My Favorite Poem of All Time!

Autobiography in Five Chapters by Portia Nelson

1) I walk down the street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I fall in. I am lost...I am hopeless.

It isn't my fault.

It takes forever to find a way out.

2) I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I pretend I don't see it. I fall in again.

I can't believe I'm in the same place. But it isn't my fault.

It still takes a long time to get out.

3) I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I see it is there. I still fall in...it's a habit.

My eyes are open; I know where I am; it is my fault.

I get out immediately.

4) I walk down the same street.

There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.

I walk around it.

5) I walk down another street.

Wow. I love this poem so much. Isn't this how life is? We live and learn. Live and learn. Hopefully, in doing so, we learn to live better. Learn to live better. Gwendolyn Brooks offers the best definition of poetry (in my opinion). She says "poetry is life distilled". Awesome. Poets take our common experiences, find meaning in them, form them in beautiful language, and make them accessible to us stanza by stanza. I love poetry. I hope you're kind to yourself when you make mistakes. I hope you show yourself grace when you fall in the hole. Learn from it. Share what you've learned. Nothing but ignorance is lost in that.

Find refuge in truth.

Copyright© 2010 by Quandra T. McGrue