Pop wisdom that has held up.
Recently, I had a tempest in a teapot-level nuclear event in an old friendship. Much of it was based on a single rather small incident, but it exploded as matters in fission often do. It informed and reminded me that given the state of current affairs, the nastiness of our culture generally, and my own rapidly deteriorating ego and existence (apparently they call this “aging” or in my case, “fuckin’ AGING”), I’d better get back to listening to my old Beatles albums on vinyl.
Writing needn’t always be angry unless you want it to be. Take the Beatles my favorite music always: Love, love, love, love, love, love, love!
In my last book of poems, while reading it before its final edit I noticed how disproportionately negative the majority of the poems were.
In my defense, a bunch of shit had happened: scary elections, the death of my sister-in-law, and myriad other bad things, but reading the sad poems, the angry poems, the poems of pain, hurt, disappointment, etc., made me realize that my next poems had to be about good shit: happiness, comfort, contentment, friendship and most of all love.
Love, love, love, Love, love, love, like the Beatles, circa 1963–1965.
“All you need is love,” which, regrettably, it turns out, is most assuredly NOT all you’re going to need much less all you’re going to get.
But, what the hell. Whatever we get is what we get and the better we are at looking for and grabbing onto and treasuring the love in our lives, the happier we’ll be. The fewer nasty, hurtful moments we create in our lives and the lives of others, the better off we’ll all be.
Don’t believe me? Just ask the Beatles.
Photo by IJ Portwine, Unsplash
