Free of Past

The past is a climb,
And dirt comes for us all.
But a new mountain is here.
Grok must heed call.

Copyright © 2022 Abigail Gronway – All Rights Reserved

About this poem:

Not long ago my children and I were playing a game called Poetry for Neanderthals. Like Taboo, you have to try to get your teammates to guess a word or phrase based on verbal clues. The catch is that you may only use 1-syllable words in your hints.

When the game is over, points are tallied to determine the winner, then players have the option to select a Grok card, just for the fun of it. Each Grok’s Card contains a short mad-lib poem, meaning that three words have been left out, and you may fill in those blanks with any three words or phrases from the cards you ended up with at the end of the game.

Most of the time the result is nonsensical and funny, but this time my daughter’s mad-lib poem actually seemed to have some substance to it. She added the words “climb,” “dirt,” and “mountain” to get the poem you read above.

l.1: “The past is a climb…” Life as a whole is a string of challenges. As you look back on your life, it does seem as though all you have done is climb to get where you are now.

l.2: “And dirt comes for us all.” Wow! I was particularly intrigued with this line. To me, it speaks of the inevitability of death. You know, ashes to ashes and dust to dust….

ll.3-4: “But a new mountain is here. Grok must heed call.” This mountain could mean that Grok has more of life to experience before he faces death, or perhaps it refers to life after death.

Yes, I’m overthinking it, for this was only a random collection of words thrown into a nonsense poem. But am I really?

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Are you interested in learning more about this game or purchasing a copy for yourself? Check it out at the link below or go to your local department store.

Poetry for Neanderthals, Copyright ©2015-2022 Exploding Kittens Inc.