Tim Kinney's Posts - Zoobird2024-03-29T00:23:04ZTim Kinneyhttps://www.zoobird.com/profile/TimKinneyhttps://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2310080903?profile=RESIZE_48X48&width=48&height=48&crop=1%3A1https://www.zoobird.com/profiles/blog/feed?user=1fxy1purjb8or&xn_auth=noThe Cold Within by James Patrick Kinneytag:www.zoobird.com,2011-06-24:2129360:BlogPost:387392011-06-24T14:06:47.000ZTim Kinneyhttps://www.zoobird.com/profile/TimKinney
<p>My father quit school in the 10th grade to support his mother, but he spent the rest of his life reading widely, and attempting self-education. At some point, he fell in love with poetry, and wrote some himself. He had studied older poets, and wrote in a somewhat archaic style, which was quite out of fashion. Still, one of his poems has achieved immortality. Fifty years after it was written, and many years after my father's death, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Cold…</span></p>
<p>My father quit school in the 10th grade to support his mother, but he spent the rest of his life reading widely, and attempting self-education. At some point, he fell in love with poetry, and wrote some himself. He had studied older poets, and wrote in a somewhat archaic style, which was quite out of fashion. Still, one of his poems has achieved immortality. Fifty years after it was written, and many years after my father's death, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">The Cold Within</span> is widely quoted on the internet, there's a youtube video, it's a perennial favorite among ministers of many denominations, and once appeared in Dear Abby.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The Cold Within</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Six humans trapped by happenstance</p>
<p>In bleak and bitter cold.</p>
<p>Each one possessed a stick of wood</p>
<p>Or so the story's told.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their dying fire in need of logs</p>
<p>The first man held his back</p>
<p>For of the faces 'round the fire</p>
<p>He noticed one was black.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The next man looking cross the way</p>
<p>Saw one not of his church</p>
<p>And couldn't bring himself to give</p>
<p>The fire his stick of birch.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The third one sat in tattered clothes.</p>
<p>He gave his coat a hitch.</p>
<p>Why should his log be put to use</p>
<p>To warm the idle rich?</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The rich man just sat back and thought</p>
<p>Of the wealth he had in store</p>
<p>And how to keep what he had earned</p>
<p>From the lazy, shiftess poor.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The black man's face bespoke revenge</p>
<p>As the fire passed from sight.</p>
<p>For all he saw in his stick of wood</p>
<p>Was a chance to spite the white.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>The last man of this forlorn group</p>
<p>Did naught except for gain.</p>
<p>Giving only to those who gave</p>
<p>Was how he played the game.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>Their logs held tight in death's still hands</p>
<p>Was proof of human sin.</p>
<p>They didn't die from the cold without,</p>
<p>They died from the cold within.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>James Patrick Kinney</p>
<p> </p>