The final word

Someone once asked me if kids nowadays are ‘connected’ to poetry. Well, it’s not Facebook, it’s not Twitter, and it’s certainly not ‘real-time’. Often poetry is a language of deceleration, a language of white noise. A good poem will slowly seep into you, will make its own way. I was not very open to that when I was younger. Maybe at that age you’re looking for advice, for acclaim. For clarity. Your mind is even quicker than your attention span is short. 

 

Poetry may often seem slower than the world today, but in the end it will catch up with you. When you die they will go and put a suitable poem in the obituary or on the card – or on your Facebook page, for that matter. 

 

So you see, poetry always gets the final word.