Let’s all stay at home; let the virus inspire us!
Write musicals, histories, science, and art!
A new generation of “latest and greatest”
(As soon as I get off this couch, I will start).
The fruit of this dull isolation–creation!
A manuscript, screenplay, proposal or score!
But… rather than feeling inspired, I’m tired
And “working from home”? well, I can’t, any more.
Confinement, when one is unwilling, ain’t thrilling,
I’m starved of a way I might kiss, hug, or dance
A household made up of me only, is lonely,
A terrible time to give writing a chance
As “time to myself” grows, each hour, more sour
In forced isolation I never did choose
I dream of new days, filled with meeting and greeting–
A much nicer way of invoking the muse
This one got lost somehow. I found it in a document while cleaning my computer desktop; I think maybe I meant to post it here and on twitter, and maybe I posted it there, but not here? I don’t know. Anyway, the inspiration was a whole lot of really annoyingly cheerful and optimistic people putting the best face possible on home isolation, with Newton’s “Annus Mirabilis” as their inspiration. The plague–the literal actual plague–led to these discoveries! What can we do while cloistered away, but with the benefit of the internet, and all of human knowledge accessible through your cellphone?
Precious little, it turns out, for most of us. Maybe three and a half centuries from now, it will be common knowledge that “the Rona” was the source of a rebirth of art, music, science, literature… but if it is in fact common knowledge, it will be because it serves some future narrative, not because that is what is happening.
Or maybe I’m just grumpy. My contacts (taking the word literally) these days are two dogs and a cat.
Have you seen beauty? Have you seen creativity? Art? Music? Poetry? Literature? Have you used this time to create, or to curate your collection of dust bunnies? (you know I won’t shame anyone for inaction, given that I have become the personification (cuttlefishification?) of inaction itself.)
In the Before Times, my wife and I, both decent scratch cooks, took time almost every evening to have a not-super-speedily-prepared meal together. Thus we were somewhat primed for this. But my day job, brewer in a small, social brewery that served as a social hub, has been squelched for now. I miss hugs, high-fives, and hearty handshakes, in no particular order. But we have homemade beer, bread, and the bounty of our garden, so I am trying to stay positive. This will not last forever, though it feels like it most days….
cooking really helps! The one thing I see that I can’t relate to is the need to go out to eat!
I’m glad (sorry!) your social hub is quiet for now. but better that than being ground zero. When you safely reopen, let me know and I’ll send both my readers your way!
A sublime sepielle he pens with good sense
Misplacing the file until found.
It oozes with anguish confined in the mind
While his perusers’ pleasures abound.
It must say something about me that I found the isolation not problematic at all. I continued hiking, biking, boating and fishing….by myself as usual. Having an excuse to avoid people was actually a benefit. And since it is 3/25/2021 as I write this, I have avoided being infected and have received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine. People are starting to expect me to be social again.