Tuesday, November 27, 2012

I didn’t like Camus



I didn’t like Camus,
too alien and strange
for a 17-year-old mind
but decades later I see
his point: we are strange.
Heinlein went one better:
strangers in a strange land
trying to grok through life.
I walk slowly through
a contemporary art museum,
knowing my mind stopped
at the modern, the modern
still makes sense,
still tells a story while
the contemporary makes
no pretense of making sense,
denies there is a story,
it just is and nothing more.
Strange is familiar and
no one knows the definition
of grokking any more.

This poem is submitted for Open Link Night at dVersePoets. To see more poems submitted, please visit the site. The links will be live at 2 p.n. Central time today.

Photograph by Vera Kratochvil via Public Domain Pictures. Used with permission. 

11 comments:

Maureen said...

It helps to know a little of Heinlein.

Every movement has its moments.

signed...bkm said...

strange is familiar - appears to be the case these days...and modern so old fashioned...i guess even light bends...very nice Glynn..bkm

Brian Miller said...

strange is familiar...and cool...people are strange, the doors even said it....funny i just wrote camus in saturdays piece...and i love heinlein too....

Mary said...

I used to like Camus a lot..in fact I was addicted to his books for a while. Never Heinlein though. And, sorry, I don't know the definition of grokking. LOL.

Beachanny said...

I suppose saying nothing is saying something about the human condition; people find truth in different ways. I have friends who detest Rubens, and cannot abide the sight of a Fragonard. Others don't like the thought of poetry, who only like horror movies. Art takes all forms, but artists reveal the human condition in their rendering of whatever inspires them to create. You are right, however; not all communicates - and none communicates to everyone.

Anonymous said...

Sometimes i grokked and didn't even know it.

marousia said...

excellent

Unknown said...

I'll admit I looked up grokking, but thank you for making me, lol. I have a new favorite word now :)And I do believe there is little I appreciated fully at 17 (though I thought I appreciated it all).

Marcus Goodyear said...

Glynn, I grok you, man.

Anonymous said...

A very neat take on perceptual change, conversational and witty. (Rare to see Camus and Heinlein sharing creative space too!)

Sabio Lantz said...

Post-modernism is full of lies. Interesting piece.