Poetry and a Pipe

 I've since corrected my typos from previous posts.  And i've gone back over them correcting a few sentences or so.  I had an old professor who confessed at the time that he was just getting into poetry.  Why I bring this up is that yesterday morning as I was making coffee Gitchee Gumee came into my mind for whatever reason.  I thought about that and remembered it was a poem by Longfellow who wrote about Hiawatha and Minehaha.  Forgive my spelling if I don't get the spellings right.  But as I smoked a bowl of Old Professor yesterday in one of my Nording pipes I did some research into that poem.  

That poem launched Longfellow's career as both a poet and a writer, being among those who lived on Lake Superior and wrote about the history there.  He was among those called the Lake Poets.  I won't go into detail here, but Longfellow inspired many Poets including Carl Sandberg who wrote about Chicago and Lake Michigan.  Sitting out here on the lanai next to the canal could make a poet of me, but I don't have much interest in poetry.  I haven't lived here long enough to suddenly become a poet for Cape Coral.  

Although Cape Coral has more canals than Venice, Italy, I could be inspired to write poetry, but the fact is I haven't studied enough about poetry to become a poet.  My knowledge of poetry extends to iambic-pentameter, but I would have to do resrlearch of even that to understand it.  But there is enough of a poet in me to ponder that old professor and his new found love of poetry.  I might rediscover poetry some time in the future, but poetry is a lot like philosophy and reason, which defines the Age of Enlightenment back in the 18th and 19th centuries.  

I used to say old age makes for the best philosophers, and that would be someone over 70.  Maybe the same could be said of poets as it takes years of struggle for a poet to be noticed.  But in today's world, influencers are those in their late teens to early twenties.  I could be wrong, but today's youth say that forums like Facebook are used mostly for "old people" while youth has moved on to Instagram and TikTok.  The attention span of youth has now become about ten seconds before they move on to the next thing.  

If one doesn't get tens of thousand of views and likes in an hour, it is time to do something else.  It takes time to ponder, and it's time youth of today feel is wasted.  Writing good poetry isn't about song lyrics for pop music, which begs the question as to whether wisdom is to be associated with and be recognized in old age.  Does a poet have to be an old guy?  

Some might say the best poets and the best philosophers are old people.  There might be some truth in this, but in my days of youth, the best were quite young.  But the best then are old now.  Bob Dylan comes to mind.  Paul Simon might be another.  Were they old before their time?  Some might suggest they were with some of their poetry in music just as popular tofay.  Good poetry like good music stands the test of time.  Paul McCartney is almost as popular now as he was when he was with the Beatles.  But good music and good lyrics have staying power.  But I digress.

What about those who haven't written anything in decades, but are now deep thinkers for tofay?    Maybe the very best poet and philosopher is a 90 year old person sitting in a wheelchair in a nursing home.  Living makes for the very best.  John Lenon died at 40.  What if he were still alive tofay?  We can guess, but we do not know.  The best have lived.  Maybe that is why my old professor was discovering the power of poetry.  He must have known something then his students are just finding out tofay.  

Smoking Old Professor pipe tobacco just might remind me of my old professors I knew back then and they are still teaching me tofay.  Thank you for your time and Peace to each one of you.

Dave