Tell everybody a little about yourself
I am 72, married 49 years, two grown children. I live half time in Mexico, my wife’s beautiful homeland, and half time in the U.S. Much of my work, including three plays, has been in Spanish. A film based on one of those can be seen on Netflix, entitled “Como Caído del Cielo."
Was your creativity affected in any way during the lockdown? Did being lockdown make you feel inspired or deflated?
Quarantine has been a time of deep reflection. If anything, my creativity has been spurred. In the last two months, I have felt energized by the BLM protests, which hark me back to my own protest days in the 60s. Somehow, it feels more hopeful now, more likely to effect significant change for us all.
What was the main thinking behind your poem submitted to Together Behind Four Walls ?
The poem “The Acts of Everyone Else” was inspired by stories I read in newspapers about the heroic and tireless interventions of health workers all over the planet. I was raised reading the Bible, and love it, some as literature, some as moral/spiritual guidance. However, a distancing occurs when one reads the lives of holy men and women; they get isolated in the past tense. The Act of the Apostles, for example—they did this and that, etcetera. Great, but what are WE doing here and now? So I hoped to remind myself and the reader that “fearless acts of love” are happening every day, though few get reported in the papers….The other poem, "Living Trust," was written for my two children and two grandchildren. I heard the phrase when we were looking at what to do about writing our wills. I found the phrase to be wonderfully double entendre.
How would you describe the tone of your poems?
Prayerful.
If you had to write a poem about yourself, how would it start?
With the word “we."
YOU CAN GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT TOBY CAMPION BY VISITING HIS WEBSITE
www.tobycampion.com
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