After taking a poetry class one summer at Towson University I learned a lot about poetry and how to read it. The most important thing I gleaned from the class was that I didn't necessarily have to understand what the writer meant when he/she wrote the words. Instead, all I needed to note was how the words resonated with me, the reader. I love this poem because it speaks to me in more ways than you can imagine. How does it speak to you?
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the buldgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Saturday, March 26, 2011
The Art (and Grace) of Positive Thinking
I was very inspired by a New Jersey man that I met one day in the waiting room of Johns Hopkins Hospital. I was there for a follow-up oncology appointment and he was there because his first 3 bone marrow transplants had failed. As a BMT patient myself, I was more than interested in what he had to say. As we chatted away, the thing that struck me most was his unwavering positive attitude. He swears it is what continues to get him through. Being a positive person myself, I couldn't agree with him more.
He was called for his appointment and I was called for mine, so I was never able to tell him just how much he had moved and inspired me. It would have made me happy to express my feelings to him and his wife who is also a very positive person. And who knows, it might have made him happy to hear that he had inspired me. So, in the future I've decided to be sure to express myself while in the moment. I am going to say what is in my heart even if it feels a little awkward or uncomfortable at first. In my humble opinion, the world doesn't do enough of that sort of thing.
He was called for his appointment and I was called for mine, so I was never able to tell him just how much he had moved and inspired me. It would have made me happy to express my feelings to him and his wife who is also a very positive person. And who knows, it might have made him happy to hear that he had inspired me. So, in the future I've decided to be sure to express myself while in the moment. I am going to say what is in my heart even if it feels a little awkward or uncomfortable at first. In my humble opinion, the world doesn't do enough of that sort of thing.
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