"WHAT IF I FALL?" "OH BUT MY DARLING, WHAT IF YOU FLY?"

There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask "What if I fall?"
Oh but my darling,
What if you fly?  
by Erin Hanson

Do you love this poem?  "What if I fall?"  "Oh but my darling, What if you fly?"  It's the direct address, "my darling," that sets this quote apart.  The poetic speaker shows the questioner such tenderness.  The speaker is excited for the questioner, wants magic for the questioner.  The poetic speaker wants this for us, the reader.  We are the one asking the question.  We are the fearful one being encouraged. The speaker is anticipating what we want, what we fear and what we need.  

I first thought the amazing thing about this poem was that the poet, Erin Hanson of Brisbane, Australia, was only 19 when she wrote it.  And that she has written many beautiful poems.  Poems that speak to us with simple rhyme schemes and a bit of whimsy.  Such as, 

Your blindness to my downfall,

Has gone too far to be a joke,

As I stand ablaze before you,

And you tell me you smell smoke. 

Or the line, 

If you cannot be the poet, be the poem.

Of course many writers begin young and surely the ones who last do. Anne Frank (1929-1945) was a girl when she kept her Diary. Poet and writer Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) wrote at a young age.   And some of the world's greatest poets wrote and died young.  John Keats (1795-1821), still one of the most studied British poets, died of tuberculosis at age 25.  

What is so lovely about Erin Hanson's (www.thepoeticunderground.com) poem is that it reminds us that there are people like the poetic speaker in our lives.  I hear my mother's voice in the quote, "Oh but my darling what if you fly?"  Not only that, we can be this person for someone.  The person who never ever says, "You can't do it.  Don't even try."   

We can be this person for ourselves too.  We can whisper these words, gently encourage, lead with love.  I can say to myself when I have doubts, "Oh but my darling, What if you fly?" What if our hearts soar, our spirits rise, our souls lift off?  A good thing, yes?  I want to have this friend.  But even more I want to be this friend.  Even to a stranger.  Me to you and you to me.