Thursday, April 30, 2015

Of don Quixote

I don't usually post twice in the same week, but in looking through my journal I found this and it seemed an appropriate follow-up to my last entry.



Dear don Quixote,
little did I know
those many years ago
when reading your story,
I was to follow in your footsteps.
Maybe I did know,
     but didn’t know I knew,
     for thoughts of you
            stayed with me
            as I collected trinkets
            to remind me of you.           

Your little carved wooden statue
     that graced my home
     for many years
     now stands proudly
     on a pillar
     near my daughter’s front door.
I believe, that for her,
     it represents us both
     and perhaps our kinship
            (yours, Don, and mine)
     which she recognized
            even before I did.


Oh noble don Quixote,
     bravely you trumpeted the call
     to return a fallen world
     to the chivalry of old,
            in your heart it truly existed
            —had, and could again—
     as you trudged the miles
            and fought the giants,
     unswayed by on-lookers
     who laughed and called you fool
            for you knew the value
            of what you pursued . . .

Yes, my daughter sees
     shades of me in you
     and you in me,
     so in her love
     she revers that statue
     even while she too 
     laughs at the fool.

1 comment:

  1. Others will never see what we see, so they will never understand why we fight on.

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