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Ian R Thorpe

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The Hermit (after Phillip Larkin)
by Ian R Thorpe → (All Poetry by Ian R Thorpe)
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People think it strange that I shun the social networking sites. I find this strange because I am a poet and poets are supposed to be ousiders, standing on the fringe, looking in.
One of my favourite 20th century poets, Phillip Larkin would have had something to say about our online world I'm sure.

The Hermit: (after Larkin)

If solitude is selfish as Larkin said,
then I’m selfish; I do not wish
to share with all my hopes, my dreams,
my shopping list.
Posting online my observations and
ideas I may from time to time
hint at past sexual misdemeanours
simply to entertain the growing chain
of friends I’ve never met nor ever shall.
I feel no need to tell the world
my suit was taken to the dry cleaners.
Call me selfish if you like
but never say I have no life
because I choose to stand aside,
not joining the cacophony
but wryly observing a world
that has gone wholly online
but somehow out of kilter.

 

 


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 Reviews of "The Hermit (after Phillip Larkin)"
Reviewed by Karen Vanderlaan
Reviewed on March 15, 2008
i enjoyed the poem--and the observations

Reviewed by Nell Gavin
Reviewed on March 14, 2008
Hmmmm...I recall you chiding me on a social networking site for not posting a blog on said social networking site. I have since posted blogs (at your prompting) on that social networking site revealing things of a somewhat personal nature, to which you often post comments.

But stepping outside of all that, the poem is lovely. And you are a lovely little shunner of mankind.

Stop by and read my most recent blogs! There's the one where I reveal all my political leanings (while ducking eggs), and the other where I realize in the course of writing my latest book that my best friend, when I was 20, was a lesbian with a crush on me.

Love,
Nell

Reviewed by Regis Auffray
Reviewed on March 14, 2008
You give one substance for reflection, Ian. Thank you. Love and peace to you,

Regis


New Poetry by Ian R Thorpe
Popular Poetry (Poetry)
  1.  Catching Happiness...
  2.  Finding Trust Again
  3.  Nightsky
  4.  Reality of Another Kind
  5.  Spindrift
  6.  Kindness
  7.  Our Restless Minds
  8.  Luxury of Solitude
  9.  In The Still of The Night
  10.  Dream Just a Dream
  11.  Life's Enormous Green Chest
  12.  Sediment Within the Soul
  13.  Roadkill Memoriam
  14.  Hunting for Truth
  15.  Whisper Pens
  16.  In Praise of Anonymity
  17.  I Have Spent My Entire Life
  18.  Shaved Reflections
  19.  Feeling Lonely
  20.  Serrated Smiles
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Falling Off the Mountain (poems) by Kalikiano Kalei

A further collection of poems, many from years in the Middle East, but also the California San Francisco and Central Coast areas (Santa Cruz, Carmel, Big Sur, Berkeley, etc.).  
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