I was blind
Once
I could only hear the story
Seeing it not possible
I listened to the story over and over
But without sight the story was limited
And yet I listened to it
Over and over again
Even though I could not see
And then
Forty years later
I could see the story
And hear it
The story became full
Seeing and hearing
It makes sense now
I understand the story
I am blind no longer
© Ruby Neumann
Poet's Note: Written August 17, 2020
Robin Hood… The animated Disney version of the movie is the inspiration for this poem. When I was a child, my mom had some records that contained the audio of various Disney movies. All I had was the records, I didn't see any movies, so I didn't know they existed. One of those records was Robin Hood. Robin Hood is a Fox, Little John is a Bear, Alan a Dale is a Rooster… the whole cast is animals.
There were pictures in the record album, so I could see drawings of the cast of characters… but the story was hard to follow. I listened to them "over and over again". I had the songs memorized and the dialogue imbedded in my memory.
Forty some years pass by and I saw the movie for the first time, just a few months ago. Then I saw it again today. I sang along to the songs that were familiar to me, bringing me back to my childhood. I remembered the dialogue, but now it made sense to me. The words fit, now that they were reunited with the active figures on the screen. What a huge difference. The story became alive.
I wanted to write something that captured the emotion of the discovery… and I defaulted to my best emotional communication device… Poetry.
It ignited something in me regarding my life journey. As a child, everything was so limited. I didn't understand much, because of my "blindness". But now that I am forty years farther down the road, there is so much more clarity, because I can see things I didn't before. I am able to piece the audio only version of my life together with a much more complete moving picture. How precious is that… and all inspired and revealed… through Robin Hood.
