I'm with Maggie Smith — my relationship with progress is complicated. But what's the alternative? It is always, as she says in the final line, "now again."
(Do you ever want to say, "Stop the world, I want to get off"? Me too.)
Let's keep trying to turn our Before Pictures, the ones that embody the best of us, into now, into the future. And into poetry, compassion, love for our fellow human beings, and justice.
The time is now.
The Before Picture
by Maggie Smith
It’s complicated, my relationship status
with progress. I often prefer
the “before” picture. The future
is where I’m going only because
I have no choice, because time
It’s complicated, my relationship status
with progress. I often prefer
the “before” picture. The future
is where I’m going only because
I have no choice, because time
....
(Read the rest here, at the Poetry Foundation.)
~~~~~~~~~~
The Poetry Friday round-up is being hosted this week by Jan at Bookseed Studio.
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.
2 comments:
Oh, I, too, have a complicated relationship with the past so this poem by Maggie Smith resonates, especially the "no choice" part. The repetition of the word "refresh" feels oddly comforting and like an advisory. Thanks for this poem which I hadn't seen before! I am a huge fan of Maggie Smith and am looking forward to this collection.
Apparently the young people online are feeling whistful for 2016, which seems wild to me - wasn't that just yesterday? Wasn't it decades ago? I can't decide, time feels all wibbly wobbly sometimes, like Maggie Smith says, I keep being dragged forward in time before I've even blinked.
Post a Comment