Yes, John Boy. (OK, so it’s been a slow week 🙂

In The Chicken Thief episode, Ben received a letter from Liberty magazine saying he’d won a poetry contest, but guilt plagued him as his poem on winter closely resembled that of his brother’s poem on spring.

Enter John-Boy, who quickly put Ben’s mind at ease by sharing that writers have been inspiring other writers for hundreds of years, adding their own voice, and thereby creating their own masterpiece. Ben had used John-Boy’s idea—but ended up writing a better poem.

It was the only part of the episode I caught, but I’m glad I did. In the past, I’ve actually avoided reading both poetry and prose in fear of unconsciously using a word, phrase, or idea another writer may have already used. My writer’s group, however, enlightened me to the fact there’s “nothing new under the sun” but there is much to learn from more experienced writers.

I can’t imagine my world without the writer’s group—or John-Boy, of course.

Poem – “A Winter Mountain” by Benjamin Walton –

            Our mountain in winter is something to see
         at times it is just like a person to me.
         A giant in white all covered with snow
         it changes each day as the heavy winds blow.
         And when I'm alone and I go for a walk
         it's almost as if that old mountain can talk.
         It seems to say Welcome my Winter Friend
         I was here at the beginning, I'll be here at the end.

And what would a post on the Walton’s be without Earl Hamner’s distinctive “voice” to close us out?

“Outside our mountain the world was in deep depression, but we were sheltered by a common bond. The accomplishment of one was the accomplishment of all. We shared our glories, our defeats, our hopes, our aspirations, but mostly our love”.