GonzoToday
  • Pages
    • Front Page
    • Featured content
    • The GonzoToday Interview
    • Commentary
    • Poetry
    • ART
    • News
  • Music
    • Music videos
    • Music Reviews
  • Columns
    • The Publisher Pontificates
    • Greetings from Scranton
    • The Vinyl Vault
  • Fiction
    • Flying Trees Publishing
    • Books
    • Short Stories
    • FAN Fiction
  • Flying Trees Publishing
  • About
    • Our staff
    • About GonzoToday.com
    • Mission Statement
  • Submissions
  • Log In

The Boxer by Ron Whitehead

June 9, 2016 Ron Whitehead Poetry 0

Tweet

art by Joey Feldman

Today I visited Muhammad Ali’s childhood home and The Ali Center to pay my respects to the poet, boxer, non-violent spiritual warrior, truth teller, hero. Daddy and my brother Brad and I listened to every Cassius Clay fight on the AM Radio. I watched every Muhammad Ali fight on TV. I followed his life. My Dad was the fiercest man around. He was a bare knuckle boxer. He also boxed with gloves. He taught Brad and me how to box, wrestle and street fight. I’ve been blessed with many teachers who have taught me to never give up. I wrote the poem “Never Give Up” with The Dalai Lama. I recited a poem to Muhammad Ali five minutes before he met The Dalai Lama for the first time. Muhammad Ali never gave up. Like The Dalai Lama he was a great teacher. I felt Daddy’s spirit with me today as I honored the life of a real human being, my hero Muhammad Ali.

 

the boxer 

“a champion is someone who gets back up even when he can’t.”
jack dempsey

 

i’ve been down so low the ground looked up
failure has been my greatest success

daddy was a boxer
the fiercest of them all

he never lost a fight
he taught me how to take a punch a punch

and another punch always watching
for the opening then fast as lightning

jab jab jab kaboom daddy was a boxer
he taught me how to fight

he taught me how to fight through pain
ignoring blood sweat and tears

to never give up no matter what
to keep fighting so i became a boxer

unlike daddy i’ve lost more fights than i’ve won
but daddy taught me to never give up

that life is rarely fun
time and time and time again

i hit rock bottom with nowhere left to go
many times i stood alone

but every time i failed
slowly surely i found a way to rise again

a rocky rugged mountain
is my body now

a poet from kentucky
with a gentle soul

miles and miles i’ve traveled many fights i’ve fought
oh the story of my life

despite the losses
against all odds

relentlessly leaning into the wind
without regrets i remain

the boxer

Related

Previous

Accepting the Lesser Evil?

Next

Trickster at the Crossroads: The Orlando Massacre

SEARCH OUR ARCHIVES

Support GonzoToday.com by buying our books... thanks!

or purchase directly through Amazon.com

Music video vibe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZcgFWGAfcd4

“Pukebox” by Green Jelly

Recent Featured Content

  • Will Wood Destroys the Social Industry

    May 18, 2022 0
  • My Close Call in Enemy Territory

    May 18, 2022 0
  • Melchizedek is a Dick

    May 17, 2022 0
  • Ron Whitehead: Beyond the Outlaw – Gonzo Today Interview

    April 25, 2022 0
  • Gun Nut Senator Opens Fire on Common Sense – Greetings from Scranton

    April 25, 2022 0
  • Tax Time Rant

    April 25, 2022 0
  • WHAT IF Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens & The Big Bopper Lived?

    February 19, 2022 0
  • Green Jelly: Garbage Band Kids

    February 19, 2022 0
  • TOOL at the Amalie Arena, Tampa, FL Feb. 9, 2022

    February 19, 2022 0
  • How Music Heals

    February 19, 2022 0
  • The Tin Drum Family Band Trio

    Tin Drum Family Band Featuring Burleigh G. Drummond, Mary Harris and Sierra Drummond – the Gonzo Today Review 

    February 14, 2022 0
  • Nirvana’s Nevermind – A Recollection

    February 3, 2022 0
  • My Epic Electric Journey with Men in Parking Lots

    February 3, 2022 0
  • To Weed or Not To Weed, That is the Question

    February 3, 2022 0
  • Last Days at the Twisted Oak: 2022 NFL Playoff Notes

    February 3, 2022 0

Hunter S. Thompson 1937-2005

Art
  • ART | How to paint like Ralph STEADman

    September 19, 2017 0
  • The Great Red Shark by Joey Feldman

    July 7, 2017 0
  • “People’s Fears” by Joey Feldman

    November 15, 2016 0
Meta
  • Register
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
Shorts
  • My Encounter with Hunter

    December 21, 2017 0
  • Drug Run | Chapters 1-10

    November 15, 2017 0
  • God’s Grace: An Abortion Story

    September 2, 2015 0
Subscribe to GonzoToday via Email

Enter your email address to receive notifications of new GonzoToday.com posts by email. Your email will not be sold and will ONLY be used to notify you of new GonzoToday.com posts.

Music
  • Celebrating a Half Century of the Music of Frank Zappa

    June 5, 2017 0
  • Album Review: The Damn Truth’s Devilish Folk

    April 10, 2017 0
  • The Doors First Album and Mary Werbelow: 50 Years on

    December 30, 2016 0
Read more from our writers
The GonzoToday Interview
  • An Interview with Heathcote Williams

    July 7, 2017 0
  • A Quick Talk with Benicio Del Toro

    April 22, 2016 0
  • CIA Whistleblower John C. Kiriakou: the Gonzo Today Interview

    April 2, 2015 0

RSS Feed RSS - Posts

RSS Feed RSS - Comments

Copyright © 2022 | WordPress Theme by MH Themes