My earliest memory of being introduced to poetry and storytelling was in 1960, at the age of four, when my maternal grandmother shared her rendition of ‘The Night Before Christmas’ (Chapter 41) with my two older sisters and me and soon after I was visiting Grandmother regularly throughout my childhood to share other poems and children’s stories she had created. As well, I recall sitting beside her at the piano often, where we would joyously sing many of the songs from a collection of Gilbert & Sullivan musicals known for their witty lyrics and memorable music (Gilbert & Sullivan, 1941). Of note, Grandfather passed away in 1967, at the age of 70, prompting me to help maintain their large rhododendron and azalea gardens when I was available after school and on weekends until I went off to college in 1974. However, on the days that the weather didn’t cooperate, Grandmother would invite me inside to visit and over time I began writing my own poetry and short stories as a way of processing and expressing my feelings and emotions inside. She was a tremendous mentor, not only improving my technical and creative writing skills but also helping me to understand and truly appreciate many great works of art, which continued until her passing on Christmas Eve, 1984. For instance, when I wrote, ‘The Night Before the Exam’ (Chapter 33), my adaptation of Edgar Allen Poe’s famous literary work, ‘The Raven’ (Poe, 1845), I was struggling with overwhelming sorrow and embarrassment resulting from my withdrawing from medical school during my sophomore year at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). In fact, my poem is a dramatic reenactment of my intense feelings of being all alone and distraught, late at night, trying to prepare for the inevitable (Cardiovascular Pathophysiology) Final Exam the following morning, while ‘plans for sleep were mere illusion’ if I hoped to avoid, ‘that dreadful sorrow of a failing score’, knowing full well that it would doom me to ‘Repeat the course Forevermore’. For me, it would have been impossible to adequately express my emotions at that precise moment without poetry, and as a result I found a way to take back control of the situation and move forward with my life. In fact, in that final year (1984) preceding Grandmother’s death, while I was back home trying to reconcile those dark and tortured emotions, she presented me with this silly little poem that she had re-written to inspire me to continue my writing:

In a workaday world, what a marvelous fact 
What a daydreamer’s mystical feat
With nary a thought of reward in sight 
I’d rather write than eat.
What drives me to this lofty height
My bathroom scales each night
Scream as they tremble beneath my feet
Then for Gawd sakes Grandson, WRITE!

I later renamed it ‘Poetry Reflects Life’ in her honor as she taught me that poetry does, in fact, reflect life, and it comes in all styles, even lyrical, as some of the best poetic verse can be found in music. As well, poetry does not have to be serious to be taken seriously, just as long as it expresses an idea or emotion that is relatable. Grandmother truly was my inspiration for writing ‘The Night Before the Exam’ and I feel extremely fortunate that I was able to share it with her shortly before she died. 

In retrospect, I have always been fortunate to have a creative space for storytelling, in essence providing me with an important emotional outlet for expressing myself. After all, a storyteller is bestowed with mesmerizing power to guide an audience on a roller coaster of emotions from suspense to amusement to joy to sadness and on to an infinite number of other destinations at his or her sole discretion, just through the spoken word. As you read each of the stories from the first 30 years of my life, hopefully, you will realize that I have taken great care to identify which of these emotions were most responsible for controlling my mood and resulting action at that particular moment in time, thus allowing me to understand, reflect and move forward. Again, I look forward to sharing this ‘Creative Space for Storytelling’ here at ReflectWithJames.com.