A la Jane Austin
I understand the modern man
I understand a la Jane Austin.
I know his concentration
Needs more snippets than long episodes,
His mental station gone awry.
I know the reason why, and I
Take heed, belonging to this restless breed.
I have a sense of when to stop.
Not stooping to the popular,
Since instincts tell me ‘when’,
And by the time the pen
Has filled A4,
I’d better not have one word more;
The mind-throat must be stilled.
The one-page reader won’t turn over.
Paradoxically, he’s buying longer books then ever.
The novella’s gone to hell, as well as
Rhyme and metered time.
Did I say I understood it,
This phenomenon modern?
I’m part of it. I know that much.
I am in touch with modern mind –
The search to find a higher truth,
Ponce de Leon’s search for youth,
The need for speed as well as silence.
I am there to understand the head and tail,
The ego frail, its longing for a holy grail.
I understand the hand that writes
To finish when A4 runs out.
A discipline from doubt or drought
That comes from having modern man’s eternal heart.
©A la Jane Austin 8.6.2002/3.16.2004/11.4.2005/2006
Our Times, Our Culture; The Processes: Creative, Thinking, Meditative;
Arlene Corwin