Tonight I am posting the poem from the second half of my 1996 poem book, again because there were 140 poems in that book and I didn't want to put the whole TOC on here at one time.
This poem is entitled No More Chances:
No More Chances
I will not let him die in vain
I will drive much safer now
Does he know that he has changed my life
I wish I could tell him somehow
I didn't know him, as far as I knew
They had taken him before I got there
But what he left in the streets for the people to see
They saw, and you could see they cared
But he'll have no more chances for living
His book has seen its last page
No more chances for seeing his grandchildren being
No more chances of dying of old age
No more chances to love and be happy
His smile no one will see again
He will never be sad, never wish that he had
No more chances of remembering when
His last prayers have been said, if he said them
No more chances if there are things left undone
No more chances to enjoy his last moments
Because God's network doesn't show reruns
Nelson Coblentz
6/9/96
This poem is about an accident I saw the aftermath of- I didn't see it happen- a man on a motorcycle lost control and, according to some people that were standing around watching, had slid and tumbled along down the highway, doing too much damage to his humanity to survive. Apparently he was traveling at quite an impressive speed and there wasn't a whole lot left of him. I didn't see anything of the man himself, but I saw enough of the mess he left behind and got a vivid enough picture in my head to come up with this poem. It really had an effect on me- and my driving, though, as you might expect, time has diluted that effect and now I don't even think about it until, of course, I read this poem again and get taken back to that night with the gathering crowds, messy roadway, flashing multi-colored lights, and the star of the show who had run out of chances.
Here is the second half of the Table Of Contents of my 1996 poem book:
71. Part Of The Past I've Left Behind
72. Hung Out To Dry
73. Just One Of The Boys
74. Please Don't Fall In Love With Me
75. As Soon As This Light Turns Green
76. They Thought I Was Sleeping
77. My Middle Name
78. The Best Of A Different Drummer
79. Memories Of You
80. Don't Tell Him The Truth
81. Somewhere Up There
82. Out Of Order
83. Me, Myself, And I
84. Lying To Myself
85. If Love Was The Way
86. You Wouldn't Understand
87. Lucky Charm
88. A Love Like Yours
89. Whispers In The Dark
90. If I Was Her
91. When What's Going Around Comes Around To you
92. She Said She Loved Him
93. She Never Even Told Me Good-bye
94. Nothing To Fear
95. In Search Of
96. No More Chances
97. She Said
98. The One For Me
99. The Most Important Thing In This Whole World
100. It Doesn't Really Matter Anymore
101. Her Lonely World
102. The Curtain Call
103. The Saddest Part Of The Story
104. Wishing It Was Over
105. Acting Like An Actor
106. No One Ever Told Me
107. She Doesn't Even Know That I'm Alive
108. Why?
109. Living For Nothing'
110. Nothing But Lies
111. 9:30 Train
112. Inside The Circle
113. Illegal Tender
114. You Have The Right
115. She's Forgotten To Remember (To Forget)
116. Standing In The Blind Spot (Of Her Love)
117. I Don't Want To Help It Anymore
118. He Wants To Be Lonely
119. Heartanese
120. What Is It You think You Want This Time?
121. Leave It All Behind
122. The Pockets Of The Past
123. The One Next To The Window
124. The Sound Of A Beating Heart
125. Too Beautiful For Me
126. Yesterday's Promises, Tomorrow's Good-Byes
127. I Saw The Love
128. So Much Love
129. Until It Doesn't Hurt Anymore
130. When You Say Your Prayers Tonight
131. They All Called Her Mama
132. The Edge Of The Future
133. Too Many People
134. Seeking Forgiveness
135. If I Were To Love You Anymore (It Would Kill Me)
136. Pretending It Was You
137. That's What The Music Is For
138. Why Don't You Tell Me
139. The Next Generation
140. I'm Not Going To Tell You
And there you have it! Thats the last half of the '96 TOC, in case you're keeping track. If you're not, then I just put it on here for me! Kept me out of trouble for 10- 15 minutes anyway! ( So I type slow, ok! I'm what I like to call a fast pecker) I don't try to impress people by my wpm.
I'm looking forward to getting these introductions out of the way so I can just post whatever poem on here and kinda talk about it for a little bit, without having to deal with all those numbers and titles and such. I'll get there, just bear with me!
Looking through some of these poems- I remember writing them- I remember the feeling of what was going on- and its amazing how long ago some of these were! I am getting old! Well, I guess that means that I still have chances, right? If you're reading this, then you have the chance to make a difference in your life as well as in someone else's life. You can do anything you put your mind to! You know who you are and what you want! Get to it! (You'll have to pardon me every now and then, cuz I will start talking to myself! ) But seriously, we just don't know what we have until we actually don't have it anymore. I remember when my Great grandfather died, my Grandfather was sick with grief, and he commented that he had never gotten the chance to tell him... and I'm thinking, what? My grandfather was about 60 years old or something like that, and I thought surely that was enough time to say something! Ah, but I wasn't exactly an adult yet. I didn't know that things got harder and harder to say the older you got. Heck, at that age, for him to come out and say it must have been darn near impossible! Each new day bring a whole new set of chances. It all depends on whether we take them or not. My grandfather ran out of chances to tell his father something. I recently ran out of chances myself when MY grandfather died. He'd moved to New York and commenced to outliving his second wife after we left the Amish. We didn't get to see him very much, and we didn't do too well writing letters because they were more like sermons, wanting us to come back to the church, and nobody really wanted to be preached to. Close to the end, I wrote him a letter, wanting to get back in touch. I sent him some pictures of some things I made, and asked him some questions, and told him some stuff about me. I did get a letter back from him before he died, answering some questions, and he said that he couldn't find my address in his Delaware Book- Where was it that I lived? I never did write him back to help him figure it out. I guess the development was newer than his Delaware Book. I never got the chance to tell him where I live!
I think he knows now, though, cuz he can see a whole lot more than he could before. I don't think he'll have a problem finding me at all! I am glad that it just so happened that when my cousin tried to call me to tell me he had died- I was sitting in church! I had the phone on vibrate and it just kept going off. Over and over. And I knew exactly what it meant.
So love everybody! Give everybody a chance that they may not take otherwise! My grandfather used to teach school when we were Amish, and we'd walk to school with him in the mornings, doing our best to keep up, and he'd wave to people as they went by in their cars. I'd ask him sometimes "Who was that?" and he'd say "I don't Know". He was not only friends with everybody- he was their brother. We are all just humans being down here! One day we will realize that we waited one day too long, then spend the rest of our lives regretting it. And I guess the question is Is it worth that?
I'm going to stop now and call this a blog before I delete this whole thing and start over.
Good night all,
I Love You,
From me to you,
Nelson Coblentz
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