Michael Gottlieb / Letters to a Middle-Aged Poet / 23



23.

Might this inclination, this predilection for the reflective, for the reflexive perhaps – for the memoir for example, be nothing more than a symptom of the loss of impetus, of momentum, of purpose, pure and simple?

Is it somehow wrong to look back, period? Should our focus somehow always remain fixed-forward, just the way it was when we were young?

There is certainly no small measure of laudable rectitude in refusing fall prey – if it is that – to the alluring entrancements of score-settling and general, across-the-board judgment. Nevertheless, perhaps it is appropriate at some point in our lives to take a look back, if for no other reason than perhaps it can, we can, thus provide others – those others who come after us – with a text and context to perhaps help them to avoid making the same mistakes we made?

Or, do we presume too much by even assuming that we will be read enough, by enough or closely enough by any who come after us, to effect any difference whatsoever?

continue

 
 
previous page     contents     next page