That boy is with me still

[PrinceMyshkin]

"Dada," he said to me once,
no doubt after watching some news programme on tv,
"when they show pictures of people in trouble,
like after an accident,
they don’t just leave them there, do they?"

I wish I could have told him,
No, darling my son,
they do everything they can for them,
they bind up their wounds,
feed them if they’ve been starving,
rebuild their burnt or bombed-out houses...

Now that he’s a grown man,
a doctor, with two children of his own
older than he was then,
I wonder what he tells them?

He knows now as I did then
something of the cold, unfeeling nature
of so much of the world,
the photographers taking pictures
of, preferably, the most vivid disasters,
the tv or the newspapers
falling all over themselves
to bring those pictures to us,
the advertisers paying
for the choicest spots.

All that was there then, is there now,
will be there, no doubt, tomorrow,

but that boy is with me still.

[firefangled]

This seems so rich with the depth of perception it evokes from carrying that one question forward. Well done, Prince.

[Sweets America]

I love what it says. The only point I would question is your use of "but" in the last line, because to me this last line doesn't relate to the previous one with a "but" since "but" imples that you reject something implied in what you just said whereas I would have thought that your last line was carrying on the thought of the previous one. So?

[goldenrod]

You so well describe the mass-media and its effects!

The individual acts of the good samaritan, the bravery of the relief worker etc . seldom reported...akin to a dry footnote, an afterthought in small print...

goldenrod.

[PrinceMyshkin]

I love what it says. The only point I would question is your use of "but" in the last line, because to me this last line doesn't relate to the previous one with a "but" since "but" imples that you reject something implied in what you just said whereas I would have thought that your last line was carrying on the thought of the previous one. So?

I so appreciate your deep, close reading of this and my poems in general but I strongly disagree with you as to the appropriateness of "but" in the final line. It is meant to emphasize a contrast between the fallen, corrupt or cynical world of the immediately preceding lines, with the soft-hearted pain of my innocent son at age 6 or 7, an innocence that is certainly still with me in memory and that I passionately hope exists still in the heart of humankind.

[Sweets America]

I so appreciate your deep, close reading of this and my poems in general but I strongly disagree with you as to the appropriateness of "but" in the final line. It is meant to emphasize a contrast between the fallen, corrupt or cynical world of the immediately preceding lines, with the soft-hearted pain of my innocent son at age 6 or 7, an innocence that is certainly still with me in memory and that I passionately hope exists still in the heart of humankind.

Yes, I understand now, and it makes sense, thank you. :thumbs_up

[V.Jayalakshmi]

Dear Prince Myshkin,

I am touched.Especially the lines,

He knows now as I did then
something of the cold, unfeeling nature
of so much of the world,
the photographers taking pictures
of, preferably, the most vivid disasters,
the tv or the newspapers
falling all over themselves
to bring those pictures to us,
the advertisers paying

I had watched one news item where they had shown the room where a murder has happened.The depression on the bed where she had been murdered looked very repulsive.Not that we must not show such pics,but the media is turning insane for news sometimes.

Thanks for this poem where you have expressed your anguish and thank God the boy is a doctor.

[toology514]

I quite enjoyed this. Nostalgic, but not too. =)

[PrinceMyshkin]

I quite enjoyed this. Nostalgic, but not too. =)

Many thanks. Like you, I have an aversion to things that are perhaps too syruppy nostalgic. Someone (one of Salinger's characters, I think) once defined sentimentality as mourning a dead cat more than God would!

[Virgil]

[B][INDENT]"Dada," he said to me once,
no doubt after watching some news programme on tv,
"when they show pictures of people in trouble,
like after an accident,
they don’t just leave them there, do they?"

I wish I could have told him,
[I]No, darling my son,
they do everything they can for them,
they bind up their wounds,
feed them if they’ve been starving,
rebuild their burnt or bombed-out houses...

Now that he’s a grown man,
a doctor, with two children of his own
older than he was then,
I wonder what he tells them?

He knows now as I did then
something of the cold, unfeeling nature
of so much of the world,
the photographers taking pictures
of, preferably, the most vivid disasters,
the tv or the newspapers
falling all over themselves
to bring those pictures to us,
the advertisers paying
for the choicest spots.


When I was reading the poem my screen ended where I have cut off the poem in the quote. I thought this a more effective end to it. The phrasing "choicest spots" seems to give it a strong closing punctuation. When I scrolled and saw the remainder, I thought it didn't really add any more. A solid poem. I think the image of the photographers taking pictures is very powerful. Kind of reminds me of the Lady Diana death events.

[PrinceMyshkin]

When I was reading the poem my screen ended where I have cut off the poem in the quote. I thought this a more effective end to it. The phrasing "choicest spots" seems to give it a strong closing punctuation. When I scrolled and saw the remainder, I thought it didn't really add any more. A solid poem. I think the image of the photographers taking pictures is very powerful. Kind of reminds me of the Lady Diana death events.

From both an aesthetic point of view and to make a moral commentary, that's a powerful suggestion! Thanks. It will be hard for me to surrender the lines after it especially since the last line of all was my personal tribute to the ache of remembering my son's hopeful face as he posed that question to me. Would its presence as the title do the trick well enough, I wonder...


When I was reading the poem my screen ended where I have cut off the poem in the quote. I thought this a more effective end to it. The phrasing "choicest spots" seems to give it a strong closing punctuation. When I scrolled and saw the remainder, I thought it didn't really add any more. A solid poem. I think the image of the photographers taking pictures is very powerful. Kind of reminds me of the Lady Diana death events.

Further to the above: I spent some time at the cafe this morning, mulling over your comment. You presented me with a dilemma. If I ended it where you suggest it would indeed, I think be a better poem - or certainly a different one: a social critique on the fallen nature of society as we know it...

But then I would have to forego the poem it set out to be, a tribute to the beautiful vulnerability of my son as I remember him (for which, by the way - emotionally reticent though he normally is - he has just written to thank me).

[Virgil]

I understand entirely Prince. :) Your love for him certainly comes through.

[kiz_paws]

Jer, that poem was deeply heartfelt ... the closing three lines made me misty.

In short, I loved this poem. :)