Poetry Train Monday - 128 - I Won't Back Down

As I mentioned last week, I'll be using song lyrics for the remainder of November for the Poetry Train, due to my writing marathon for NaNoWriMo.


This week was even more desperate than last week.


Last week, when I asked Eugene Hutz to help me out, I thought the Blue Meanies had done with their conspiracy to shake my resolve. My glasses had already fallen apart at the bridge as I was typing away on my NaNo novel. I was without glasses for three days. But did I miss work? No. Did I stop writing? No. Could I see anything? No.

I could even ignore the fact that I felt like absolute crap. I only had to work Mon. and Tues., had my birthday off work for Remembrance Day, worked on Thurs. and had Fri. off (my every-three-weeks earned-day-off.) That's a three-day-weekend for lots of word-count accumulation, right?

Wrong.

The flu knocked me out cold. Flattened. Steamrollered. I crawled into work on Mon., but from Tues. on I stayed home. I slept. And slept. And slept. And slept. Fell down the stairs, too, in there somewhere. Very, very dizzy. No writing at all for two entire days. Zero additions to my word count. NaNo kept on. I didn't.

Did I ever mention I come from a long line of Extremely Stubborn Acadians?

This week I'll let these lyrics explain my state of mind, as I haul myself back into my seat at the computer. Help me out, Tom.

















Photo by Karl Walter


I Won't Back Down


Well I won't back down
No, I won't back down
You could stand me up at the gates of hell
But I won't back down

Gonna stand my ground
Won't be turned around
And I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
Gonna stand my ground

And I won't back down

Hey, baby
There ain't no easy way out
Hey
I will stand my ground
And I won't back down

Well, I know what's right
I got just one life
In a world that just keeps pushin' me around
But I'll stand my ground

And I won't back down


- Jeff Lynne and Tom Petty, 1989



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