On conformity

I would like to share a poem that’s strongly resonates with me especially when I feel misunderstood. The writer is unknown but enjoy anyway …..

On conformity

He always wanted to explain things

But no-one cared

So he drew

Sometimes he would draw and it wasn’t anything

He wanted to carve it in stone

Or write it in the sky

He would lie out on the grass

And look up at the sky

And it would be only the sky and him that needed saying

And it was after that

He drew the picture

It was a beautiful picture

He kept it under his pillow

And would let no one see it

And he would look at it every night

And think about it

And when it was dark

And his eyes were closed

He could still see it

And it was all of him

And he loved it

When he started school he brought it with him

Not to show anyone but just to have it with him

Like a friend

It was funny about school

He sat in a square brown desk

Like all the other square brown desks

And he thought it should be red

And his room was a square brown room

Like all the other rooms

And it was tight and close

And stiff

He hated to hold the pencil and chalk

With his arms stiff and his feet flat on the floor

Stiff

With the teacher watching

And watching

The teacher came and smiled at him

She told him to wear a tie

Like all the other boys

He said he didn’t like them

And she said it didn’t matter

After that they drew

And he drew all yellow

And it was the way he felt about morning

And it was beautiful

The teacher came and smiled at him

“What’s this?” she said

“Why don’t you draw something like Ken’s drawing?”

“Isn’t that beautiful?”

After that his mother bought him a tie

And he always drew airplanes and rocket ships

Like everyone else

And he threw the old picture away

And when he lay out alone and looked out at the sky

It was big and blue and all of everything

But he wasn’t anymore

He was square inside and brown

And his hands were stiff

And he was like everyone else

And the things inside him that needed saying

Didn’t need it anymore

It had stopped pushing

It was crushed

Filed under: Loneliness