No Country for Old Men © Cormac McCarthy
Movie Trailer
No Site for Young Writers
There are sites like AARP just for old people,
and even dating sites for those over fifty.
Authors Den is becoming quite aged,
by reviewing the posters from within.
Old authors are going off to who knows,
where or when, some dying to leave,
and someone wanting the way it was when.
Young writers want action and instant return,
Tick-TockIng, Instagraming and texting,
all day and night long to the throng.
Their writings are abbreviations and codewords,
hip-hop's rhymes that don't fit AD's forms.
Young authors use AI to write perfect prose,
producing without criticism their stories,
that young fans want to know.
Leaving Authors Den in the dust,
while online they seek fame and lust.
But we've all had a very good run,
knowing that we will drift off into the sun.
No site for old writers either,
when we are all gone.
Copyright 2023 © Ronald W. Hull
11/9/23
You can read and print this poem at my website here.
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My mother taught English, too. She would give David Thompson’s response an A+; but then, she wanted to BE Shakespeare. ~~ djl
What a great post. And the responses you have received are well stated also. I have belonged to AuthorsDen since 2003. I, too, have learned so much from being exposed to so many good writers. I would say being a part of AD for the 20 years I have belonged is probably equivalent to getting a degree in English. I can safely say it has been that important in my life, for I allow myself to be exposed to AD through writing, reading, reviewing, being reviewed, etc., many hours of every week. There are a variety of members whose writings I thoroughly enjoy, yet there are others I don’t go past the first sentence or first line, be it prose or poetry. I am a retired teacher, and during my teaching career I taught a little bit of everything. One thing that really got under my skin was students turning in papers with gross grammatical and spelling errors. But when I was in college, we were taught to disregard students’ spelling and grammatical errors, that content was the important thing. I agree that content is important, but an assignment riddled with errors makes one appear to not be the sharpest tool in the shed. Yes, I am aware that I have allowed myself to walk into a rant and need to find a way out. However, I believe there are some who agree with what I’ve said here, and others will disagree. Ron, the things you have stated are your opinion, but I happen to agree with them. I also agree with the three who posted comments prior to mine. They contain all the things necessary to making a good post. It will be interesting to know how my post will be received. I do hope there will be a few on my side, along with Ron and the three before me. Before signing off from my tale of woe, I would like to share a rather humorous incident in my classroom. During my career as a teacher, I had a number of student teachers who spent a semester of observation and teaching in my classroom. One day I asked one of my student teachers to grade a spelling test. Once she had finished, I asked to see them, for I wanted to make sure she had graded them correctly. Instead of marking an “X” beside each word spelled incorrectly, she wrote the word “misspelled” after each one. But the funny thing about it was, she misspelled the word “mispelled”every time by leaving out the second “s” in the word itself. Was spelling not important in that situation? I once taught with a teacher who had a distinct Southern accent. She told me she dated a soldier for a period of time who was a “good” man. He was a “hard” worker. And he would have made a “good” husband. But when he wrote me letters, they always had so many misspelled words, it made me “sick” at my stomach. I couldn’t marry a man who spelled like that.
I’m finished.
David Lee
P.S. I tried to close one of the “misspelled” words above by going in and editing it. Then I touched the upgrade button, but it didn’t make the correction.
It's the thing of this generation. The young ones may do well, although they may do everything in a way different from what we, the older generation, have been doing.
For me, I just think and write at the same time whenever the inspiration strikes me. I may work non-stop on a story from the beginning until the end. Then I may edit it about 10,000 times after it is posted. No big thingy!!! I'm still learning. For as long as I live my stories are going to be edited from time to time. My daughter, who excels in English, sometimes helps to edit my stories as well. My daughter has been a book reviewer for some authors. Her name has also been mentioned on a radio show when the author thanked her for reviewing her book.
My daughter is well-versed in the English literature. She is also well-versed in the European history. She can tell you about the European kings and Queens, their families, and their cousins - who belongs to who. Also, my daughter hosts a website that talks about classical music and she knows the life stories of present and past musicians. People from all over the world stop by her site to read her blogs.
As for me, I am like my grandfather. My grandfather always had good stories to tell us every day. We do not know where he got the ideas from, but his stories were plentiful. I believe I have my grandfather's gene in storytelling.
I am only concerned about writing my own stories, I do not care or am the least concerned about how the young ones write theirs. All I know is that THIS is their time and era. We have no right to judge them. Let them live and write all they want. If judging them makes you feel sorry for yourself, then you needn't be.
Sandie
The Fast track variety once they depend on Chat dpt or whatever it is called, they will not know the power of their mental growth. I feel sorry for the lot. Just imagine fifty years from now, what will the state of writers be if all go to follow the same way. I don't think so. There will be Rons and Odin Roarks and the GREAT lot of you to be inspired by!THANKS FOR BEING THERE ( Here) at authors den ! I have decreased my writing activity because i tend to give up everything else and my weight started increasing tremendously. With every plus there comes a minus!! instead I am enjoying the fruits of my labour!
Regis (Reg) 🙏😎🍂