Distraction
Sept 25 2022
When the internet crashed
the satellite fell
the power failed,
I found myself left
alone with my thoughts.
In an unfamiliar place
I’ve managed to avoid
or haven't had time.
I've tried whistling
to keep the thoughts away,
deep-cleaning the place
with single-minded intensity,
blowing the dust
off vintage games
we forgot how to play.
Never realized how much
I've grown accustomed to distraction,
busying myself
being entertained,
letting the art of conversation
grow stale.
And with the sun
setting earlier each day
the nights are long,
no artificial light
to keep the darkness at bay.
Cut off from the world
in the cold and dark
I am forced to think hard.
To spend time alone;
depend
on the inner life
I’ve neglected too long.
Neil Postman wrote an influential book called Amusing Ourselves to Death (which I always thought, before Googling, was Distracting ... ) which had quite an impact when it was published in 1985. If anything, since then, the opportunities for distraction have only gotten more plentiful and easier to access. So I am indebted to him. This idea also brings to mind the expression bread and circuses (attributed to the Roman satirical poet Juvenal way back in the 1st century AD): appeasement and distraction by the powers that be in order to keep our minds from more serious matters.
Although this poem is definitely not autobiographical. If anything, I’m the opposite: way too much time and energy spent in rumination and introspection. But this is how I view people who, for example, have the highly annoying habit of whistling. (Yes, I can be very judgemental (!), along with being hyper-sensitive to sound.) Why else but to fill up their head with mindless noise? No space for internal dialogue, random thoughts, talking to oneself. More universally, this poem is a commentary on our current culture of endless distraction and increasingly short attention spans.
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