Editorial – Park Bench

Posted by Brad Osborne on August 4, 2021 · 18 Comments 

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Will is a gentleman of indeterminable age. His disheveled look and gray hair bode of some miles on the old man, but his demeanor, clarity of thought, and somewhat caustic humor speaks like he is living his youth. I met Will by sheer circumstance, after sitting to write on a bench. To be honest, I’ll admit to first judging the book by the cover, as my initial hope was that he would just sit quietly and leave me to my journal.

My pen had barely started to scratch out a thought when he first spoke to me. He, with beautiful diction and delivery recited Kilmer’s poem ‘Trees’. He did it well. The old guy almost got a tear out of me. It led to one of the most interesting conversations in my life. We sat for what seemed like hours, because it was hours. Though it felt like minutes. His buoyance of character and his ability to converse so knowledgably, along with his continued sporadic references by citation or oration to some of the greatest works, lent me to believe he had penned words of his own at some time. I got his permission to write things down as we spoke, and it seemed only a signal to him to wax on.

The limit of my speed in writing focused me on what was being said. There were a few things I most assuredly missed, and I have had to paraphrase some of my own choppy scribblings. If there was a lull, which rarely happened, I did my best Dan Rather and asked a pointed question. It didn’t help that I couldn’t often go back to write an exact phrasing. Sometimes, it seemed impossible for him to say the same thing, the exact same way, twice. But with all that, I was forever changed by the shared wisdom of this old man. Reflection on his words led to some real epiphanies for me as a writer and poet. A day that had started like so many others, had somehow held this tremendous moment, though I could have never dreamed that is what the day held in store when I awoke. I rightfully anticipate I may never see Will again. Just goes to show, it only takes once to be memorable.

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Filed under General · Tagged with age, chance, changed, circumstance, epiphany, memorable, old age, park bench, Poetry, rare, time, vision, wisdom, words, writing