On Poetry and Life Today

One poet I read from today is an academic who

uses mythology as a metaphor for life. I can relate

to his story about the boy who asked the whale to

swallow him. Another poet I choose remembers

fonder days in life with verse about his beloved

wife now deceased. (I myself am a widower.) And

the third fellow recounts hardships with too much

booze, compulsive horse race betting and whores,

all those seedy and grotesque times from which

formed the avowed cynic within. Life is a grab bag

wonderland of the silly and the glorious, a topsy

turvy ride of the somber and sublime. And now, as

it has been for all my days, it is my turn to have

a say. I can certainly relate to all three bards who

preceded me with tales of the fantastic, the forlorn,

the humorous and insane which have factored into

the molding of my own personal reality. A little bit

of this and a smattering of that. All of the above, I

must say, except for the whores and horse races that

is. And as for the whale, tired of hearing all the boy’s

complaints, it wisely decided to spit the ungrateful

brat out, and let him fend for himself.

Chris Hanch 11-4-18