One Step at a Time - July 3 2023

 

One Step at a Time

July 3 2023

Size and speed.

It seems progress demands both,

and after all

it's a big country

and time is money

and is there ever really enough

of that?

Still, I recite poetry.

Because when I read in my head

instead of out loud

it loses something;

skimming doesn't work.

Never mind

that the human voice is slow

and I'm impatient to know

how it all turns out.

And I still walk the dog

through virgin woods

on trails that seem eternal.

Sure, we could joy-ride or treadmill,

but how better to spend

precious time?

And the great cities of the world

are best explored on foot.

No private cars

through tinted glass

in idling traffic jams.

So not so much a tourist

trying to cram it all in,

as a bohemian flaneur

strolling through the boulevards

unburdened by the clock.

I may not be rich

but at least I'm comfortable.

Because, as any poet knows

less is always more

excess unbecoming,

while adverbs are trouble

and slow better than “suddenly”.

Keeping it small, one step at a time.

Just as it is

in real life.

This poem as a criticism of modernity: the ethos of consumerism, and growth at any cost. After all, conventional economics has nothing viable offer towards a steady state economy. Human nature seems programmed to want. Cars get bigger and roads wider; companies must grow or die; population is exponential' and even people are fatter. GNP rules, and under no circumstances must it shrink.

As I was writing about putting a higher value on small and slow, poetry became a convenient analogy. After all, two prime rules of poetry, as experience has taught me, are just these: that less is more (the small), and that one should never use the word “suddenly” (the slow). Here are further thoughts on each of these.

The first is hard for me. Ideas flood in; there so so many ways to say something, and it can be hard to resist. Not to mention that one falls in love with one's own cleverness. It can be hard to cut a good line, even if cutting makes the whole better.

The second is not so obvious. Adverbs in general are problematic. That's because they patronize the reader, as if she can't figure it out for herself. The context should be more than enough; no hand-holding necessary. And of all the adverbs, “suddenly” is the worst offender.