Remember How We Forgot?

[Randall Ahren]

Remember how we used to bend reality like we were circus strongmen?
Like our imaginations were in shape then.
And we learned from our experiences what no teacher taught.
Remember how we forgot?

Remember how everyone had first and last names because we built a society?
Not just one branch of one family tree, but a forest whose roots made up a dynasty.
And when someone called you sis or bro, it wasn't lightly.
Remember how we forgot?

Our memories are as dear to us as every slow motion moment or held breath.
So remember every instant before death,
Every first kiss, first dance, near miss, last chance, yes, no, maybe.
Because all we have is the time between the moments that connect each dot:

 

 *Apologies to Shane Koyczan for desecrating his beautiful poem.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dillon Levenque]

You may or may not need to apologize to Shane (I say not). You don't need to apologize to any of us. I liked your slightly altered version.

First kiss, first dance, near miss, last chance, yes, no, maybe. I didn't know if that was yours or his because I read while I was still listening. Both. He was talking about RL. You are talking about SL. For those things.....it is exactly the same.

[Ivanova Shostakovich]

   The first thing I learned, the first friend I made, the first limitation I discovered.

   The first time someone said 'I love you.', the first time I said it.

   The first griefer, the first argument, the first ex-friend, the first strike of a forum match.

   The first creation sold to someone I didn't know. The first inventory loss.

   The first broken toy, the first real crush, the first 'SL break'.

   The last thing said to a friend now gone.

   I love it all.

[Randall Ahren]

Very pretty, Iva.. You're quite a poet. Did Hannah's music inspire you?

 

@Dillon:

That was Shane's. He's my favorite living poet. There's no complete transcript available online that I know of, but there are some partial transcripts around. This is what I think he said:

And our memories are as dear to us as every slow motion moment or held breath.
So remember every instant before death,
every first kiss, first dance, near miss, last chance, yes, no, maybe.
So let us go the distance once more.
Let us remember all the moments that were and were not,
like the point of something we can get
and what we can get is what we got
because all we have is the time between the moments that connect each dot.

 

[Perrie Juran]

Awesome.   I hope no one minds if I post my favorite poem here.  I think it is very much in line with this.

 

Reflections on a Gift of Watermelon Pickle Received from a Friend Called Felicity

During that summer
When unicorns were still possible;
When the purpose of knees
Was to be skinned;
When shiny horse chestnuts

(Hollowed out
Fitted with straws
Crammed with tobacco
Stolen from butts
In family ashtrays)

Were puffed in green lizard silence
While straddling thick branches
Far above and away
From the softening effects
Of civilization;

During that summer–
Which may never have been at all;
But which has become more real
Than the one that was–
Watermelons ruled.

Thick, pink, imperial slices
Melting frigidly on sun-parched tongues
Dribbling from chins;
Leaving the best part,
The black bullet seeds,
To be spit out in rapid fire
Against the wall
Against the wind
Against each other;

And when the ammunition was spent,
There was always another bite:
It was a summer of limitless bites,
Of hungers quickly felt
And quickly forgotten
With the next careless gorging.

The bites are fewer now.
Each one is savored lingeringly,
Swallowed reluctantly.

But in a jar put up by Felicity,
The summer which maybe never was
Has been captured and preserved.
And when we unscrew the lid
And slice off a piece
And let it linger on our tongue:
Unicorns become possible again.

John Tobias

[Randall Ahren]

I like it Perrie. Unicorns are possible here, along with demons.

 

[Madelaine McMasters]

[Dillon Levenque]

I think I would have difficulty speaking after reading that. Fortunately all I have to do is type.

@Randall: I have seen Shane before via SL but can't remember what poem it was or when I saw it. He is brilliant. There's a better than even chance someone who's posted in this thread showed him to me.

@Perrie: Loved that poem.

@Maddy: Yeah. I wish the long version of that was on youtube. The whole song speaks to Shane's poem, I think. He talks about being a kid in Iowa, and about playing with his cousins on grandma's farm during a big family get-together. The kids get told to 'Come inside, it's dark". He says, "It's not dark. It's grownup dark 'cause they're in the house with the lights on."

[Randall Ahren]

That was Charolotte that posted the other video. It was called the Crickets Have Arthritis.

 

[Charolotte Caxton]

And it was Randall that introduced me to it.

The Crickets Have Arthritis

[Dillon Levenque]

Oh of course. I even commented on that one. My memory may not be very good, but at least I got one thing right: Shane is brilliant.

Thank you, Randall and thank you too, Charolotte. We all do a lot of talking here. There are times when we should stop talking and just listen.

[Charolotte Caxton]

Has Randall turned you guys on to PaperGirl yet?

eta: if the answer is, 'not yet'

[Madelaine McMasters]

I hadn't seen her before.

I've been attending Moth storytelling hours in Milwaukee, as well as Ex Fabula. Ordinary people get up on stage and, for five minutes, tell extraordinary stories. One of these days I'll tell one.

And there is also NPR's Three Minute Fiction. Wonderful stuff.

So much to do, so little time.