Balloons

Now this one was fun! It's dreary January and people are fast giving up on their resolutions and feeling pretty miserable in general. I thought I'd cheer a couple of people up my writing them a poem on a balloon and attaching it to their cars/bikes/ front gates. I hope a few people were suitably bemused and pleased with their finds. I think the idea of people 'finding' the poems themselves will give them more of an impact than if they just see them in a public place where they are sort of the property of no one and everyone at the same time. I think you would be more likely to react to a poem on a balloon attached to your car than to something you just saw in the street. I wanted to go spy on people to see their reactions but I had things to do. I also think I made a bit of a fool out of myself. I saw a really nice bike and I was walking towards it while simultaneously blowing up a balloon (I had already got a lot of funny looks from people for doing that), when I tripped up and the balloon popped in my face. I must have looked a bit shocked and upset because a man came over to ask if I was ok. He asked what on earth I was doing blowing up a balloon while crossing the street. The only response I could give was "I'm an art student." I wonder how many times we've all had to use that excuse!

The full poem:

John Dryden - Happy the Man

Happy the man, and happy he alone,

He who can call today his own:

He who, secure within, can say, 

Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.

Be fair or foul or rain or shine

The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.

Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,

But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.