Identity and memories

Featured Poem

In my last note, and introducing Top Hat and a Tandem, I mentioned one of my poems called The Truth of Me.  They both centre around the idea of memory.

During last year I listened to a programme about Jonathan Miller’s final years living with dementia.  It was a tremendous documentary, on Radio 4, created by Miller’s son.  The great sadness at the centre of the programme was the Jonathan Miller was one of our greatest creative thinkers in the second half of the 21st Century; the decline in his mind power was indeed moving.

I got to thinking about how much of our identity (or our self) is constructed from memory.  And about how those memories, themselves, are constructed, retained, and retrieved.  The Truth of Me is the result of some of that thinking.

I’ve no doubt I shall return to this topic again, though not immediately in this little blog.

I hope you enjoy the poem.  That, maybe, it will set you thinking.  And, just maybe, it will become a little memory for you.

Reading

Recently I have read Mr Wilder and Me the latest novel from Birmingham writer, Jonathan Coe.  It’s fabulous from many angles; its glimpse into the world of film; ageing; an artist coming toward the end of his creative period; and life paralleling art.

I then read an extraordinary book called Human Kind, a Hopeful History.  This is by Rutger Breman.  It is an optimistic view of human development – and how we should not squander our positive qualities, which we are in danger of doing.

Writing

I’ve been writing poetry regularly.  I believe it is important to write regularly.  I don’t know if it’s the weather, or that it is January, but I don’t seem to be very optimistic in my writing . . . or perhaps it just reflects the downhill slide the UK appears to be on at the moment.  Hills and Vales.  

Final Thoughts

Don’t forget my weekly hints on Instagram.  And the Tuesday poems on Twitter; these are usually satirical and humorous.  Last Tuesday’s, however, was far from humorous and totally from the heart.  (Comedy tends to be from the head.)

Good luck with your writing and keep at it.