Not Small At All
I’ve gained appreciation for the smaller things in life,
The uneventful days when all is pleasant, free from strife.
Where family’s fine and things I need work perfectly each time,
While plans are all accomplished, and there’s calmness that’s sublime.
Human Nature?
If people were to wake up of the same faith, land, and race,
__Would they inevitably soon find out,
That new divisions had emerged to fully take their place
__For folks to separate themselves about?
Dream Denied
What happens when a lifelong dream
_Seems lastingly denied?
Does sadness linger all your days
_Devouring you inside?
Or might you find it feasible
_To modify the goal,
Replacing the priority
_With one you can control?
Poet’s Note: This poem’s title and opening lines derive from Langston Hughes’ famous poem “Harlem.”
Russel Winick started writing poetry after ending a long legal career. He resides in Naperville, Illinois.
Ah, the Russel wisdom is back, this time with renewed intensity and depth. “Appreciation for the smaller things in life” and those that are simpler is often left to the elderly to ascertain. Your question about human nature finding something to be divided and fight about is well-taken. Some dreams may have reduced goals in time, yet some seem to linger or be replaced by different pursuits with equally high hopes. I particularly identify with the first and third poems.
Whenever I wake up to a comment from Roy Peterson, I know it’s going to be a fine day. I’m glad that the poems struck chords with you, sir. Thank you, always.
To answer the question made by “Human Nature?” — Yes, the new divisions would be of class, financial status, educational level, property division, and who has access to the cutest women.
I agree human nature is such that new divisions would readily be created, including most of those you cited, plus intellectual level, if that could be easily identified. Thank you, Professor.
I’m always grateful for more wonderful Winick wisdom! It does seem to be in human nature to fail to appreciate the small but good, disaster-free times in life, as well as to divide ourselves into tribes and such things (illustrated most explicitly in the past few decades or so, I think, by people expressing various and sundry “identities”.). Thanks, Russel.
You’re welcome, Cynthia. I started thinking about how people divide themselves when I was around 15, but I still haven’t figured it out much better than at that time. Sufficiently enjoying the small things is another challenge. The quest continues.
Stay on the quest, Russel. You keep finding treasure to create some of your best. Your perspective on frustrations, in relation to “Harlem” from Hughes, is a world apart, but can certainly be worthwhile. Most of us find something under our control, and this is where creativity emerges. For Hughes, it may have exploded, but that was expressive. Nearly everyone has constructive potential, especially when we take time to notice your small things!
Thanks Margaret. Speaking of Langston Hughes, it’s an endless fascination to me that my (and many other people’s) two favorite poems by him — “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” and “Mother to Son” — were written when he was 18 and 20 years old, respectively, with no poetry training. That knowledge keeps me extremely humble!
It’s true we only seem to notice when things go wrong and should appreciate more when everything goes tickety-boo.
I think I should write a short story based on Human Nature. I was reminded of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ and the consequences of what was being imagined.
As for Dream Denied, isn’t postings on the SCP living the dream?
Thanks for a great comment, Paul. If you write that short story, I’d surely want to read it. And SCP has indeed been a dream for me, as someone who never studied poetry and didn’t start writing it until age 65.
A calm, peaceful day in which all goes as planned is truly something to appreciate and never take for granted. Great to be reminded of this, Russell, and with such pleasant words.
On “Human Nature,” yes, even if we all looked alike, those who divide would do so based on our views…of anything. There seems an infinite number of roads to diversity.
What wise counsel in “Dream Denied.” A bit of adjusting turns disappointment and heartache into hope and a reachable goal.
Thanks for the enjoyable reads!
Thank you, Jan, for your entirely lovely and thoughtful comments!
The nod to Langston Hughes is apparent in the last poem, and like its antecedent it ends in a question.
“Human Nature?” also asks a question and posits a hypothetical reminiscent of Babel.
The first poem portrays a place I hope to be someday.
Thanks. You’ll get there, Adam.
Great poems, all three of them. Thanks for sharing them. I identify with 1 and 3 as Roy mentioned and in regard to human nature, I am sure some would potentially arise.