Comments on: Will the real poet please stand up? http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2006/04/17/will-the-real-poet-please-stand-up/ Roger Bourland writes about music and life Fri, 21 Nov 2008 23:03:30 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.2 By: Roger Bourland http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2006/04/17/will-the-real-poet-please-stand-up/#comment-81276 Roger Bourland Mon, 07 Jul 2008 18:28:15 +0000 http://rogerbourland.com/blog/2006/04/17/will-the-real-poet-please-stand-up/#comment-81276 [Nick sent me this on July 7, 2008] Unfortunately I have nothing for you other than word-of-mouth, which is what I myself am struggling with in this story. I’m 18 years old, living in Western New York. Growing up you hear stories about your parent’s past and their legacies, but one stood out to me from when I was little. I remember my mother talking about a poem that she wrote in high school, her grandfather had passed away and she went into a dark period where she locked herself away in her room and just listened to records and wrote, drew. One of the works that resulted from this week-long hide away is supposedly the poem “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep”- marked anonymous for fear that the dark subject would turn people off, make them think she was “weird”. She graduated in Fredonia, New York around ‘85 or ‘86, the year escapes me, but I’m not sure how well the poem could be tracked to Fredonia, if at all. The topic has always been a sensitive one with her, she doesn’t like to talk about it at all with anyone, just recently I went back to her about it when ironically, our all-county high school chorus was lined up to sing one of the musical arrangements with the lyrics. I showed her, remembering the story from when I was younger, and she neglected to talk about it yet again. Her outlook on the topic is that “its too late to claim it, no one would ever believe it”, so she tries to put it behind her. Being my mother, I want to believe it, I just don’t know if I can or if I should… But I did find that you were interested in the topic, as a lot of people are, thought I’d share it with at least you, not expecting any results from it… Its just interesting to think that there could be no deep poet behind it, no inspirational story about Jewish friends, just a heartbroken teenager who need to write something down, a regular person who sees death like every other person, which is why its so relative to our lives. Thanks and once again, sorry for the out-of-date response. A response would be appreciated, just your thoughts, but is not necessary. Thanks a lot again. -Nick Polowy [Nick sent me this on July 7, 2008]

Unfortunately I have nothing for you other than word-of-mouth, which is what I myself am struggling with in this story.

I’m 18 years old, living in Western New York. Growing up you hear stories about your parent’s past and their legacies, but one stood out to me from when I was little. I remember my mother talking about a poem that she wrote in high school, her grandfather had passed away and she went into a dark period where she locked herself away in her room and just listened to records and wrote, drew. One of the works that resulted from this week-long hide away is supposedly the poem “Do Not Stand At My Grave And Weep”- marked anonymous for fear that the dark subject would turn people off, make them think she was “weird”. She graduated in Fredonia, New York around ‘85 or ‘86, the year escapes me, but I’m not sure how well the poem could be tracked to Fredonia, if at all. The topic has always been a sensitive one with her, she doesn’t like to talk about it at all with anyone, just recently I went back to her about it when ironically, our all-county high school chorus was lined up to sing one of the musical arrangements with the lyrics. I showed her, remembering the story from when I was younger, and she neglected to talk about it yet again. Her outlook on the topic is that “its too late to claim it, no one would ever believe it”, so she tries to put it behind her. Being my mother, I want to believe it, I just don’t know if I can or if I should… But I did find that you were interested in the topic, as a lot of people are, thought I’d share it with at least you, not expecting any results from it… Its just interesting to think that there could be no deep poet behind it, no inspirational story about Jewish friends, just a heartbroken teenager who need to write something down, a regular person who sees death like every other person, which is why its so relative to our lives.

Thanks and once again, sorry for the out-of-date response. A response would be appreciated, just your thoughts, but is not necessary. Thanks a lot again.
-Nick Polowy

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