Memoirous

Escaping the heat in the 2800 block of W. Augusta, 1988. Photo by Michael Fryer (Vintage Tribune Chicago, IL) Here is another Facebook group I’ve discovered. Simply Pictures of Chicago —such as over the weekend, tone of pics of the electrical storm Saturday and Sunday evening. A lot of sunset shots. Just everyday stuff. Crowds at the beach. Michigan Avenue. A hot dog stand. This is the ESSENCE of flash. An Instagram moment that is here now and a minute late gone. And, if you, me, we don’t grab it then it will forever be a regret. Because the light changes, the clouds, move, or something else comes along and that moment is lost. That’s why I’ve been enjoying Stephen Spender’s poetry. This one from, Collected Poems 1928 – 1985 , Stephen Spender An Air Raid Across the Bay at Plymouth   Above the whispering sea And waiting rocks of black coast, Across the bay, the serchlight beams Swing and swing back across the sky. Their ends fuse in a cone of light ...

Or something like that. We can all contribute our voice, become one of MANY voices that make a generation distinct. Are you familiar with the term Millennial? It makes me laugh. People get labeled without ever getting a vote—is this how you want to be referred to? Gen Xer. Baby Boomer, Lost Generation. The group of young people disillusioned after a horrific World War (I!—often called The Great War, because they had no idea there would have to be TWO of them) decided to drink gin, hang out in cafes, and write “modern” stories. Hemingway, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound (though to be honest, he was part of another generation—the super crazy), HD, Zelda and F. Scott Fitzgerald—to name a few of the “lost” souls. And the British poet Stephen Spender. I was introduced to his work by Marilyn Nelson who recently gave the Zena Sutherland Lecture at the Harold Washington Library. He was a poet whose writing spanned several great and ungreat wars, dozens of love affairs and li...