In Pursuit of Poetry

March 4, 2020 - Edwin Arlington Robinson - Richard Cory

March 4, 2020
Last night I watched the part I saved of the Bachelor - Women Tell All show. Yes, I know. It is a crapped show that I often find myself dragged into... like a box of donuts you can't resist. But anyway, one section had a bachelorette from another season join Chris Harrison and discuss the issue of HATE messages that each and everyone one of these women have received. She read some of them and they were awful. I honestly can't believe people can be so hateful... hiding behind their computers and other devises. I mean, people were telling them to kill themselves and making lots of racial slurs.

I will admit I have those I like and those I think are 'bitchy' (notice I said bitchy and did not call them bitches - we all have our bitchy moments people), but I also believe they are all beautiful, strong women who are willing to put themselves out there.... either for love or fame or whatever. I would never type out and send my own stupid, griping comments. It's just a show. Drama happens. The women react.... it makes for good television. Emotions are raised, but that is no reason to send out hate mail calling them all sorts of names and telling them to kill themselves. The people that do that have no life and are spineless as far as I can tell. If you can't say it to someone's face, you have no reason to write and send it. You don't know them. We only see what the cameras are willing to show. And they edit to get the greatest impact. It's television - reality TV.

Well, my poem today is somewhat related, in that what we see of another person is only surface. We have no idea what is really going on inside a person. They may seem to have it all, but... maybe they don't. This poem choice is another from Jill Bialosky's book Poetry Will Save Your Life.

My take - don't judge or make assumptions simply from looking at the outer surface of a person. You haven't walked in their shoes so just 'shut up' and focus on your own life.

Richard Cory
Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869 - 1935)

Whenever Richard Cory went down town,
We people on the pavement looked at him:
He was a gentleman from sole to crown,
Clean favored and imperially slim.

And he was always quietly arrayed,
And he was always human when he talked;
But still he fluttered pulses when he said,
"Good morning," and he glittered when he walked.

And he was rich - yes, richer than a king -
And admirably schooled in every grace:
In fine, we thought that he was everything
To make us wish that we were in his place.

So on we worked, and waited for the lights,
And went without the meat, the cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,
Went home and put a bullet through his head.

This poem was written during the Great Depression.

So to end, I will take a quote from Ellen DeGeneres: something she says at the end of each of her shows - Be Kind To One Another.