Philippe Poem by Chazz

My poem for Philippe Petit was an interesting one to write. I actually didn't find it difficult once I began brainstorming of different ideas. The writing idea that I immediately thought of was to put myself or someone else in the event that had occurred on that August day. I wanted to imagine what it would be like to actually be there, and to react in a way that I thought was necessary. The revisions that I made to my poem was to add some better word choices, and more lines, and to create a title that would relate to the event.

Poem: That Brave Man Up There

1974

A clear August day

dashing down the street of New York

you suddenly hear someone say

“Hey look there’s a man up there”,

and you gaze in disbelief

observing from the bottom of the world trade center

How could it be?

More than 1300 feet

there stands a man in the air

a tiny little fragment of himself

who clearly had a dream

and lacked a sense of despair

and although his reason seems very unclear

“Hey everyone look, there’s a man up there”

Dancing, jumping, doing other tricks

How was it possible that he was doing something like this?

And yes, he was actually quite insane

But Philippe Petit was his name

"Fear is a lack of knowledge", Philippe would scream

and everyone in their life has a dream 

whether it's big or small,

it will fit somewhere along the seam