memory of past
fades alongside agreed plans
future forgotten
~
n.b. Forgetting yesterday is a useful self-preservation process, forgetting what should be happening tomorrow must be frightening.
CLP 21/02/2023
on time
Tag Archives: Age
on time
uncork wine bottle
myths and legends of ageing
unpalletable
~
CLP 12/01/2023
on time
that number is age
not just two simple digits
days faster, limbs slow
~
n.b. How would it feel if days are getting faster, but we stay at full grown adult pace? We would feel slower, relatively.
And how about shrinkage, is the world getting bigger, expanding like the Universe?
Hopefully not, at least for the youngsters.
CLP 28/12/2022
Windows
close to midnight
twenty two degrees
roof open
we roll down the windows
roll down the strip
cruise control on
twenty mph
can't find the music
shuffling through the dock
warehouses, flood lights, cctv
cobbled streets, Trafalgar Square
depeche mode
an abandoned town film set
a lone riotous pub on the quay
we roll on
laughing
not street racing from the lights
we're up to sixty, plus
we head West by North-west
sea-salt thickening our hair
fair skin pinked
all the youth
we lived apart
in an evening
~
CLP 18/06/2022
on time
available hours
multiplied by age equals
day's velocity
~
n.b. This is the formula that tells you what speed you are travelling through the Fourth Dimension.
Worked examples:
24 hours x 60 years of age = 1,440 lds (Life Day Speed)
24 hours x 13 years of age = 312 lds
Marginal increases in lds are hard to notice year to year, but somewhere in life that awareness of a day’s velocity becomes acute (and a little scary).
Which may explain why thirteen year olds often say “I’m bored.” “Bothered.”, “Whatever.” and ask “What’s the point?” Some of them are not moving quite fast enough yet, so have not a fully developed sense of Life Day Speed.
CLP 22/02/2022
on space
as I die will I remember
when we were in our teens
walking you home, my bicycle to hand
under a sky so deep
the enormity of creation emphasised
the insignificance of us?
~
CLP 25/12/2021
on time
quickly faster now
hurry up mustn't be late
this is all I have
~
CLP 25/12/2021
embroidery
how much of these reels remain
stretched so long in our wake
we lose the golden threads in twilight
catching only rare glints
snagged by sunset
strung over hills hazed by evening mist
that fogs the vales we negotiated
through ill-lit phases of many moons
when we lay awake
each hearing lone minutes unspool
we cannot prevent this cord running out
but have we enough in hand
to interweave these unspent lines
and create our finest tapestry
~
CLP 20/09/2021
On Numbers 1.36
Pursuit of the ¥en
Or something more, or much less?
Whither goes Japan?
~
n.b. Population growth and over population is a topic of current concern as a levelling off in the global number of homo sapiens is now predicted over the next generation or so.
Japan’s current government is considering funding IVF treatment for it’s young couples who may be struggling to conceive. The current birth rate in Japan is around 1.36 which is well below the replacement rate.
Where will they get the young people from to care for an ageing population? 25% of Japan’s population is aged over 65 years.
The fall in birth rate has been attributed in part by the Deputy Prime Minister to women choosing not to have children. He has been castigated for his simplistic and one-eyed male opinion on the data.
Perhaps women have paths to fulfilment other than producing Salarymen? Perhaps they have become Salarywomen (which is tellingly identified by this software as a spelling error)? Perhaps the way of the modern world is not an attractive prospect enough to carry a man’s seed before delivering babies to a climate disrupted, polluted, exploitative planet? Maybe Japanese couples have decided the time has come for the human species to move on and leave the planet to life better adapted to an aquatic environment?
In the short term immigration can solve the problem for ageing populations. Germany, Italy, France, CH and the UK (amongst other wealthier nations) face similar questions around population. Is it a problem?
We are discovering, as we peel off the layers, that money isn’t everything.
~
CLP 06/11/2020
On Numbers 60
Such implications
Road speed, minutes, or rail card
Nothing but movement
~
CLP 29/10/2020
Journey of Words 