Poetry Slam

When I was a child, I had dreams of becoming a painter and a writer.  I'm not sure what happened to those dreams, but I still do write occasionally.  This past weekend, as I fished through my old bedroom trying to clean up, I stumble upon story books I put together, complete with illustrations.   I think that if I read these stories and they were from my child, I would be worried about me.  It is also apparent I had strong beliefs that seemingly inannimate objects had a life of their own.

A few months prior to this past weekend, I found a notebook of stories I wrote when I was in the 3rd grade - I was 8.  Apparently I liked "swimming bowling and watching T.V."  Mind you, I've never learned how to swim and I was never a very good bowler, though at that age, if it was an excuse to be out of the house, my excitement to do these activities more than likely over-compensated for my lack of talent in doing them.

In high school I recall having a part of our Language Arts curriculum dedicated to poetry.  I remember I loved it and wanted to keep the book but I don't believe that ever happened.  I don't recall really what I read, but 5 or 6 years later in college, the smartest kid in my year at our engineering school, who was also majoring in a liberal arts on top of his Chemical Engineering degree mentioned they were reading works by Samuel Taylor Coleridge and I couldn't help but recall how he wrote The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and broke out into a quote from it that my friend Cini cited to me (stating and laughing about how depressing it was):

Alone, alone, all, all alone,
Alone on a wide wide sea...

Him and his roommate seemed somewhat shocked that I was able to cite this random piece of work by him, but I guess if you were in the conversation and heard her say it, it would have stuck out in your mind too.

Though I loved poetry though, no one really particularly appealed to me.  However, recently (like a few hours ago) a co-worker of mine cited a quote from someone I don't recall if I've ever heard.

“Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been.”
― John Greenleaf Whittier

For some reason, there's some poignancy that is expressed in some writings that I find striking.   The name sounded familiar but I don't recall anything specific I've ever read from this writer.  So I looked him up and found some quotes that I just love - so much that I would check out any books of his writing that may exist the next chance I get.

Here are my favorite so far:

“the joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you”

“No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.”

“Never frown...even when you're sad 'cause you never know when someone's falling in love with your smile.”

― John Greenleaf Whittier

I hope someone out there enjoys them too.  :)