Eclipse, who I have visited through ABC Wednesday, asks:
Regarding the “music playing in the head” I’ve just thought….Have you ever try to write poetry?
Would you?
Before I answer that question, I’ll answer a question you didn’t ask.
When I was roughly 15 to about 23, I had made some effort to try to write songs. I should rephrase; I wasn’t TRYING so much as tunes and lyrics came to me. I kept them in a notebook, which, unfortunately, I’ve since lost.
But as I think back on them, most of them weren’t very good. Oh, a couple of them might have potential in the right setting. And one, in particular, isn’t bad at all but expresses values I no longer have: David Lee Roth should have recorded it. But most of them, I recognize, are cribbed in the way George Harrison unintentionally purloined He’s So Fine for My Sweet Lord. Because I literally grew up with music, I feel I can clear-mindedly evaluate them.
I had a girlfriend in the late 1970s who was a published poet. I would attend some of the poetry workshops she helped organize. Naturally, I decided to try to write some poems myself. But I just never got a feel for it, what was good, what was schlock, what was “honest”. When I go to the poetry sites, such as yours, I can only comment on what resonates with me. But writing poetry again would be like blogging in Ukrainian; it’s too foreign. So commenting on poetry tends to fall into the “I don’t know if it’s good, but I know when it resonates” philosophy. And even when it does, I don’t always have the language to comment. “Good” or “nice” seems lackluster.
***
Uthaclena, who I’ve only known for 39 3/4 years, so I can say, “Dude, it’s been seven months since you blogged; WRITE something!”, poses this:
Anything? Okay, how about a sociopolitical-philosophical question. You’ve supported marriage equality (“Gay Marriage”), how do you feel about alternative marital arrangements like polygamy, polyandry, or group marriages? Should they be considered for legal legitimacy? The former, of course, was tried by the Mormons and is by no means unusual or “untraditional” in many international cultures. Just curious.
My long-standing rejection of polygamy has largely based on the sense that it is much more likely to have aspects of exploitation that are even greater than in a relationship between two people. The few modern examples in this country seem to bear that out. I assume, but frankly don’t know, that it’s true re polyandry as well.
This means, by logical extension, that I should favor group marriage since it would seem to be more equitable. That I don’t probably has something to do with my basic conventionality. Or maybe it’s because I think it’s just too messy societally when dealing with children, property, and the like. Guess I’m just an old-fashioned guy.
***
I’m still taking your questions here, so have at it.
Songs/poetry, eh? You mean like,
“J. Edgar Hoover is America, America, America,
J. Edgar Hoover is America
and J. Edgar Hoover is dead!”
Yes, exactly. “J. Edgar Hoover’s dead. No. No, no, no – he’s outside peeking in.”
You will, of course, recollect the lyrics of “Marihuana, the Assassin of Youth.”
Heh.
I do. Yer killin’ me with your powerful recall.