One And All

This is a poem that my friend claims to be her favourite of my works. It is not my personal favourite-- how could I possibly chose? Nonetheless, it is one that I'm content with.

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One And All

I am the fighter,

The artist,

The thinker,

I am the scholar,

And I am the dreamer.

I am the cure,

And I am the cancer,

The healer,

And necromancer.

I am the sun,

And I am the moon,

Dead leaves,

And the bloom.

I am the demon,

Bathed in light,

And the angel,

Consumed by night.

I am one,

And I am all,

I cannot rise,

And will not fall.

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I wrote One And All one day during a maths class. This was a few months ago. To summarise, the poem is about the fact that humanity, and people cannot be defined by a single label. A doctor isn't just a doctor. There's more to an emo than black dye, straight razors, eyeliner and tears. This is outlined in the first stanza. The repetition of the phrase "I am" is used to attract attention to the multiple labels which define the speaker. The concept is then narrowed down to good and evil, positive and negative. Stanzas 2-4 are comprised of contrasting images. A healer is seen as positive, one who cures ailment. A necromancer, seen as negative, is a magician who manipulates the souls of the dead to their will. THe fact that the speaker is claiming to be both symbolises the 'yin and yang' within oneself. No human is purely good or purely evil. A person cannot be purely good, completely flawless and uncorrupted. Just as a person would cease to exist; kill themselves if that had not an ounce of good within their souls. These stanzas outline the balance of nature within individuals and the world itself. The final stanza speaks of the constant, in vain struggle for success and power, as well as the tenacity to prevent oneself from failing. It also addresses the current state of the world; the war in Iraq. Nobody is, by a great deal, winning, and the war has no foreseeable end. That said, neither side is yeilding. The final stanza describes the element of human nature, that last, desperate instinct, that prevents us from giving up, and the struggle to be more than we can be. To be superhuman.

One And All is simply my interpretation of human nature. The opinion of a young, naiive adolescent, non-religious female in modern Western society.