I was feeling VERY inspired to write about this topic! I sat down and wrote enough poem (it won't be all poems I promise!). What do you think?



The Female Prufrock

The endless day limps by,
Dragging its feet lethargically
And pausing to slump at every
Opportunity, eyelids fighting sleep.
Every empty hour is torture-
Stretched out across the rack of time.
But I won't talk; there's no one to talk to.
Echoing corridoors, long silences
Broken only by the clock's listless ticking,
Not with the urgency of a wired bomb,
But slow and steady like a sleeper's heartbeat.
How I wish those hands would race
Around its wide and mocking face.
I should be relishing my own company
Having nothing to do but think
But my mind is numb and stodgy
Dragged down by creeping quicksand.
Sighs and yawns and glances at the clock
Can only fill the nothingness for so long,
Before I sink languidly...
Into
       the
              abyss.



Hope you liked it. I hate being bored, it's one of the feelings that I find hardest to cope with. I find it agonising having nothing to do. My Mum always says only boring people get bored, but I don't think that's true. Sometimes your imagination is killed off by the dull situation around you. You have to have some kind of stimulus for your mind or it stagnates-that's why it's so helpful for writers and other artists to get out of their usual setting and surround themselves by beautiful natural scenes and interesting people.

When I'm bored, here are some of the things I like to do:
  • Surf vaguely amusing websites such as Bored.com, Notalwaysright.com and damnyouautocorrect.
  • Read interesting blogs like Postsecret.
  • Do more pointless planning for my current WiP, convincing myself that I am actually working on it.
  • Doodle all over the nearest bit of paper without watching what I'm doing.
  • Chew those annoying bits of skin at the side of my nails
  • Sigh and puff a lot trying to get people's attention
  • Flick through mindless fashion magazines just looking at the pretty pictures
  • Snack on nearest foodstuff to hand
  • Moan a lot about how I have nothing to do (conveniently forgetting my long to-do list)
 What do you like to do when you're bored? Do you get bored easily or hardly ever? What situations do you find the most boring?

3 comments :

  1. Video games. Sandwiches. Internets. Might even try reading a book.

    Mood

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh lovely poem! Boredom is a killer. Though sometimes when I've having a particularly busy week, the moment I start feeling bored I actually enjoy it. (For about 5 minutes then get really bored, hah!_

    ReplyDelete
  3. I get bored when I can't write because I have something else I have to do. I also get bored in social situations where the conversation is intellectually unstimulating.

    Great post!

    ReplyDelete

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