Part of your wisdom portfolio

(Before you start, remember you must read this poem aloud. Come on, don’t be shy. You’ll enjoy poems much more when recited, for they are meant to be. Okay, okay, at least murmur it sotto voce.)

The Pleasure of Vinyl Records and Other Things That Age

Why is music more charming on a vinyl record,
Does ageing together create some mutual accord?
With time come scratches and squiggles on its surface,
Like creases and wrinkles on our hands and face.

Is it because it needs us to load, position, and start,
Go back, turn it over and listen to the second part?
Many a time lift the needle back to the beginning,
Does all the effort lead to mutual connecting?

Every disc develops character and personality,
Each time we play it, there’s subtle originality.
Is it one more pleasure of hearing an LP?
It’s ours and unique no one can disagree.

The groove, needle and speaker are faithful fair,
To sounds from drum, string, or throat through air.
Our senses and minds work with waves, not digits,
Prefer the unbroken sound to samples and bits.

Give me old jeans, broken-in shoes, well-worn tools,
Give me houses with wood, carpets and house plants,
Not for me cold glass, unyielding steel, hard marble,
Antiseptic, unchanging, anodyne, bad for my soul.

What we need is something like what we are,
Close to our heart and not the intellect’s star.
We may admire what’s eternal and unchanging,
But we’ll never love them like things gracefully ageing.

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