The Night I Wrote My First Poem - 35 Years Ago Tonight

35 years ago tonight, I went to bed at 11pm. every weeknight I would turn on the radio on 88.7FM to listen to the channel 6 news, which was broadcast on that frequency in those days. Back then NBC was on channel 6, so after the news was done, I would listen to the tonight show with Johnny Carson before going to sleep. Well, that night was only just beginning because at 11:30, as the news was coming to a close and the newscaster said that they just received a report that John Lennon had been shot outside his home in NY City. I flew out of bed and ran into the living room, turned on the tv to the Monday Night Football game because I knew the news would come on after the game. Also, I knew that Howard Cosell knew John Lennon, so if there was any word on John's condition, Howard would make an announcement. Very soon after I turned it on, Howard did indeed make the announcement, but it was not the one I was hoping for. Instead of saying John was ok in the hospital, Howard said the most terrible words I could imagine. John Lennon was dead. Just remembering it brings it all back, like a wave drowning me in sorrow. I did not sleep that night and did not go to school the next day. I was up listening to a radio station playing John's music over a tv channel that scrolled AP New stories 24 hours a day. There was no CNN or MSNBC in those days, or internet, so that was the only source of 24 hour news.
I will never forget that night or that one of the songs they played over that radio station inspired my first real poem. Had John not died that night, I would not be writing poetry to this day. I would gladly never have written any of them if I could wake up to find it was not true. It still doesn't seem real. It seems like a nightmare I can't wake up from. Wherever John went after he died, that is where I want to go when I die...
jj