Claims And Issues

"You Say It's Your Birthday"*

 

"You Say It's Your Birthday"*

by

Dennis Wall

A Villanelle in Honor of the Beatles, Birthdays, and (Writer's) Block.

Saturday, September 10, 2022

*Reflecting the suggestions of the Writer's Block Group Zoom,

 Monday, September 12, 2022

 

It's Birthday Week in my life

I heard the song of joy

Saw the slice from a cake knife.

 

Good songs sung from a  cake knife

My child's a girl, not boy.

It's birthday week in my life.

 

Oft I saw the birthday life

I miss the sound of joy,

Saw the slice from a cake knife.

 

Harming none, it fed, that knife.

When mind recalls the joy

It's birthday week in my life.

 

Then we celebrated life

Every girl and boy

Saw the slice from a cake knife.

 

Make time in American life

Important in days of strife

Birthday week lived to  enjoy

Saw the slice from a cake knife.

©2022 Dennis J. Wall  All rights reserved.

-30- The End.

FOCUS ON THE ONE ISSUE THAT WILL DECIDE THE THING.

(LexisNexis)

I focus on the one issue that will decide the case.  I have done this for many years.  For me, it has been the key to persuasion, a very successful technique.

When I write, I focus on the one issue that will decide the piece.  This is natural enough, I can see, what with all that successful experience of focusing on the one issue that will decide the matter.

However, it is not a universally shared approach to cases, writing, or other matters.  This lesson came hard to me, but it came nonetheless.  Focusing separates people, whether they are writing or not.  But today, and here, I am writing about writing.

My observation in this blog article is a simple one.  Actually I have already made it:  Focus on the one issue that will decide the piece that I am writing.

For example, I originally wrote a poem about lawyers arguing cases and especially about judges deciding cases.  It was and is a poem about what it is like to experience the ways in which one group makes their arguments and the other group decides.   I wrote the poem as a villanelle and openly based it on Dylan Thomas's famous poem Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night.  I even called my poem Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Fight.

Well, I must have lost sight a little bit of my overriding objective in writing the piece.  I did not know it when I wrote it, but based on reaction to it, I must have lost sight of the one issue that prompted me to write it in the first place.

Some people reacted to it as though I wrote an indictment of all judges or maybe all lawyers, or both.  Plus the tone was a little intense, perhaps, in the original version which is all right, of course, except that in this case it distracted from the reason I wrote the poem.

So, I tweaked it.  I used a couple of different words and edited some punctuation to make my meaning clearer:  I wrote the poem about judges who write overly long opinions about very little things.

Hopefully my edited version, now online here, reflects that.  And hopefully the edited version also reflects a little less intensity about the people in it, while preserving a real sense of enthusiasm for the subject of it.  It tells a story that in my view still needs to be told even if, in this case, it needed to be tweaked.

Please read the disclaimer.  ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

LEGAL VILLANELLE. 010121.Update 01.03.21.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD FIGHT.

©2021 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

To those judges, not all judges, who write big opinions that do not say as much as they seem to think they do.  They share every one of their thoughts.  They shall not be named.  They also serve.

 

Do not go gentle into those good fights,

Authors should write and write all they can say;

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Though it's clear wise people leave others their own lights,

Because their words never righted any wrongs, they

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

 

Good people, on all sides, crying how bright

Their frail rights might have danced in a fair court,

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Wild ones who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

 

Grave claims near death, are seen in glaring sight,

Blind eyes blaze and hearts no role to play,

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

And you, your honor, there on the sad height,

Some judges, not all, write more than they say;

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Inspired by Dylan Thomas who urged rage against the dying of the light.

 

A LEGAL VILLANELLE FOR TODAY.

DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THOSE GOOD FIGHTS.

©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.

To the judges who write big opinions signifying little.  They shall not be named.  They also serve.

 

Do not go gentle into those good fights,

Authors should write and write all they can say;

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Though it's clear wise people leave others their own lights,

Because their words never righted any wrongs they

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

 

Good people, on all sides, crying how bright

Their frail rights might have danced in a fair court,

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Wild ones who caught and sang the sun in flight,

And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

 

Grave claims near death, are seen in blinding sight

Blind eyes blaze and hearts no role to play,

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

And you, your honor, there on the sad height,

Curse, bless me now with your fierce fears, I pray;

Do not go gentle into those good fights.

Page, page before they turn off the lights.

 

Inspired by Dylan Thomas who urged rage against the dying of the light.

This poem ©2020 Dennis J. Wall.  All rights reserved.