A Visitor From Porlock

Most of us of a certain age are familiar with Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge's famous poem from the collection Lyrical Ballads. Even those unfamiliar with Mariner are aware of it's single iconic image – that of an albatross around a sailor’s neck.

Yet there's another poem by Coleridge that strikes a greater chord within me. Kubla Khan is a piece of literature unlike any other. A professor of mine once aptly described it as a nineteenth century version of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. It's that trippy.

I won't bother going into great detail about Kubla Khan. Suffice to say it deals with the Mongol emperor Kubla Khan, his summer residence of Xanadu and lots of imagery that needs to be read in order to be fully appreciated. The world's foremost scholars can't even agree what Kubla Khan's really about. Only that it's brilliantly written. And strange. Really, really strange.

Oh, and incomplete.

Waking up after a nap one day, Coleridge immediately took it upon himself to recite an unusually vivid dream he had in verse. Unfortunately, someone from a nearby town called Porlock suddenly arrived at his home to discuss a business matter. By the time his unwanted guest left, Coleridge had forgotten his dream and the poem was left in the unfinished form we have today.

Was Coleridge's frustrating situation really that unique, though? Don't we all have matters of day to day life which interfere with things that are really important to us? Whether it's learning to play an instrument, getting into shape, or advancing our education, our personal amibitions seem to forever fall victim to a thousand small responsibilities.

Unlike Coleridge, however, our half completed projects leave nothing to be admired. They simply disappear - like the memories of Coleridge's famous dream.

Unless, of course, we determine within ourselves to find ways to complete them. Sometimes that means telling a visitor from Porlock to come back another time.