I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;
Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.
The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.
And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.~Robert Frost~
I am for all intent and purpose a Robert Frost fan. I own pictures and books and books full of poems and…anything I can get my hands on having to do with Robert Frost. Why am I a fan? Well….I just am! Okay, okay, the real reason? There is something in his poetry which speaks to me on many levels. For instance, the above poem. I’ve had occassion to wish a bird silent. Especially at 5 a.m. on a Saturday morning while I’m trying to sleep in.
It wasn’t of course the birds fault. He was doing only what nature meant him to do. Consider how sad it would be if by our words, we were truly able to silence a bird. To never hear his song again. Consider even further what we could do with that same word, in anger, to each other. A sure sadness sweeps over you when you contemplate the idea. It is this touch of sadness, the honesty, and the foresight in Robert Frosts poetry that stirs me to thought.
I am not, by far, a philosopher. I don’t even hold myself to be a strong thinker. Most days I run in circles because I don’t think enough. Blonde overs happen often in my day-to-day life. There are those who consider me smart….. I always wonder what they’re smoking, or what they’ve been drinking when they make comments such as these. There does have to be some intelligience to me in order to write as much as I do. Yet my writing will never hold the high esteem Robert Frost’s does.
I wonder, if Robert Frost lived today, would he write with such depth? Would his words include our limitless slang? Would he find himself torn between beauty and technology? I would hope he’d see the beauty in technology without losing the spark of humanity. I’ll save my rant on humanity vs. technology for another day but…. I have to wonder.
I truly think we do silence many songs during our daily lives. We doubt our dreams, we doubt ourselves, we doubt each other, we…. silence so much. Nature tells us to try, to dream, to do, to overcome, to inspire, to strive, but without blind faith we faulter. Faith is such a hard thing to give ourselves over to. We could learn so much from nature simply by trusting our own nature. We know the answers, we know we alone have them. Yet, we’ll fight to hold on to our perceived worthlessness. How misguided are we to fight for our faults and silence our greatness?
Even as I say the words I know that like everyone else, I am just as guilty as silencing the greatness. I hope, in my daily words and deeds, I inspire someone to believe in themselves. To try when they believe they’ll only fail. To have faith when no one else does. I hope I can remind one person of their true greatness without making them feel greatness is not within their reach.
Mans most daunting task is to never silence any song. It is a task I will fail out a million times over my lifetime. But, it is one task I am willing to take on.
For tonight, I wish you the joy of singing your song loud and clear, the support of those who wish to see your song resound around the world, and fearlessness at wanting to sing it louder!
Goodnight My friends.
Thinking Out Loud 