“When you're a certain age and becoming conscious that you're inadequate in school — which I was — it's a lonely feeling,” Hopkins adds. "You feel isolated and bullied and all the rest of it. I was pretty strong, so nobody bullied me, but I did feel isolated. And I look back on it all now as the greatest gift that I could have been given, because it was the rocket fuel that sort of drove me to do something with my life. So life and destiny are very peculiar. God, whatever God is, has a great sense of humor. And here I am, composing at the age of 74.”—“Anthony Hopkins Lives Out A Long-Deferred Musical Dream,” www.npr.org/music
even if mr. hopkins is covered with embarrassment
over an early work like “distant star”
that combines his welsh voice with music
apologia is unnecessary for the work
that continues to pour out of him
& magnify his image on
the screen afterwards
now here’s a man who shows
there are worlds within reach,
worlds to see & long to be in
when shadows start encroaching
it’s a world that puts a slight lie
in the truth of that langston hughes
line of “What happens
to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
it’s a thought worth reviewing
as one elderly after another casts aside
long-ago dreams for want of resources,
for lack of will, for forgetting
they once nursed other dreams
after they’ve gone past survival mode
& accrued the means to complete
that phrase in their youth’s slum books:
“when i grow up i want to be…”
the dots have been connected since
in ways beyond the elderly had expected
but that first & second acts of their lives
aren’t enough to quiet their yearning souls
a big vat remains unfilled inside them
nearly emptied by a lifetime's sacrifice
save some for yourself!
that is mr. hopkins’s message
for the time when you
can tinkle a cottage piano
compose fresh notes of music
& put the original plan
back in place again
--Babeth Lolarga
Source of quotation and photo: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/10/148302534/anthony-hopkins-lives-out-a-long-deferred-musical-dream
over an early work like “distant star”
that combines his welsh voice with music
apologia is unnecessary for the work
that continues to pour out of him
& magnify his image on
the screen afterwards
now here’s a man who shows
there are worlds within reach,
worlds to see & long to be in
when shadows start encroaching
it’s a world that puts a slight lie
in the truth of that langston hughes
line of “What happens
to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up like a raisin in the sun?”
it’s a thought worth reviewing
as one elderly after another casts aside
long-ago dreams for want of resources,
for lack of will, for forgetting
they once nursed other dreams
after they’ve gone past survival mode
& accrued the means to complete
that phrase in their youth’s slum books:
“when i grow up i want to be…”
the dots have been connected since
in ways beyond the elderly had expected
but that first & second acts of their lives
aren’t enough to quiet their yearning souls
a big vat remains unfilled inside them
nearly emptied by a lifetime's sacrifice
save some for yourself!
that is mr. hopkins’s message
for the time when you
can tinkle a cottage piano
compose fresh notes of music
& put the original plan
back in place again
--Babeth Lolarga
Source of quotation and photo: http://www.npr.org/2012/03/10/148302534/anthony-hopkins-lives-out-a-long-deferred-musical-dream
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