The Man That Might Have Been

[Heather]

[Bob Pacey]

Beautiful Heather

Or should I say Heather, Beautiful

I like it.


Bob

Gotta go Footys on and the Broncos are playing.

[Ron]

Loved it Heather, Henry would be proud I reckon!
Ron

[David Campbell]

Indeed he would! It's impossible to know how much that wondering contributed to the pain, but it surely must have been a factor. It's a paradox that has haunted so many writers...the booze is both a refuge and a prison.

David

[vwalla]

Good one Heather
Val W

[Neville Briggs]

Well done Heather.

[Vic Jefferies]

Great poem Heather. What might have been was a recurring theme in Henry's work. Mental illness played a big part in Henry's life and probably contributed to his excessive drinking. Both his wife and his mother as well as (I think) an uncle suffered mental problems over the years.

[Terry]

Very Well written Heather - as someone has already said, Henry would give that the tick of approval.

Terry

[Maureen K Clifford]

So good to see you back writing on the forum - you have crafted a beautiful poem here Heather. Great work.

[Heather]

Thanks everyone for your kind comments. I have such a soft spot for Henry. This is an old poem that I've tinkered with for ages. I was going to enter it in a comp but didnt' think it was good enough...

To write this poem I had to know him intimately. I read his biography by Colin Roderick - hard going but worth it, and I see so much self commentary in his poems. "What might have been" is a theme throughout Henry's poems. Below a couple of examples:

from The Drunkard's Vision:

"He sees his bright-eyed little wife;
He sees the cottage neat and clean—
He sees the wrecking of his life
And all the things that might have been!
And, sunk in hopeless, black despair,
That drink no more has power to drown,
Upon the beer-stained table there
The drunkard’s ruined head goes down."



.... the last stanza of Sweeny:

"Well, perhaps, it isn't funny; there were links between us two --
He had memories of cities, he had been a jackeroo;
And, perhaps, his face forewarned me of a face that I might see
From a bitter cup reflected in the wretched days to be."


....and The Men We Might Have Been.....

"He's rich and independent,
Or rising fast to fame;
His bright star is ascendant,
The country knows his name;
His houses and his gardens
Are splendid to be seen;
His fault the wise world pardons --
The man I might have been."


The strange thing is that when i originally wrote my poem (with Henry's face looking at me) I hadn't read "The Men We Might Have Been" and i used the "star ascendant" .... spooky or what?

I'll post the entire poems in General Poetry - i think they are all worth reading....