I Wish

Michael and Payton

This picture taken by my daughter days before Michael passed into our eternal memories. On that day the heart of The Almighty broke! The skies opened and even Heaven cried.

"Daddy I want to be a poet”

"Just a poet then?"

"Not just a poet!"

"A Great POET!"

 

 

 

Softened by times consummate plush,
How sleek the woe appears
That threatened childhoods citadel
And undermined the years
Bisected now by bleaker griefs,
We envy the despair
That devastated childhood's realm,
So easy to repair

Emily Dickinson

Available Now	Available Now

Author's Note

Who among us has not tasted the bitterness of disappointment? Perhaps in the dreams of a child hope springs eternal!

Reviews

[Rick Puetter]

Dear Tate,

"Just a poet then?"

Boy, you make the heart of a dreamer proclaim his/her dreams, don't you.

None of us want to be "Just a poet...". We all want to be a great poet. I would be a liar if I said I strived for less. I want my career summary to read: Great scientist, great business man, great lover, great friend, great philosopher, great poet. Who doesn't?!! Indeed, I am consumed by this. It is what drives me every day. I won't achieve all of these goals, I know. Who can? Only the very rare, but do I desire and dare to be the very rare? Yes I do. I have to try even though I know I will only make it so far, and that all the deeds that I may achieve are only transitory, the stuff on a hundred years if I'm lucky. So why the fuss? I don't really know. It is programed into me, I guess, but that is who I am, and that for which I strive. Always a work in progress, trying to be better, until the final end, of course. Where will I go? What will I achieve? "Just a poet..."? Not if I can help it!

A short poem. A powerful poem. Words of the human soul from one so young. We are programed to strive and dream. And we dare to want our dreams to come true. This is probably the greatest attribute of the human soul.

Really high marks on this one, My Friend!

Very best regards,

Rick

[Einstein Noodle]

oh my goodness Tate and family ... such a picture and continued reminder of your loss ... was it a couple years ago now??
there are disappointments enough for each day to go round aren't there?! ... and childrens minds are an endless stock pile of dreams ... they bubble forth like mayflies hatching ... i can't get over the profound sadness i feel reading your poem and seeing Micheal and his daughter walking so ... its just a killer to me :((((
the speaker in your poem is universal but forgive me for asking ... who you mean it to be??? no answer required tho sir ..
E.

[Tate Morgan]

It was meant to be my granddaughter Payton's plea to her soon to be gone father Hiw fleeting our lives are when I think of Emilly Dickensons own fleeting existence of 54 yes old. Contrasted here by Payton's obvious youth and little did we know her father would be gone within days.
As with all the humble rivers roll
death will level property and pride
Awaiting providence and time
rich and poor sleep side by side. Three yrs since his passing This was him Michael
http://www.writerscafe.org/writing/aristate/939805/

[Einstein Noodle]

heart felt sympathies Tate .. thank you for sharing!

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you we had another bonfire for him a few days ago as we have each year since

[Einstein Noodle]

:) ....i believe he knows it! yes i do!

[M.Babu]

I come from a generation searching for recognition. All good stories told; nothing feels original anymore. Just borrowed pieces of art from previous owners. How to remain relevant and or original? How to become great? Be good at being yourself.
~M.Babu~

[Tate Morgan]

It takes some ingenuity to be unique thank you

[Jazique]

All of us have tasted some form of bitter disappointment, some worse than others. Anyways well, it was your introduction that captured me and the words "Daddy I want to be a Poet!." "Just a poet then?'... that kept me. Leading me to Emily. As Puetter said no one wants to be just a poet. Everybody wants to be something but, to be something great. Only a handful of us get that opportunity. I mean all of us can be a great writer but, only a few of us will go as far as to be great ones. As long as they continue to believe that is possible. Anyways well done. Cannot wait to read more of your poems.

[Tate Morgan]

Thank you very much

[K. D. Kromminga]

So true. Everybody has the dreams of being great, spurred on by the realization of our own mortality. We want to be remembered most the day we realize that we will one day die. Its sad that for everybody that achieves a memorial in the annals of thought and history, hundreds fade in to obscurity. Yet we all struggle on to find something important enough to say that will get us in that hallowed record.

[Tate Morgan]

To be part of the hallowed record of humanities presence Is what all poets want to be and strive to attain.Thank you

[Patricia B. Hepler]

The gentle sincerity of young children wraps them in a comforting embrace. When the music stops, their innocence changes-yet, the child's parent and grandparents reswaddle the cbild with reassurance & acceptance...until she begins her own journey towards growing into herself, to be a great poet ~

I, too, have swaddled my granddaughter w/ reassuance & acceptance-for her loss of her daddy, my son~

My deepest sympathies for you & your family. ~ pat

[Debbie_Philly]

Oh I love this.... it touches my heart... that saying

"Daddy I want to be a poet”
"Just a poet then?"
"Not just a poet!"
"A Great POET!"
And I love Emily Dickens :)

[Tate Morgan]

Debbie this picture was taken days before my son in law Michael took his own life and left my granddaughter
without a father.It is this that was the catharsis for the poems creation

[Debbie_Philly]

OMG Tate I am so so sorry... I read the poem but not the caption under the pic... I am so sorry... please except my condolences !!!

[Tate Morgan]

you will find I always leave authors notes to commemorate the reason for the works creation below the poems

[Tate Morgan]

I wrote 4 poems of this experience all are here most have that picture

[Michael X]

beautifully sentimental and touching, You bring the memory to the heart
of all of us readers, and the moment and determination, to be a great poet,
a dreamer and a philosopher, I loved this, the tribute is art. outstanding.

[cynthiabuhainbaello]

What indeed is a great poet? I read the poem and felt sadness that the father will not read his daughter's poems and see her writings read by others. There is a deep regret for things "that might have been" and the joys that might have been felt yet never was. Fate has a queer way of taking the stage at the least times expected but as the poem say in the last line: "Not just a poet, a Great Poet!" thus, Fate is mocked and silenced. Poetry can triumph long after everything and everyone have passed away - that is what makes it a great Art!

[Becky C Strukamp]

Your written words hold so much truth and many of life's lessons. Makes one ponder their own life and how they live it. Thanks for sharing your wonderful works of written art.