Mary Anne Radmacher: The Inspiration behind Alex Poythress’ ROAR

WILDCAT BLUE NATION:   Thanks for taking the time to talk with us.  I know that your poem “Courage doesn’t always roar” is the type of book that people pass along to other people who are going through tough or trying times.  What was your inspiration for this and was it written for anyone in particular?

MARY ANNE RADMACHER:  I wrote the first version of this in 1986.  A friend of mine had adopted a child from another country.  The cultural differences the child had to accommodate felt insurmountable.   And the young mom did not feel adequate to the task.  She came to me and I told her I thought every parent on the planet felt just the way she felt at one time or another.  I thought about it a few days and wrote her a note that included the first iteration of this poem.

Courage…doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’  

In turns years I’d finalized the piece to read “Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”  It’s traveled the world.  Beyond being on products and cards and such, people have had the piece as a tattoo, it was used over fire and polices houses after 9/11, it’s featured in hospital wards and nurses stations.  So while I initially wrote it for a one friend, it has served  and given one more day of inspiration to hundreds of thousands of people in almost thirty years.

When my publisher recognized the kind of impact this short piece was having, they asked me to create a book around the work.  I published “COURAGE DOESN’T ALWAYS ROAR” through Conari Press in 2009.   In 2010 SimpleTruths asked me to write the foreword to a collection of essays about ordinary women with extraordinary courage also called, “courage doesn’t always roar.”

WBN:  How did you found out about the UK social media movement  and how does that affect you as an author?

MAR:  His story was forwarded to me in an email.  It is a profound time in any one’s life when the passion and the dream is interrupted by injury. For a young person to hold up this piece of poetry as hope in the midst of uncertainty just touches my heart.  I wanted to reach out to Alex and affirm for  him that his tomorrows are rich, and full of possibility, that he can be a champion in the midst of an injury.  The court isn’t the only place for championship play and attitude.

How does it make me feel?  I am almost sixty.  I write what I know and I write for the people I know.  It is an affirmation as an author that my words resonate not only with the young-at-heart, but with a young man.  It stirs me and makes me want to write more deeply, to, in effect, “go to the net” of my craft and keep creating words that will give hope to people on the other end of my generation.  It affirms that I have to keep doing what I do. And pray that my words will keep making a difference in the lives that  need them.

Mandatory Credit: Robert Deutsch-USA TODAY Sports

WBN:  So how tuned are you into the sports world and this type of phenom?  I’m sure other athletes have used these words as inspiration as well.

MAR:  More than being tuned to sports in general, I have always been interested in the kind of culture and philosophy athletics generate.  In high school I was involved in a remedy to bullying that involved getting the varsity athletes involved in theater arts and giving drama students a deeper understanding of the discipline and craft of sports. It was a life changing experience for a lot of us.

In addition to this synthesis of two disciplines  being a  positive reflection on them, it had a lot to do with the line the coaches walked. One student from high school stands out as he dedicated his schooling and his career to being a positive influence.  He became a coach himself. Mike Keller tells me:

"“I remember the day I sat with Coach Johnson in the cafeteria. It was early in my junior year. He was grading papers and he looked up and said, ‘Keller, you’re a fence walker.’  I had no idea what he was he was talking about. He went on, ‘You don’t know if you are going to be good or bad. You need to make a choice and get off the fence.’ And I did. That conversation changed my life.”"

Keller went on to be a coach who taught his players that difficult things happen on a field.  That it’s less about winning in that instant than it is taking away a lesson and applying it to your life.  Hard things happen on the field and that prepares you for the hard things that you are going to face in your life.

Right there. THAT.  That’s what fascinates me about sports.  A coach goes through hundreds or thousands of players in a career. And each player is shaped in a certain way, for life, by what they learn from that coach.  More than scores. More than winners and losers, that is what fascinates me about sports. The real Champions are the ones that know how to be a true Champion both ON and OFF the field of play.

WBN:  Actually I did not realize your poem had been around that long.  You have mentioned a lot of instances where people used it as inspiration, and Alex Poythress is an example.  He has actually made your passage a guide as to how he lives his life.  I found examples of him referring to it from 2012.  I know you mentioned people used it during 9/11 but there was no social media then.  Now it has taken on a whole new life thanks to the UK Athletic department and social media.  How does that impact you personally to know something you wrote so long ago is still shaping lives and to see virtually the whole Kentucky fanbase rallying around Alex with the #RoarforAlex t-shirts and social media campaign.

MAR: It is deeply affirming.  It’s a giant “YES” delivered in quite a ROAR back to me that my work has found purchase in the soil of a life such as Alex’s and that it is also resonant with his fans.  I feel confident that what is an injury currently will become an inspiration in his life and for those that support him. He has a sense of presence about him that tells me  he has the passion and the wisdom to pursue big dreams. I  am going to be watching with interest.