Song of Experience
I wrote "Shadow Play" in two parts. Part 1 is called "Experience" and part 2 is called "Innocence." This is because on my personal journey this past year, I went through two important phases of my life: hardships as an adult and maintaining what was inherently good about me from my childhood.
This is an introduction to the entire book and sets the tone for what the book is about. I capitalized most of the letters in the poem to show how prominent adulthood can be. Words like "childhood" and "birth" are left lower-cased to maintain the innocence of their concepts.
When I wrote this, I used the introduction of Blake's "Songs of Experience" to lay a foundation for a rhyme scheme. I wanted it to read like a song. There's an acknowledgment that as an adult, a part of you dies as you experience the harsh realities of heartache and pain like in the first stanza.
The poem sort of mourns the end of childhood. There's a sense of longing of wanting to go back to that "easier" time in life when you don't have the stress and worries you do as an adult.
My favorite stanza that I wrote is the last one. Religion is a theme that recurs throughout the book and there's this internal struggle that I write about where I grapple with the idea that God allows bad things to happen for the sake of learning lessons in life, and I struggle to maintain faith through the lows that occur.
I knew when I wrote this poem that I wanted it to show that our lives are both dictated by fate and by choices. I do believe things happen for a reason, but I also believe that our choices create a ripple effect that cannot be undone. As humans, we have free will. As a child, it feels like freedom to make our own choices no matter how reckless because we don't think about repercussions. Once experiences make their mark, we are much more wise and patient with our decision-making as we get older.
In college, I was assigned to read William Blake's "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" and it instantly became a favorite of mine. Blake comments on the idea that our souls are made up of two parts: experience in adulthood that corrupts us through sin and a state of protected innocence we carry from childhood. I play with this dichotomy throughout the entire book.
My first poem, and the first one I wrote for the book, is called, "Song of Experience."
Hear the Voice of the Wise
It Sings with Reason from the Past
For Ears and Eyes
Have Recognized
The Death of childhood at Last
For Pain's Not Cut and Dry
It Starts from birth through Blood and Tears
And When We Die
The Sirens Cry
To Echo Dismal Dreams and Fears
Our Choices Do Impact
Our Spirits Painted Colored Light
With This Format
We're All Abstract
Our Happenings Aren't Black and White
Manhood Isn't Simple
When God Is Plucking at Our Strings
Fatal, Fickle
Flute and Fiddle
We're Played with Sharps and Notes That Sting
This is an introduction to the entire book and sets the tone for what the book is about. I capitalized most of the letters in the poem to show how prominent adulthood can be. Words like "childhood" and "birth" are left lower-cased to maintain the innocence of their concepts.
When I wrote this, I used the introduction of Blake's "Songs of Experience" to lay a foundation for a rhyme scheme. I wanted it to read like a song. There's an acknowledgment that as an adult, a part of you dies as you experience the harsh realities of heartache and pain like in the first stanza.
The poem sort of mourns the end of childhood. There's a sense of longing of wanting to go back to that "easier" time in life when you don't have the stress and worries you do as an adult.
My favorite stanza that I wrote is the last one. Religion is a theme that recurs throughout the book and there's this internal struggle that I write about where I grapple with the idea that God allows bad things to happen for the sake of learning lessons in life, and I struggle to maintain faith through the lows that occur.
I knew when I wrote this poem that I wanted it to show that our lives are both dictated by fate and by choices. I do believe things happen for a reason, but I also believe that our choices create a ripple effect that cannot be undone. As humans, we have free will. As a child, it feels like freedom to make our own choices no matter how reckless because we don't think about repercussions. Once experiences make their mark, we are much more wise and patient with our decision-making as we get older.
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