Thoughts On "It's A Wonderful Life"
by Michael Doyle

"It's A Wonderful Life" is a different war
My kind of film and at times a lot more
The critics can snark their hatred of platitude
Or maybe learn a thing or two about gratitude

There is nothing to hating honest sentiment
Except for a guttural fear of things intimate
I, for one, think there's beauty in this tale
Where we occasionally live up to Norman Rockwell

Seen as an obscure release of Old Hollywood
"It's A Wonderful Life" was unafraid of being good
A cultural monument to the truest American value
While devoted to traditions of Christmas made anew

The jaded who are faded might not get the metaphor
But then again, it wasn't for them this was for
It's a telling of big city dreams and small town reality
Told very ably by Capra in portraying sentimentality

Toughing it out in the grind of a work-a-day peasant
Hustling the truth that goodness can be yet pleasant
The common man can be uncommon and somehow extraordinary
In how we live to prevail even in the angst of the ordinary

It's better to be on the side of angels and unshaken
Taking responsibility might be hard but it's not mistaken
Every "crummy little town" holds its share of good hearts
And has its magic in every nook, cranny and hidden parts

Deep rooted common sense is seated in moral certainty
This is the homage to the everyman's crux of dignity
In a world where America grappled with Depression
There is a loneliness forged in fear of failure's impression

That in a world where easy answers seem to disappear
Somehow, "It's A Wonderful Life" offers its good cheer
It's up to the people to make life the very best we can
And in this is the magic that is beautifully American

(c) December 24, 2021  Michael Doyle
All Rights Reserved