An Olympic poem in honour of the athletes

Shakespeare said

all the world’s a stage

and the world’s watching London

 

I’m watching it

on a television screen

and little snippets I can

sneak in here and there

on my computer

when I’m supposed to be working

I’m not the only one, right?

 

For two weeks

every four years

the world is watching,

cheering,

crying,

getting inspired

 

we can’t get enough

of excellence

of seeing one of ours get

awarded with a medal

and hearing that song —

our song

fill the stadium

more goosebumps than I ever got from standing in the cold

 

then the athletes

come and go

and we say,

“see you in four years”

as if four years

happens as fast

as pressing power on the remote

 

athletes, you’re on,

but what about all that time

in-between when you’re not on?

toiling away in obscurity,

like this warning sign from Cambridge’s website

to deter all but the most dedicated graduate students,

You will spend long hours in the library working on a topic which on a black day might seem to be of interest to no one else in the world. You should bear in mind that you will probably be poor, and that you will almost certainly have to spend a great deal of time reading material which you find unappetizing in order to master your chosen field.

So British, eh?

no sugar-coating, no beating around the bush

You could substitute gym for library,

training for reading,

and say the same thing

for athletes and their 6 am practices,

sacrifices,

and persistence in

repeating the same strokes, lifts, throws, routines,

to be as best as they can be

 

when the world finally opens its eyes

and all that toiling in darkness

comes into light

and we celebrate with you

because you’re glowing

 

but what about those times when you do better in the dark?

when you race the fastest

without the pressure of

a million eyes

 

on and off

aren’t just settings on TV

we take it for granted

you’ll always be around

doing what you love

because that’s what you do, right?

you’re a runner, cyclist, swimmer

you’ll always be one

 

but sometimes this really is

goodbye

and we probably won’t appreciate

everything you did

until we don’t see you in Rio

because there’s nothing more present

than absence

 

you’re off the stage

the curtain closes

and our watching turns to remembering.

 

to all the athletes who toil away in obscurity

to those who shine in the spotlight and those who shine when it’s off

and to those whose last act is London – Clara Hughes, Brent Hayden, Simon Whitfield,

this one’s for you — 

thank you.

by Charlene Kwiatkowski

Clara Hughes. “I really hope that maybe people will remember the way that I did what I did. Not what I did, but the way in which I did it.”

Brent Hayden. “I think tonight was just about digging down deep, right into my soul . . . There are so many times when you dream about something and a million out of a million-and-one times, it won’t come true.”

“Yeah, it was hard. It was hard to see my daughter upset, my wife upset, and I was pretty upset. Ah, that’s life. That means it means something, doesn’t it?”