Poetry
Echoes of Clever People
'I don't mind
being mistaken for one
Of the shadows'
– Kevin Young, 'Altarpiece'
Would you recommend that readers
obtain a copy of the book or not?
Is it to do with collective memory
and how we view the past? Will it
help us understand what happened
back then and how it informs now?
Clever people tend to be unhappy,
concentrate less on social norms
and live in echo chambers where
others all think the same things.
The desire to understand becomes
a driver for curious explanations,
reason for miserable compulsions.
No one controls what people think,
you decide what you need to know.
Confirmation bias will seduce you,
make vicious assaults on your brain,
undermine your reasons and refuse
to discuss other ideas. Most people
have been terribly let down, can’t
bear to speak of perpetual motion
or other hypothetical machines.
Energy can neither be created or
destroyed, always remains the same.
Rupert M. Loydell
Rupert Loydell is a senior lecturer in the School of Communication at Falmouth University, the editor of Stride, and a contributing editor to International Times. He is a widely published poet and has written about Brian Eno, David Lynch, industrial music, Christian rock, collaboration, pedagogy, and creative writing for academic journals and books.