In case you haven’t read this poem by Jonathan Reed before:
I am part of a lost generation
and I refuse to believe that
I can change the world
I realize this may be a shock but
“Happiness comes from within”
is a lie, and
“Money will make me happy.”
So in 30 years I will tell my child
she is not the most important thing in my life
My employer will know that
I have my priorities straight because
work
is more important than
family
I tell you this
I will live in a country of my own making
In the future
Environmental destruction will be the norm
No longer can it be said that
My peers and I care about this earth
It will be evident that
My generation is apathetic and lethargic
It is foolish to presume that
There is hope.
And now read it backwards line by line. Ultimately, everybody chooses if they are version A or version B. In the New Year, let’s make the resolution to read the poem backwards more often than not.
Clarissa's Blog 
What an extremely clever poem!
I think that the original order of the words gives Reed’s own beliefs away: You read the cynical version first, so that the idealistic version becomes the final one.
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Good point!
This is the perfect poem to start out the new year.
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I skimmed over the poem without reading it, read the paragraph underneath, read the poem backwards and then read it in its original order.
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An amazing poem! I will definitely kep reading it backwards.
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Ultimately over a lifetime, the lines of the two versions get shuffled together like the cards in a deck of playing cards, and then dealt out in an unpredictable pattern, with idealism weighed down by the realities of life, and with despair eased by intermittent good fortune and the kindness of others.
No matter which version a person tries to choose, he/she will ultimately end up an AB, with the relative percentage of each determined by forces largely beyond his/her control.
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This sounds way too Russian for me. 🙂 They are heavily into fatalism.
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Well, I’m neither Russian nor religious, and I’ve always tried to follow the philosophy that I could control my own destiny over a lifetime, making and abruptly changing career decisions and moving all over the world to accomplish my goals. But the fact that I ended up retired in Arizona (which is EXACTLY where I want to be, although I had no intention of ultimately living here when I started out — tells me that somehow every step I’ve ever taken has brought me to where I now stand, no matter where I was determined to go during all the long years in motion.
That’s “fate”, but it is “fatalism” — or simply how life works?? 🙂
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Thank you so much for this. I had not read the poem before. A perfect way to start New Year’s Eve and begin the New Year. 🙂 I hope that yours and N’s is wonderful.
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Here’s another poem, by W.H. Auden
THE UNKNOWN CITIZEN
BY W. H. AUDEN
(To JS/07 M 378
This Marble Monument
Is Erected by the State)
He was found by the Bureau of Statistics to be
One against whom there was no official complaint,
And all the reports on his conduct agree
That, in the modern sense of an old-fashioned word, he was a saint,
For in everything he did he served the Greater Community.
Except for the War till the day he retired
He worked in a factory and never got fired,
But satisfied his employers, Fudge Motors Inc.
Yet he wasn’t a scab or odd in his views,
For his Union reports that he paid his dues,
(Our report on his Union shows it was sound)
And our Social Psychology workers found
That he was popular with his mates and liked a drink.
The Press are convinced that he bought a paper every day
And that his reactions to advertisements were normal in every way.
Policies taken out in his name prove that he was fully insured,
And his Health-card shows he was once in a hospital but left it cured.
Both Producers Research and High-Grade Living declare
He was fully sensible to the advantages of the Installment Plan
And had everything necessary to the Modern Man,
A phonograph, a radio, a car and a frigidaire.
Our researchers into Public Opinion are content
That he held the proper opinions for the time of year;
When there was peace, he was for peace: when there was war, he went.
He was married and added five children to the population,
Which our Eugenist says was the right number for a parent of his generation.
And our teachers report that he never interfered with their education.
Was he free? Was he happy? The question is absurd:
Had anything been wrong, we should certainly have heard.
Sometimes, I fear that that’s where we are heading.
Unfortunately, it does not much change when read backward.
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This is a good one.
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Hope you don’t mind. I’ve reblogged this, with citation to your blog as the source.
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No, of course, I don’t. Let’s spread the joy!
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Try two poems and an affirmation.
“I have my priorities straight …”
The rest serves as a pair of book-ends that don’t so much hold anything together as much as crush it between a pair of narratives contained within.
Both “version A” and “version B” are rubbish to my ears — one is deliberately hopeless, while the other is overly sentimental and jejune.
It’s inevitable that I choose “System D” as a better version.
After all, I have my priorities straight.
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Whatever you think of its messages(s), the fact that a 24-line poem can be read in both directions and still sound exactly like normal spoken English (as opposed to free-verse “poetic” English, which sometimes sounds VERY strained) indicates that it’s skillfully written.
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I initially discovered the poem in Russian. It has been translated by some brave human being.
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Does it read like everyday spoken Russian with correct grammatical constructions in both directions?
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It was so convincing that I thought it was the original and considered translating it into English for the blog.
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\ This is a good one.
I liked some poems by Auden:
Law, like love
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/law-like-love/
and this:
“The Two” (or “The Witnesses”)
http://homepages.wmich.edu/~cooneys/poems/auden.two.html
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