Patrick Ramsay

I’d rather be influenced

to send more postcards.
To kiss with more tongue
and let cantaloupe juice
run all the way down
to my elbows. I’d rather
be influenced to cook
more quiche and make cold brew
at home. To wake up early and stay
in bed. To be better at remembering
my friends’ birthdays.
To vote early. I want an algorithm
that worships heirloom tomatoes.
The sound of that one summer
cricket outside my window.
Peach sorbet with tiny spoons.
The way the mountains go copper at dusk.
The chatter of your dog laughing
in a dream across the room.

Reprinted with permission.

Read poems by Patrick Ramsay in Butterflies are Rare in Beehives, available for purchase online.

Directed at the so-called “influencers” and advertisers online who vie for our attention, this poem rejects such marketing manipulation. Instead, Patrick Ramsay says he would rather be influenced to “send more postcards./To kiss with more tongue . . . and make cold brew at home.” It’s no accident that his list of preferences often revolve around physicality and a swift return to the body. After so many hours spent facing a screen, most of us desperately crave contact with the real world again. Yet by detailing so many of the things he truly values, an intimate portrait of this speaker emerges that’s far more personal than anything we might glean from a social media post. When algorithms track our every move and purchase online, and help to determine so many of our choices, a poem like this comes as a balm. It asks nothing of us except that we approach our daily lives with more mindfulness and delight. We can almost taste those heirloom tomatoes and that peach sorbet, and can nearly feel the cantaloupe juice running “all the way down” our own elbows. Because there’s already so much abundance in the world around us, especially in summer, this poem asks: why would we ever allow our attention to be pulled away from the physical, tangible things in life that bring us so much joy?

Invitation for Writing & Reflection: Reading this poem, you might be “influenced” to consider the things you most value in your own life. Write out a list of your own personal delights that you’d rather be “influenced” to savor.

Patrick Ramsay Headshot

ABOUT THE POET: Patrick Ramsay

Patrick Ramsay (he/him) is a queer Utah-based poet who was raised in and along the wetlands of the Great Salt Lake. He earned his B.A. in English–creative writing at Weber State University, where he served as Editor-in-Chief of Metaphor Literary Journal. His poems have appeared in Halophyte Magazine, LQ Magazine, QSaltLake, The Signpost, Sink Hollow, and The Standard Examiner. You can find more of Patrick’s work in his debut poetry collection, Butterflies are Rare in Beehives”or on Instagram @writepatrick.

POETRY SELECTION AND COMMENTARY BY JAMES CREWS

James Crews is the author of four collections of poetry: The Book of What Stays, Telling My Father, Bluebird, and Every Waking Moment. He is also the editor of two anthologies: Healing the Divide: Poems of Kindness and Connection and How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope. His poems have appeared in Ploughshares, The New Republic, The New York Times Magazine, The Sun, and have been reprinted in Ted Kooser’s American Life in Poetry and featured on Tracy K. Smith’s podcast, The Slowdown. James teaches at SUNY-Albany and lives with his husband in Vermont.

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