First Poem

The first poem I remember writing was for a second-grade literature assignment.

An old man had walked past our playground during recess and I heard these words:

Old Man.

Just plain Old.

No place to go.

Nothing to do.

No one sees him.

Nobody loves him.

Excepting God.

My teacher called my effort mean-spirited (and made me redo the assignment).

Nine years after my mean-spirited adventure, Neil Young’s ‘Old Man’ broke into the Top 40, reaching #31 on the Hot 100.? Neil was more sympathetic than young me, sensing similar needs and challenges between himself and an old caretaker.

I’m now an old man, and more than just plain old.? I often have places to go and things to do.? Though I occasionally feel invisible, some people see me.? Some people love me (thanks, if you are one of them).

Excepting the bags under the eyes, the face I see in the mirror each morning looks nothing like the smiling, wrinkle-free, youngster-me pictured below.? But like young me, I still hear words when looking for inspiration in real life.

These words (an unfinished poem) resounded recently while I was folding laundry):

I believe it was Edgar Alan Poe,? ?

Who said “Sometimes it’s better not to know.”

But if it wasn’t, no one cares:? ?

Truth is much like underwear.

Keats claimed beauty as intrinsic to truth.

A symbol of death was his social proof.

Exaggeration? Who cares?

Truth is much like underwear.

Doubt my viewpoint?? I don’t care.

Truth is much like underwear.

Though there are some playful parallels between truth and underwear (both, for example, are easy to take for granted until they are absent) … though these playful parallels are not mean spirited … and though poetry may provide a good yardstick regarding how my journey to becoming a word-worker is progressing … I will follow the lead of my second-grade teacher and redo this poetry ‘assignment.’

I look forward to sharing some of my finished poetry on LinkedIn at the end of February.

Until then I continue to work daily – doing it poorly (see the unfinished underwear poem above) on the way to doing it better (as Seth Godin suggests) – to become better at storytelling.

Continued success.