The Common Man

The term common man is used to emphasize the similarities or distinctions between a member of social, political or cultural elite, and the average citizen.
In a paraphrase, Abraham Lincoln stated he was for the common man but no one like to be called common. The epithet "Champion of the Common Man" has been applied to several men:
Demosthenes
Carl I. Hagen
Pericles
Gaius Gracchus
Tiberius Gracchus
Robin Hood
John Wilkes
Thomas Jefferson
Robespierre
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Andrew Jackson
Abraham Lincoln
William Jennings Bryan
Eugene Debs
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Huey Long
Clement Atlee
Hu Jintao
Dai Chung
Lin Xiaochieh

The art community within the academic walls and the in “common community” may be often characterized with the men with various beard type (glasses are necessary for sure) with unattractive women with wild unkempt hair plus boisterous egos spread among all.
One only has to spend a while on any college campus to smell the aroma of the cultural elite. My six years in engineering school the curriculum required me to take a few course of electives and I selected a course in English (not American) literature. One of main assignment was the read the required poetry and comment on the author’s meaning. Immediately my left brain began to see meanings different from the accepted interpretations. With my rebellion I feared a bad grade nevertheless I got an A. Surprise I ask the instructor about the grade and he or was it a she? Anyway the comment was a least I had read and studied the assignment in detail. I decided then (about 47 years ago) to write poems for the common man. I suspect my poems may be judged as a high school level or lower by the poet community. Anyway, I don’t give a damn you literature snobs.

The common poet for the common folks.
CM
e-mail poet.common@yahoo.com