A Heart-Wrenching But Beautiful Poem about Growing up with Alcoholism


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Patrick Roche is a poet and a student at Princeton University. He grew up with an alcoholic father whose addiction ultimately killed him. You learn that at the beginning of Roche's poem entitled "21." It provides a timeline of Roche's experience of his father, but told in reverse, from the present day to Roche's earliest memories.

It's simply beautiful.

Roche condenses the pain ingeniously in this presentation of his poem  at the 2014 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational in Boulder, Colorado. The line at 0:50 is particularly artful.


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I appreciate the efforts of every person and organization involved to protect the survival of other creatures, including through their writings.
Regards.
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I once encountered a marmot sunning his belly at Old Faithful. I called him a fool. Ten feet away were the remains of a moose.

Coincidence?
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Animals destined only to his passion and create a balance of the food chain.
But if talking about the greedy, I'd rather remember the human. What is not eaten? From grass to swallow fleas. Though - they've given a reasonable mind.
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Have Colorado summers really grown so long? I haven't noticed that summer is longer where I live. Are they now considering October to be summer month there now?
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