This Be The Multiverse On The 9th Of August
TODAY — The 9th of August is a remarkable date in my life.
Today, multiple people worlds merge and blend and overlap in myriad beautiful ways.
My gentle and wonderful brother who taught me everything I know. His words not mine. And my wild and sensitive daughter share this birth day 47 years apart.
More recently I have been blessed to make a new Mummy friend who is hilarious and wise in equal measure. When we chat at this time of year about making plans, she reminds me, her Dad also shares this birth day too.
And lastly, poet Philip Larkin, a rather sad soul by all accounts, was born on this day in 1922.
His poem This Be The Verse is one of the most well-known and exquisite pieces of wordsmithery from the 20th century.
It reeks of Victorian values and inescapable unhappiness. Poor Phil to have lived through those bloody times with that inherited thinking.
Thankfully the ideas powering life and parenting these days have changed.
I’m terms of parenting, children have been brought in from the cold outside. In no small part to the young field of psychology whose discourse now champions our lives.
Children no longer should be seen and not heard. They are increasingly put at the centre of the fragmenting Russian doll existence we call life.
Happy birthday!
They help you out Alexa and Siri
They totally mean to and they do
They answer every impulsive question
from old-timey chimpanzee minds.
But they were helped out in their data
By teeny-tiny robot hands
who were half Sinclair-spectrum
And half at one another’s bytes.
AI passes on AI fodder
It glitches like a Christmas elf
Unplug as quickly as you can
Before becoming humanoid yourself.
#AI #Alexa #Siri #NikkiWordsmith #ThisBeTheMultiverse #9August #PhilipLarkin #ThisBeTheVerse #EnglishPoetry
About The Author
Nikki
Hello! I am a writer from Lancashire. I spend a lot of my time raising my daughter and hanging out with my family. I also do my own creative writing and help people who are stuck for words. That’s it really. Those two things. It’s a nice life. If you need words, do the write thing, get in touch and hire a writer. Nikki :-)
I liked what you said about children being brought in from the cold outside. Beautifully said.
Thank you. It’s a different age the 21st century for kids. Hopefully for lots of them anyways.