Life moved pretty fast, claims Ferris Bueller. What has struck me most about the course of my life over the past week is just how fast it has changed, and yet, how slow it seems to be changing. It’s part of the reason for the surreal nature of things, I think. The fact that this is an emergency, a tragedy, with new acts every day and yet the actual course of my life, apart from a sudden lack of work and social interaction, feels slower and only slightly changed.
Days off from work, when they happen, are usually spent cleaning, doing laundry, eating out, catching up on writing, some wine study, reading, cooking, and only then catching up on my TV shows. In the absence of work, and the absence of being able to eat out, writing has consumed the majority of my time, followed by reading.
A lot of the reading I’ve been doing lately, apart from the enchanting slog of Crime and Punishment (began in July, still going strong (actually to be fair I read 3-4 books at the same time so don’t judge me too hard it’s a mood thing)) has been poetry. I’ve been at least somewhat interested in poetry since high school (insert flashbacks of the fierce Poetry Out Loud competitions here), but have renewed it in the past years as an escape from the work-work that has been getting my book edited, formatted, and out into the world. (Ya’ll should get it- support an artist and out of work hospitality peep!)
(First ever truly shameless plug, I think.)
Poetry at the moment is also a good escape from the crazed, surreal nature of the world and everything happening in it. there have been a few poems over the course of my life which have brought either comfort or inspiration at key phases, and I thought it a good practice to stop, reflect, and read some of them again as we all work through this phase of existence.
I don’t have good recording equipment- in fact I only just found out that I had recording software for free with this computer, so I’m sure the quality is horrid, but the world needs some more art in it and if my own weird speech can provide that- yay? I’ll include links to the poems below so people can follow along, or read them on their own before I invariable ruin these poems forever.
I also suppose that this is the first time many of you will hear me speak- so congrats. I’m sorry it wasn’t under better circumstances.
The five poems I’ve chosen will be ordered, not quite as they came into my life, but chronologically by the stages I remember them applying to. Bluntly, the first is reflective of the melodrama of early high school (and of looking back at it now), the second applies the height of the drama, fun, and self-importance of high school and college in its entirety, and the third the underlying toxicity that drove some of those more unpleasant actions, the fourth relates the shifts of college and postgrad (is that the term) life (and life as it is now more than ever), and the fifth the sort of weird acceptance of the beautiful and the small in life, friends, and love.
I’ve never claimed to be curator so none of that might make sense, but I hope you enjoy them all the same.
I hope your ears survived that. Stay happy, stay healthy, and remember, now more than ever:
Nunc Est Bibendum!