Poetic Power
I'm not endowed with a single ounce of poetic prowess. Neither am I a reader of poetry in daily life. There is one poem however with which I fell in love some years ago.
It was when I saw the movie Interstellar, that I was first confronted with the power of poetry. Well, maybe that's not entirely true; some of my favorite rap artists and reggae singers are great poets too. I'll even close this post with my favorite poem-put-to-music by Linton Kwesi Johnson. But you know what I mean; when I pick up a book, it's a novel or non-fiction, never poems.
But this one just captured the mood of the film so perfectly; the poem and the film are great epics about the might of the human spirit. The title of the poem is nothing more than its opening sentence, and what a strong sentence it is: "Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night". Refuse to be engulfed by the darkness. Stand up against the Sandman and stay awake. I'll link the text version of this masterpiece in a while, but this poem is enjoyed best when heard spoken out loud, and in the movie Michael Caine has the perfect voice:
Interstellar - Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night Scene
Do Not Go Gentle into that Good Night
Due to copyrights I won't place the full text of the poem here, but instead link to it here, on poets.org; please read the complete text, it's powerful and beautiful. And after that, enjoy the wonderful voice of the author himself as he reads the entire poem:
Dylan Thomas reads "Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night"
Reading the text just isn't the same as hearing it brought to life by a warm, deep voice speaking the words in just the right rhythm; when listening to it with my eyes closed, I envision all sorts of heroics, struggles lost and won, the flame of a candle in pitch black, never dying, refusing to become one with that gentle night...
I wouldn't be me if I didn't look up some more information about this poem, and its writer, Welsh poet Dylan Thomas. I stumbled upon some juicy info and remarkable coincidences. Another rather famous poem is the one that starts with the phrase "Remember, remember, the Fifth of November, the Gunpowder Treason and Plot. I know of no reason why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot...", and that poem too featured in one of my favorite movies, V for Vendetta
Remember Remember the 5th of November - V for Vendetta
For a historical account of this poem's significance, search the internet for Guy Fawkes, or the Gunpowder Plot. Oh, wait, I already did the searching... just click on the words :-) Here's the full poem for your entertainment.
This date, the fifth of November, is also the date that our poetic hero got so drunk that he slipped into a coma to never wake up again; he eventually died on 9 November in a New York hospital. Guy Fawkes already had described himself as a "roistering, drunken and doomed poet" and he didn't even reach the age of 40 years. His wife, Caitlin Macnamara, apparently had a special relationship with the bottle too; after she flew in from England she had a fit of drunken rage, and after threatening to kill Dylan Thomas' publisher, she was committed to a private rehabilitation facility.
Another factoid crossing my investigative path, was the fact that Bob Dylan, whose given name is Robert Allan Zimmerman, changed his last name because of Dylan Thomas (or maybe because of his parents):
During his Dinkytown days, Dylan began introducing himself as "Bob Dylan". In his memoir, he said he hit upon using this less common variant for Dillon – a surname he had considered adopting – when he unexpectedly saw poems by Dylan Thomas. Explaining his change of name in a 2004 interview, he said, "You're born, you know, the wrong names, wrong parents. I mean, that happens. You call yourself what you want to call yourself. This is the land of the free."
source: Wikipedia
There, another piece of completely useless knowledge to occupy your mind. It's said that Dylan Thomas wrote his famous poem for his dying father, and it is also about the inevitability of death, but more about the fight against death and the indestructibility of the human spirit. At least that's what stuck with me since the first time I heard the words spoken by Michael Caine. Since then I've come to appreciate poetry more. It's just not my specialty :-)
As promised I'll leave you with another great poem, "Sonny's Lettah"; this one I've loved since I was a young adult.
Linton Kwesi Johnson - Sonny's Lettah (Anti-sus Poem)
The above is a redacted version of a post I originally released on Steemit in November 2018
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