I am everybody I am nobody

The Daily Inter Lake

Columbia Falls junior publishes poetry book about tears, laughter and candles in the dark

A month or so after Sept. 11, 2001, Ben Woody and his dad, Bill, found themselves accidentally at ground zero.Ben Woody hated it. He felt sick. It seemed a chill wind cut him to the bone.

A chain-link-fence memorial plastered with shirts only reminded him of the bodies which should have been wearing them. Twin Towers debris, formed into a ragged cross near a church yard, struck a desolate note in him.

His soul smoldered, just as smoke still rose from the devastated ground.

The only cure was to get his emotions on paper, let words be his salve.

So the Columbia Falls teenager wrote "Ground Zero," a prose poem that now forms the centerpiece for his new book of poetry, "Tears, Laughs, and Candles in the Dark."

It's a collection of 17 original works by the 17-year-old Columbia Falls High School junior.

But, more than that, it's a collection of the humor, the depth, the compassion and the breadth that make up Ben Woody.

"What I feel is I'm not tuned in real well to who I am," he said, reflecting on the clearly delineated interests of his motorcycle-riding, game-hunting brother, John, 14.

"Most people are real definite on who they are. But I am everybody and I am nobody."

A passion for writing started early on for Woody.

He was only a little kid making folding books in his first-grade classroom at Ruder Elementary when he discovered his inclination.

Ever since, there's never been a break in his words flowing onto paper. Most of the time he's within reach of a spiral notebook or his leather-bound, gilt-edged journal that was a gift from his aunt and uncle.

When he's outside - anywhere with Sky, his chocolate Lab, can be a favorite haunt - and a thought strikes him, he follows the mental flow until he begins talking to himself. Then he repeats the lines over and over until they are committed to memory and grabs a pen and paper when he hits the house.

It's another story at the keyboard.

"Usually I just sit at the computer and type the first line. But I don't know what's coming next until it's typed," he said. About halfway through most of his poems, the muse finally fills him in on the topics.

He prefers it that way.

A high-achieving student who takes the tough courses - biology at Flathead Valley Community College, honors English, Spanish 4, advanced placement history, accounting - he has learned the ins and outs of iambic pentameter, haiku and other structured verse.

"But I think it's better to just let it come out the way it will," Woody said. "When I have to write sonnets for class, they never turn out as good as these that I just write."

He's not averse to revising and rewriting, and does as much as it takes to come out with the best possible end result.

He uses a lighter hand on humor, though, often letting the first run-through stand. How else could a poet finish something that starts:

"I knew a boy

Who picked his nose

He picked it 'till

It began to grow …"

That one was written to tease a young cousin, Conner Williams.

Conner's sister, 7-year-old Carley, was the honored topic of another jest, "Sister." A special companion to Woody, who spends a lot of time looking after his nine cousins, Carley is an exceptional child who shares Woody's creative streak and understands advanced topics while still allowing him to "regress," he said, and explain things from a child's point of view.

Hannah Brinton, his 13-year-old cousin, keeps "That Beautiful Place That We've Forgotten" on her bedside table and proudly tells friends that Woody wrote it for her.

Cousins have sparked much of his poetry.

"All the kids love Ben," said his mom, Tammy. They all live in the Columbia Falls area, and "they all look up to Ben."

She rated the prime spot in her son's book, the dedication page. "Without her love and support," it says in part, "none of this would have been possible."

School assignments have fostered other poems for Woody. An eighth-grade assignment for each student to "adopt" one Holocaust victim, researching who he was and what happened to him, resulted in prolific research, a photograph and the poem "Unseen Reasons." The stark tale, which drew praise from many quarters, opens Woody's book.

But the volume's second poem, "I Picked a Rose for Her," is his personal favorite.

Exploring new topics is no problem for Woody. The hardest part is "knowing what you want to say but not how to say it."

His beliefs and hopes and experiences have inspired much of his writing, but so have situations and raw emotions that never have bubbled up in the high-school junior.

"I can just put myself in other people's places," he said.

He feels what others feel and captures that in words, thanks, his mom said, to a sensitivity spirit and a facility with the language.

Woody himself credits that creativity to a lifelong character trait:

"My imagination, mostly. Most people aren't as attached to their imaginations as I am," he said. He remembers playing outside with the family pets, jumping over cliffs that weren't there, creating dramas in his mind and acting them out with some of the cousins.

His brother and some other cousins were more focused on physical action, on riding and hunting.

"They would actually do real

things, and I'd rather do things that aren't real."

Although a bit shy in conversation, he's comfortable with people of all ages. He has a broad curiosity about the natural world and the paranormal. He's an avid reader, but a heavy load this year - including his teacher's assistant post in the high-school's career center - has forced him to pull in those reading reins.

He can imagine himself as the kind of guy who would go to college for six years and still finish without a degree in any one discipline, just because he would be interested in everything.

He's writing a fantasy novel now that has a working title of "Peace Quest." And, with an arsenal of new poems already in the bag, he figures he probably will publish another book of poetry.

It's as if his first book blew the cork off his bottled-up creativity. He knew that whatever it took, he said, he had to publish it.

"I felt if I didn't (do it now), I never would."

"Tears, Laughs, and Candles in the Dark" is available in the Columbia Falls High School student store, at Haines Drug in Whitefish and through Ben Woody. To get a copy, call him at 892-5194.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.