Take this horse that I dub Juan!

And, in leaving you anon,

This horse let me speak upon—

You are not wrong, who read

That you’ve received a Spanish steed

Yet if he were to leave one day

Would not the world become more grey

For whimsy lost that once was had

and faces ever glum and sad?

The world’s ephemeral, of course:

truth is a Juan within a horse

You sit atop a beast

On a journey t’ward the east

And hold within your hand

But a couple equine strands

How absurd! yet how they feel

For he has a name! You squeal,

“It is real — We are real!”

O Juan! your name makes true

Much more than “horse” could do

O Juan! in dire straits

I hear your jolly gaits

The world’s ephemeral, of course:

truth is the Juan within a horse

Biography

My name is Matias Lazzaro, and I’m a sophomore. I enjoy theater, law, and philosophy! You can usually find me playing Sonic the Hedgehog games or contemplating the unattainability of truth.

What is your main source of inspiration?

My main source of inspiration is Shel Silverstein because of the whimsical way he was able to present difficult and complicated concepts.

What motivated you to write this piece, and what is its message?

I was motivated to write this piece after reading “The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe as a kind of response to him. It asserts that if a person spends their whole life weeping over how short it is, they’ll wake up on their deathbeds having forgotten to live. Rather, any meaning that we derive from life is meaning that we have the ability to put into something. “Mundane” and “interesting” are nothing but labels, just as “good” or “bad” can be labels to put onto a day, a year, or a life. Power comes from recognizing that we decide to place these labels, and we have the ability to use the labels that make us the happiest. A person could devote their whole life to contemplating the true nature of despair, or alternatively, a silly horse named Juan.