STORY BEHIND THE POEM
“ADVICE FROM
THE OLD GUY”
.
During the month of March
2005, a
film crew from the local produced TV show “To Serve and Protect” (it’s
the
Canadian equivalent of the American TV Show COPS), decided to do a
feature
story on me. Because I have spent my
entire career working “on the street” and combined that with writing
poetry, I
suppose I became interesting.
.
Whatever the reason, the
producers
of the show Dan Forrer and Dwight Mitchell, did a tremendous job on the
segment. It was almost 15 minutes long
and I was very touched by it. I also
received an awful lot of accolades for the show, which were more
deserved by
them.
.
One of the segments that
they wanted
to feature, was my poetry. Dwayne (who
was my cameraman for the shoot) came over and filmed a segment of me
reading
several poems, including one I wrote specifically for the show, this
one. This is the only poem of the show
that
actually aired on the show, which was broadcast on May 1, 2005 on a
local
station KVOS-TV.
.
The poem itself is pretty
self
explanatory, an old guy passing along advice to the newer police
officers who
are starting out their careers, and wishing them well.
The poem just basically recaps things I have
learned during my 30 plus years in policing and since I will be
retiring on
November 30, 2005, I wanted to get this poem out to all the wonderful
new
police officers taking the place of those of us who are retiring.
.