Thomas
Moran
I'm also a massive fan of good poetry. Call me a fag, I dare you.
Anyway, as luck would have it, Dylan Thomas happens to be my favourite poet. EVER. And the reason for this is, while he is able to explore all the usual elemental staples of dramatic poetry, the guy just reeks of hope. That's not a bad smell. Not bad at all.
The biggest industry in the world is 'the hope industry'. If you have a metalcore band and you're looking for a name for it, there it is. Or, if you want to rip off Dylan Thomas, 'Adventures in the skin trade'. Trust me, finding band names is hard, I'm providing a valuable public service here.
Churches, gymnasiums, adult video stores, stores in general, and dating services all offer hope in varying forms, and that's why they do so well. We're hopeless junkies for hope, constantly searching for that one thing that will fill in the hole left by the other thing, or in exceedingly desperate cases, the thing that never was in the first place.
I have had a theory for a while that it isn't the case so much that we need to replace the thing we lost with another thing, but rather with EVERYTHING. Fill it up with life. Fill it up with all the other things on the planet that are out there to be enjoyed/discovered/created. Because as you know, when you look for a thing, that thing generally evades you. You have to pretend you don't care any more. Actually, you have to genuinely not care any more, because we live in a clever Universe, and it sees through silly human attempts to outsmart it. Trust me, it's good. I have tested it.
A lot.
So, back to Thomas. Sure, his hope was fuelled by a ravenous love of God (and the alcohol that God created), but the way he arranged his thoughts into prose is nothing short of inspirational. And from him, comes my favourite line of poetry ever:
"Though lovers be lost love shall not..." (from 'And Death Shall Have No Dominion').
I'm not going to post the whole piece here, as relatively short as it is, because I want you to Google it and read it, and maybe find something else, and spend some time today reading poetry for a change.
But how rad is it? And how true?
No matter what I'm doing, I like to take pause, every day, and think about what other people are doing. No-one in particular, just people. Like the people in the row of shops next to mine. And the people in other cities of Australia, or out in the country, or in other countries. What's the weather like? What are their emotions like? Are they eating? Dreaming? I like it that the world is quite big, and there are so many different people and places upon it.
And I think about all the love out there. All the people who are so lost in each other they are kissing and holding each other on a street corner, while the city rushes past them. People alone together, looking into each others faces, enraptured and overjoyed each by the other. The feeling of a hand in another hand. The warm air on a lip before a kiss. The moment your heart stops because they have stopped it with a smile. And the moment it starts again.
I think of these things, and I think of them when I'm sad or cold or a little lonely. And I smile, and my warmth returns, and I celebrate love, because dammnit, Thomas was right. I might not be in love, and I might not have someone, but lots of people do, and LOVE IS NOT LOST.
It is everywhere, all around us (Love, actually!), and the best way to create more of it is for us to love things as often as possible. It is an energy, just like a river or electrical power. You can add to it, or drain it.
Add to it.
Fall in love with a passing face on a tram. You may never meet or see them again, but love them anyway. With every fibre of your being, love them. Love your friend, love yourself. Love an animal (easy now). Just love.
Love as much and as often as you can.
And maybe one day it will be our turn to be loved in return.
This is knifey, from 'the internet'.
1 comment:
I love you Knifey :)
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