I have been writing poetry over the last few weeks based answers to a Facebook status I posted which asked, "What inspires you?". What I have written so far includes topics such as a gold tooth, husbands,Diet Mountain Dew, "ugly men with hot chicks", children, and poor people who dont complain. Initially I had planned on writing a poem for each response received in reverse order and I have been dreading one response and I didn't really know how to write about it. Tom said that Thomas Paine, and Walt Whitman inspred him and yes I know who they are and am "somewhat" familiar with the history of each. I even did a little googling to inspire some grandiose poetic masterpiece to honor such brilliant men. I have thus decided that I will, with much remorse, have to bow out of writing poetry that will not be able to give these men the credit they deserve.
Despite being an English major in college I am embarrassingly much to ignorant of the lives they led to be able to give them their due credit. I thought about writing about a passion of Thomas Paine's which as many may or may not know is independence, written about in "Common Sense" during the revolutionary war, but I have not yet decided whether this will happen or not.
Walt Whitman is a poetic genius and I would be insulting his mere existence to write poetry about a man that has given us such great works such as "Leaves of Grass" and "O Captain! My Captain!" the last of which many people have only been exposed to by watching "Dead Poet's Society".
So please forgive me for this unexcusable failure for carrying out my plan. I give full credit to Tom for providing me with a topic that I am not able to write about without feeling like a complete idiot to anyone that is familiar with the works of these men. On the other hand so few people would be familiar enough these men to be able to appreciate any poetry that I may attempt writing to give them proper respect.
I'll return another day to subject you to a mediocre attempt of my interpretation of poetry.
I have a memory from Junior High. I was about thirteen or fourteen. My English teacher at the time...her name escapes me right now...asked as an extra curricular activity, to write an essay on which writer we thought had the most impact on our world. Any writer, any media or format. I of course had no intention of doing any activity that wasn't "required". I hated school and did as little as possible. I went home that night over dinner I picked up the newspaper. Back then the newspaper would print a quote every day right below the horoscope section in the comics, and that days caught my eye. It read:
ReplyDelete"My own mind is my own church."
Thomas Paine
This point in my life was very turbulent, as is every thirteen/fourteen year old's life. I was really questioning God and Church. See, I wasn't a catholic or a protestant or a jew. Many of my friends WERE however and my friends were forced into CCD class and the like. I noted it was always the MOST un-christian like families that put their kids through this wringer. My parents did nothing of the kind with me. No church. Sundays were spent watching the Red Sox or Patriots with my dad, or out running around. Of course my friends loved to pontificate how I was going to hell...along with my parents...and they were all going to get to go to heaven. Me=hellfire. Them=paradise. This of course scared me. When I read that quote, something in my head just went WOW. I quickly went to the old New England Shopping Center (I think that is what it was called) which was right where the Square One mall is today. I know most kids would have went to the library, but I was delivering newspapers, bussing tables, and still scoring a weekly allowance from my parents. I spent a fortune every week at the Walden Books that was located there. This particular day I picked up The Age of Reason and I believe a American History book that had a one page biography of Thomas Paine. Now the quote as printed in the paper was simply: "My own mind is my own church." In the book I purchased, The Age of Reason, I was able to read the entire passage. The context. It forever changed my life. It read:
"I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."
My mouth was agape. I read and re read and re read that passage over and over. I began at that moment to realize that I did not need the intersession of another man or woman into my spirtual life and put God's stamp on it. I could believe what I SUSPECTED about God. Or I could not believe at all! Suddenly I had an essay to write! I proceeded to write my one and only extra curricular assignment I ever wrote for any class in Junior High School! My teacher wrote "interesting" and gave me an A. Thomas Paine however became a hero to me, not only for what he wrote about American politics, but for what he wrote about religion. I was free. Free to think and act.
Dan,
ReplyDeleteI never knew you wanted to be a writer. Write, and keep at it. It won't be easy. I'm not a writer, but that's what I hear. Write about things in your life that you remember because you remember them for a reason.