Once Upon a Time in My Life

fog

I love to relate a story about when I was working at a Kmart in St. John's, Newfoundland.

A young coworker of mine was at my house for a poker game. He noticed on my wall, several framed copies of poems I had published in a provincial magazine.

One in particular caught his eye.

Fog

From out on the ocean

It comes rolling in

On silent footsteps

Pushed by the wind

Covering the beaches

Hiding the bay

Until the morning sun

Melts it away

A simple 8 line poem.

He told me that his English professor had used this very poem in a discussion, along with other poems.

I was intrigued.

The young man told me that the professor explained that the poem was written to explain the beginnings of creation and how in the beginning there was a vast nothing that was taken away by the creation of life.

The fog represented that time when the Earth was preparing and creating life and that the ocean, of course, was the creator of life. The fog rolling into land represented life stepping onto land and of course, the lifting of the fog, was when the first life walked on land.

Again, I was intrigued.

So he asked me what it meant. Was the professor right?

I asked him what he thought.

"Sounds like a poem about fog," was his response.

I laughed.

"That is exactly what it is."

The next Monday he got into a heated argument with the professor about the meaning of the poem which ended with the professor making the statement...

"Young man. I have been teaching this class for 30 years and I am a Master of poetry. I think I am a little better qualified than you, to present an explanation of what this poem means.

What gives you the right to question my opinion?"

The young man simply smiled.

"The guy that wrote that poem is my boss at work."

The professor, in spite of himself, had to laugh.

The class applauded.