deepundergroundpoetry.com
The Family Way
Brother you've done it once again
Doctor Brother now thinks I'm insane
Analyzed me without hearing my pain
Brother should I forgive you?
Brother! Brother can you forgive me?
I've done only what I wanted to do
I couldn't live up to you, so I was me
Do you know, brother, that I love you?
Brother will you forgive me?
Father, Father can you forgive me?
Do you know why I've leaned on you?
I needed childhood support, not money
Do you know, father, that I love you?
Father will you forgive me?
Mother! Mother can you forgive me?
Do you know how I tried to love you?
Mother, why was it so hard to tell me?
Do you know, mother, that I love you?
Mother will you forgive me?
_________________________________________
*03/31/1983
Copyright © 2004 JJ Johnson
US Copyright Office Registration: TXu1-162-978
Library of Congress Control # 2006905763
ISBN-13: 978-1419633096
Seeds and Weeds
http://astore.amazon.com/seedsandweeds-20
Doctor Brother now thinks I'm insane
Analyzed me without hearing my pain
Brother should I forgive you?
Brother! Brother can you forgive me?
I've done only what I wanted to do
I couldn't live up to you, so I was me
Do you know, brother, that I love you?
Brother will you forgive me?
Father, Father can you forgive me?
Do you know why I've leaned on you?
I needed childhood support, not money
Do you know, father, that I love you?
Father will you forgive me?
Mother! Mother can you forgive me?
Do you know how I tried to love you?
Mother, why was it so hard to tell me?
Do you know, mother, that I love you?
Mother will you forgive me?
_________________________________________
*03/31/1983
Copyright © 2004 JJ Johnson
US Copyright Office Registration: TXu1-162-978
Library of Congress Control # 2006905763
ISBN-13: 978-1419633096
Seeds and Weeds
http://astore.amazon.com/seedsandweeds-20
Published 7th Jan 2012
All writing remains the property of the author. Don't use it for any purpose without their permission.
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comments 15
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7th Jan 2012 11:18am
It's sad to be misunderstood or unforgiven my one's we love the most.
A great portrayal of that here.
Nice work.
A great portrayal of that here.
Nice work.
8th Jan 2012 3:04am
Thank you Rachel, This one goes way back, almost 30 years, right after Quarter-Life Crisis. Who a person becomes as an adult is formed early in life and what your family imprints on you in the first few years is a message that speaks to the mind for as long as you live. Overcoming the bad is sometimes more important than learning the good. What holds a person back can be something as simple as a single phrase uttered to a learning child, "you'll never amount to anything"...
7th Jan 2012 11:22am
an interesting way of looking at how families are. The trespasses and the plea to be forgiven. Always enjoy your poem, poetryman.
8th Jan 2012 3:09am
Thanks for commenting Grace, someone once told me the first step to healing is forgiving those who inflict the wounds. I'm not sure if that's true, but making the effort is better than reopening a cut that never stops bleeding.
8th Jan 2012 5:39am
In some ways it is true, but something done wrong is never quite forgiven much less forgotten.
7th Jan 2012 8:30pm
Yes, a lovely poem indeed.
Brotherly, Motherly, Fatherly love can be difficult in itself.
Brotherly, Motherly, Fatherly love can be difficult in itself.
8th Jan 2012 3:11am
Tough love is better than no love, or at least that's how it feels when one is on the side of the fense with no love. The grass is always greener, or so they say... jj
8th Jan 2012 8:34am
The grass will never be greener because no matter how great something gets, there will always be someone or something to put you down; even if it's just a little.
8th Jan 2012 8:53am
yes, you are right, that's basically the point of the saying, the grass only looks greener when you are on the other side. It's the same color, but the light shines on it at just the right angle when your're looking over the fense at it. Optical delusion, so to speak....
People want to raise themselves up and when they find they cannot, putting others down creates the illusioon of raising oneself up. Martin Luther King Jr taled about just that very thing in "The Drum Major Instinct" sermon he gave two months before he was killed. From the day we are born, we feel the need to be first, which means everyone else must be second, or further down the line. This is the basis for "3 Seeds".
People want to raise themselves up and when they find they cannot, putting others down creates the illusioon of raising oneself up. Martin Luther King Jr taled about just that very thing in "The Drum Major Instinct" sermon he gave two months before he was killed. From the day we are born, we feel the need to be first, which means everyone else must be second, or further down the line. This is the basis for "3 Seeds".
23rd Jan 2012 6:06am
I really like the beginning bit:
"Brother you've done it once again
Doctor Brother now thinks I'm insane
Analyzed me without hearing my pain
Brother should I forgive you?"
People as a general are very quick to make judgements, before they know what a person has been through or their amount of suffering.
The whole poem is really good - a rather typical family: problems arise, emotions are misconceived occasionally, it's not always so peachy.
Anyway - excellent read, you are a good writer and poet.
"Brother you've done it once again
Doctor Brother now thinks I'm insane
Analyzed me without hearing my pain
Brother should I forgive you?"
People as a general are very quick to make judgements, before they know what a person has been through or their amount of suffering.
The whole poem is really good - a rather typical family: problems arise, emotions are misconceived occasionally, it's not always so peachy.
Anyway - excellent read, you are a good writer and poet.
25th Jan 2012 4:48am
Thank you for the compliment Jimmy, and for commenting. You are so right on the not always so peachy, though my family has never struck me as remotely typical, lol. Every time we get together, I can hear the Adams Family Theme in my head and sometimes we just start snappy our fingers when someone gets creep or kooky, like spontanious finger snapping. We all know each other so well, if we couldn't laugh we would have killed each other years ago. That brother of mine is currently on my dis-owned list, for the third time.
22nd Jul 2012 7:50pm
Analyzed before knowing my pain....another great write. The more i read, the more I want more..
22nd Jul 2012 8:38pm
Well, when you have a psychologist for a brother and two of them graduated everything magna cum lade with ribbons and honors and blah blah blah, the end result is you get me... Thank you once again Alecia, you are the opposite of the inspirerers of this poem... jj
22nd Jul 2012 9:53pm
No, I may not be able to look at that burden with fully comprehensible eyes, but I understand. All of my 8 siblings were high honors scholars that were either valedictorian or salutatorian. 2 of which were bill gates scholars, an aviator and a nurse. Trophies of placing in state regarding to academics and sports. Their condescending eyes and what you consider "tough love" is the motivation you use to better yourself. To be a victim of favoritism is indeed devastating. But that's life...I think thats what this poem means. Never being good enough and possibly shoved aside..
22nd Jul 2012 10:49pm
ok, ya got me there.. lol. Yes, you know what I mean, as I was the youngest and my big brothers beat me up and left me out and always got extra helpings of food that never seemed to be in the pan when I got to the stove for seconds... By the time I went to college, my brothers used up the reserves and I wound up with endless loans to pay back. There were some things I didn't even find out about until this past year that I'm glad I didn't know about 30 years ago. But now I am here in this moment in time and at least there is someone like you who can reale to all I went through, or maybe more. It's nice to know I am not alone and good to have a shining light to share my shadow with... :) JJ
