Countdown

This was the poem I was putting together for the poet laureate competition. I was never happy enough with it to submit, but I figured I may as post it here, so the effort doesn't go completely to waste!





Countdown

For the years ticked down,
     now months, weeks, days,
I saw, and see the children around me
(yes! children! and myself one of them!)
watched waited wondered
as something clicked, ticked, snapped
     and we changed
     first to the Youth,
     then to the Men and Women who sit here today
Have we yet wisdom, of age and time?
maybe. maybe not.
Are we yet cynics, passing our prime?
maybe. I think not.
but nonetheless, we grow to be
newly a part, no longer prisoners,
of this world we live in,
and we count four.

Three years of a new language -
- mine was Spanish.
     I have to wonder:
     were wrong words and garbled grammar
     purely the point of the practice?
     or was it the Communication,
     and the Translation (not of words, but of attitudes)
     the lesson of lasting value?
Three points make a plane,
     Three laws by Newton's name
          Three lines per haiku
          (but I admit, I find that
          to be far too few)
These are the lessons of learning, subjects of schooling,
     but these are not what is taken from these years,
     these are not the memories of life and laughter
     these are not the times of trial and tears,
     which stay with us today, and for all days,
as we explore this world,
and we count three.

To be here today, on arena floor,
as our friends and family have been before,
is truth and testament to tribulations
     to wishes and work, which brought us here
and to that end, I take a moment
to congratulate us, undoubtedly,
     but more, to thank those
     teachers, mentors, family and friends
     who pushed us to today
     who told us "Yes!" when we thought "No"
     who said to us "Can!" we we insisted "Can't!"
     who asked us "What do you dream?"
          and gave us the power to reach for it.
Thank you. With you,
we are ready for the world,
and we count two.

One thing to say, an illusion to dispel,
we see ourselves not as "shining stars"
     not "tomorrow's hope" or the "generation's leaders":
     what does that even mean?
We are human, with hopes and ambitions,
and when I see that I smile
for it does not matter what is expected of us
when what we want for ourselves is so much more.
We are our own stars, our own hopes,
and our own leaders
     for our own future.
That's enough to take on anything in our world,
and we count one.

We stand, we live, we learn, we dream,
     now we leave, duty fulfilled and legacy left
     to those who will follow behind.
4.
3.
2.
1.

Done.