"The oldest subject in poetry is carpe diem. The reason you’re asked to carpe your diems is that you don’t have many diems left. The more you see your days as numbered, the more grateful you’ll be for those moments you have."
-Billy Collins, former U.S. Poet Laureate 2001-2003, in a lecture given at BYU in March 2008
If you don't know Billy Collins' work you should. It is sensual (meaning he engages the senses : ), funny and comfortable reading. And he reads he own work so well I'd love to just sit in a room and listen to him read. Wish I'd known he was speaking at BYU as I would have loved to have heard him speak.
BTW, I think it is impossible to carpe diem, or live in the moment, and I always feel a bit anxious when people suggest that I should do so.
1 comment:
Live in the moment....hmmmmm. I agree. It sounds so liberating and free and at the same time sends waves of anxiety from head to toe. Perhaps the person who originally said this did not (yet?) have children. :-)
I will attempt "baby steps" on this one and baby step living in the moment when I have put my kids to bed, finished my list of "to-do's"... oh wait - I'm usually passed out like a log at that point! hee hee.
Billy Collins - know of him - GREAT writing.
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