What Shall I Write About ? How many times have we asked ourselves this question ? You want to do something, you feel you should, maybe you even have TIME to write something....but what ? Well, it's always best to start with something or someone you know. Experiences, times places and characters are all exclusively yours. You can share them with the world without having to tread the well-worn paths of poets before. The secret in many ways is not WHAT to write about but HOW to write about it. What sort of things should you include ? In these two examples I have selected the subject is the same - the Father of the poet. Or Dad - we haven't even started and already we have a divergence of thought on the approach to one person. One poem looks at the father as an example, a force for positive energy, the other as an obstacle. Yet this isn't a Compare and Contrast exercise. Just concentrate on looking at HOW the poet deals with his relationship with his father in two completely different ways. |
Reflections of Father "Damnit NO !" Contempt tearing at my clothers, Father standing,rigid, in the hall; As pointed as my winkle-pickers As stiff as my slicked-back DA, Red as my Teddy jacket. But I too could take up arms And return fire through my eyes To his And saw in them The boy soldier coming home, Still hesitant, facing his uncertainty; Finding work, hope, a life again, Sharing his dream For tomorrow. "Hug me Dad" I might have said "I am your youth And your freedom" But we were both Still in uniform . |
.This is quite a personal poem really isn't it ? Both men confronting each other, both seperated by their respective uniforms to which they owe allegiance; both ultimately unable to break down the barriers that society has put up by giving them different roles to play. Those barriers are really what comes out of the poem on that level. The poet is writing about the differences between himself and his father, from a distance of time, giving the indication that maybe they are still in place; certainly there is regret. Yet there are many more elements to consider as well. The poem operates on different levels. Although the reflections mentioned in the title seem to be those of a man looking back at his father, there are many other interpretations and uses of the word which can be applied. The most basic of those are the are physical. The father, standing in the house confronts the child in the doorway (presumably about to go out for the evening) in an exact mirror image of the scene when he, himself, returned from the war, to greet an uncertain future and probably a child that had no knowledge of him. Both were wearing uniform - the father, the soldier and defender of his societies values; the son, later, with the clothes so symbolic of the new rebellion. In between, the barriers represented so pitifully by the last verse grew up. It is obvious the man still does not know the boy. Perhaps in this there is also the notion that both men reflect their country.The father is the struggle for peace and victory, the son the sign of the emergence of affluent years based on that peace. In the end they are both, as the title implies, mirror images of each other but seperated forever by an invisible window neither can reach through. . |
View From A Childhood Window Through dirty glass I see The world my father made With spade and Sundays A dream that never passed The garden gate Where once we played. But what a world Within those self-made walls Of love and seasons Richness beyond the black and white The hazy shades Of dusk and light This view recalls Peace be with you father Wherever you are And know that I think much of you When darkness falls On life so far |
Unlike 'Reflections' this poem is totally positive. It highlights everything we expect of a parent but don't always get ! This is a 'View' not a reflection so we are looking back but not with any great sense of investigation. Its not even pondering, just observation. Again, there is a physical reality to the 'view'. It is obviously out of the same window the poet saw when growing up. The father is no longer there (perhaps dead given the line 'wherever you are') but the remembrances are all good. The solidity of the family is assured by the concept of the father 'building' their small world - perhaps putting in a fence to surround the garden. There is a notion of safety, of security and peace. Darkness brings not fear but tranquility- fond recollections of times past but in the last line, a hint to the future. Father has created the child's character with as much assurance as he showed when digging the garden and mending the fence. The poet remembers this as simply as if he had a window to look through on those past times and see again the work being done. The last verse is very much a vindication of that work in that it laid the foundations of the life it nurtured so well. |
