“When my spirit is broken
I retreat to
my spirit home,
The wilderness…”
Peter
Coppelman
An attorney turned into a poet--Peter Coppelman--
shares life experiences with candor and humor. It takes courage to expose one’s
intimate thoughts and vulnerability. Coppelman’s poetry helped to save his
life, building a path of resilience and gratitude.
“Each day that I’m alive I have a choice:
To wallow in
despair or to rejoice…”
Coppelman devoted his legal career “to public interest work, trying to help make the world a better, more just, more peaceful place.” At the end of the book there is information about his legacy. The essence of his career was inspired by Murphy Bell (1930-2017), an attorney who worked to end segregation in school districts around Louisiana.
Some of Peter Coppelman's main accomplishments have to do with the conservation of public spaces that were endangered; he created new National Monuments that were threatened under the Trump administration; he also worked to support the rights of disabled people in California (You can learn more details about his achievements from A Life of Service).
There comes
a stage in life when one is inclined to reflect on the past and examine
experiences from new perspectives, dredging up wisdom and offering inspiration
for new generations of people. His poetical world sifts memories of childhood,
youth and adulthood through a creative lens. Sometimes he quotes poets like
Walt Whitman and Mary Oliver, merging their words with his own verses. This
happens, for example, in his poem “I contain multitudes”.
“So many personas, the list goes on,
When writing
a poem I can choose one to don.
Worrier,
sinner, athlete, musician.
The sky’s
the limit of what my life includes.
I contain
multitudes.”
The poetry collection also reveals the ways the recent pandemic impacted his life and the
lives of others, and how the power of his imagination had the potential to
create a refuge in times of uncertainty.
My favorite poems from this collection
are “Dances with the Whales”, “Journaling” and “Baby Gordy”.
The only
poem I disliked was the one about bullfighting. I found this poem to be at odds
with the rest of his collection, and it contradicts his vision. I think that the cheering of a bullfighter indicates how the normalization of violence and
cruelty influences societies, and this normalization blinds people to the tragic
consequences of such attitudes and actions. Rules and regulations are not enough
to work against acts of violence. A change of mindset is also required. The
fact that he was not disgusted by the bullfighter's behavior is a clear indicator of what I am trying to
convey through my words.
Torturing and killing animals for amusement is
unethical and disgusting.
I now recall Mahatma Gandhi’s words: “The greatness
of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are
treated.”
Bullfighting
is an act of cruelty and it is not an acceptable “cultural tradition”. Even
though 76 percent of citizens in Spain oppose it, it is still legal there. You
can learn more about this issue by checking the site of the Humane Society
International.
https://www.hsi.org/issues/cruelty-entertainment/
https://www.hsi.org/news-resources/bullfighting_how_help/
I received a copy of the book from the
publisher in exchange for an honest review.
If you
enjoyed this post, you can check my writing on the following books:
Inside Animals Hearts and Minds by Belinda Recio
Unlikely Friendships by Jennifer Holland
The Animals Agenda: Freedom, Compassion and Coexistence in the human age by Jessica Pierce and Marc Bekoff
