Losers

Mike Worrall," Forest Terminal"

Losers

If I should pass the tomb of Jonah
I would stop there and sit for awhile;
Because I was swallowed one time deep in the dark
And came out alive after all.

If I pass the burial spot of Nero
I shall say to the wind, 'Well, well!'-
I who have fiddled in a world on fire,
I who have done so many stunts not worth doing.

I am looking for the grave of Sinbad too.
I want to shake his ghost-hand and say,
'Neither of us died very early, did we?'

And the last sleeping-place of Nebuchadnezzar-
When I arrive there I shall tell the wind:
'You ate grass; I have eaten crow-
Who is better off now or next year?'

Jack Cade, John Brown, Jesse James,
There too I could sit down and stop for awhile.
I think I could tell their headstones:
'God, let me remember all good losers.'

I could ask people to throw ashes on their heads
In the name of that sergeant at Belleau Woods,
Walking into the drumfires, calling his men,
'Come on, you ... Do you want to live forever?' 

Carl Sandburg

Defeat, failure, foolishness - but bravado nonetheless? What is it that I love so much about it? I think it's the power of negative thinking. I mean, to identify with losers is a convincing realism. Being down gives perspective. We have all lost, we have all failed, we have all acted the fool. Coming to grips with that can give us compassion. - I think that's what I appreciate about this poem, it's about compassion and finding the grit to go on. Even if all the options look like they'll end in failure. The reference to Sergeant Major Daniel Joseph Daly and the battle at Belleau Woods especially gets to me. That call to a losing battle - I've heard it before, and I don't know if I can bear losing again, but this poem helps. I'm in this fight whether I like it or not. If living means losing, let's do it. Let's lose big.