What am I and Where am I from?

I fall from the skies from the overpopulated clouds
Dropping to the ground where I am always warmly accepted
I flow in harmony so as to gather my power
So that I become significantly acknowledged

I fly away from where there is excessive heat
With the hope to find some peace
When I reach again the skies
Where the cries of lightening meet
I would find I hate fighting
So I look ahead beneath

Now I see myself cycling
In a circle of changing needs
My conclusion is hard to say
But, hey, if I had to reach
I would say I'm from two extremes
And I am just what I need
--Snea Thinsan, September 2002

Analysis of my own poem:

Having looked at the words I used above, I realize I see myself belonging to two extremes, 'skies' and the warmly welcoming 'ground'. These two places are represented by the two conflicting words, 'fighting' and 'peace'. I move between these two extreme with 'hope' and motivation to survive more happily (with 'power'); I feel fortunate that I never fun out of hope, despite the exhaustion in the tone of my poem.

A privilege that I sometimes take for granted is my mobility. I am blessed with the ability to move up the social class stairs. I lived an economically hopeless life on the buffalo back in my father's ricefields. I witnessed the despair in the eyes of the bodies full of muscles in my village for over a decade. I feel fortunate that I managed to use education as a tool to move into the city, Australia, the U.K., and here Indiana University. When I am tired of the highly competitive present life, I can turn to my family to absorb the warmth and love developed through pain, gain, laughter, and tears we shared in the old days. Many of the souls in my hometown are still struggling to move beyond the cage in which they have had to reside all their lives. What more should I expect for myself?

I am now very determined to become a useful person contributing to the two worlds to which I belong.