Want to feel old? It is the 10th anniversary of Wikipedia - which, among other things, is proof of a poet's existence in the 21st century (don't believe me? - Google and see how many poets are listed there - know any to request the pages be taken down?). Meanwhile, The Simpsons first aired on this day in 1990 - 21 years ago. If proof was ever needed that zany, post-modern, and cutting edge American culture has long since gone so mainstream as to render the very idea of post-modern pop culture toothless, well, look no further than this show. I turn 45 this year (in April), and am now on the verge of (if not already tumbled over into) what is surely "middle age". I was 20 (that sublime age) 25 years ago - in other words, a quarter of a century ago, and no matter if I wear jeans, runners, and baseball caps, I cannot hold back time. We are no longer young - even those of us so embedded in, penetrated by, dazzled with, and intermediated via, new media and whizz-bang-savvy stuff. What's next? Surely not another 9 years of Bart and Homer?
A poem for my mother, July 15 When she was dying And I was in a different country I dreamt I was there with her Flying over the ocean very quickly, And arriving in the room like a dream And I was a dream, but the meaning was more Than a dream has – it was a moving over time And land, over water, to get love across Fast enough, to be there, before she died, To lean over the small, huddled figure, In the dark, and without bothering her Even with apologies, and be a kiss in the air, A dream of a kiss, or even less, the thought of one, And when I woke, none of this had happened, She was still far distant, and we had not spoken.
Comments