Two Questions

1. If you could re-live one experience over and over again any time you wanted, what would that experience be?

2. If you could re-live one day of your life and do it differently, what day would it be and what would you do different?

One old man's replies:

To question #1: The experience of capturing, in a half dozen lines of poetic verse, the essence of my life.

To question #2: There is nothing I would change, for I am not certain whether it was the joys or the sorrows, the successes or the failures, that enabled me to assemble the words and phrases of which this poem was composed.

July 18, 1993

The first question in this journal entry led directly to my concept for The M Zone, a short story which I shared on my website and which later became a screen play for a short film.

To read The M Zone, visit: http://www.enewman.biz/mzone.html

A Remarkable Tale from the Land of Podd

In a faraway land, in the Land of Podd, folks felt themselves each just a little bit odd.

Why in fact, not a few, not even a dozen,

and not just a sister or uncle or cousin...

'Twas the entire country caught under this spell,

each believed only others were anything swell,

and each felt discouraged, just a smidge, by his lot,

and this is what happened, believe it or not.

It had been a bad year, and in addition to famine

there were enemy troops on the borders of Salmon,

their unfriendly neighbors near the Mountain of Yore

and the King was near certain that his land was done for.

So he needed a messenger to save their lands

and he sought out a hero from the kingdom's bands.

But each made excuses, for this and for that,

One said, "My hair's funny,"and "I can't wear a hat."

A second, who resisted, said his nose was too fat!

The king tried reason, and he also tried terror,

but soon realized that the latter's an error,

so he promptly decided to appeal to God,

'cause these were strange people, these people of Podd,

for nothing was wrong... though each thought he was odd.

The king finally saw, although quite peculiar,

that the land would be lost -- including their ruler! --

if he couldn't find someone to carry out this task,

but there seemed no one else in his land left to ask.

Yet the Kingdom was saved, it turned out in the end,

all because the king knew that to save his own skin

he would have to step down from his throne to the street,

and even though he didn't like his own feet,

he became a great leader by hiding it inside,

and he ran 'cross the hills to the far other side

to bring back an army or some kind of troop,

to finish forever this enemy poop.

I guess that is why some are kings, some are not,

We're really all the same, and we're all that we've got.

copyright 1996 ed newman

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