My TakeIn bad times like these, poetry sometimes helps
- Last night, I turned off my computer, ignored the news all evening, reread W.H. Auden, and wept
“Those to whom evil is done / Do evil in return”
— September 1, 1939, W.H. Auden
It’s ironic and also very sad how all news outlets are focusing on the same story. But what they end up telling you is not what actually is happening, but where they stand on what they think you ought to be informed about what’s happening. The media – whether new/social or legacy/mainstream – now essentially have nothing to tell you about but themselves. They … We have nothing worthwhile to say about the outside world.
The media business is a very funny thing. They/we tell you they/we keep you informed, that they/we are essential to a functioning polis or a democracy. Well, and I have some fine London gold options and cyber coins, one coin for US$100, to sell you! How ‘bout it?
I got a little sick last night, spiritually perhaps, and made myself a news-free zone.
“September 1, 1939” was and probably still is one of W.H. Auden’s most popular poems. But he grew old and outgrew it. He thought its political sentiments were too overt and egotistic. When he edited the final anthology of his own poetry, he deliberately left it out. Many fans were upset and wrote him angry, pleading letters. Imagine a Beatles collection without Yesterday.
I don’t really read poetry, I can never hear the music in it. But now approaching 60, I can understand why the elderly Auden became embarrassed with his youthful work, during his most intensely political phase. Consider the following, it’s just cringey: “All I have is a voice/To undo the folded lie”. Oh, shut the hell up!