I've never seen Good Omens and I've never heard of Mr. Destiny, but this reminds me of It's a Wonderful Life and Sliding Doors and Quantum Leap and Sssssssliders, and that episode of Buffy where Buffy's delusional in an institution and the whole show is her fantasy, and The Good Place, and LOTS of Alan Moore comics, and Back to the Future, and a bunch of MCU stuff that honestly didn't make sense and I don't approve of -- if you can bring back Gamora you can bring back Black Widow...
I thought about most of those examples when I was putting this together but what really makes this poem different is the way Carl Dennis completely gets rid of the desire for the other life, at least from the perspective of the person living it. I also really liked the way he makes the god of the poem kind of weak, in that they feel this disappointment but apparently aren’t able or willing to do anything about it. What’s the point of omnipotence if you’re just going to let a little thing like the fact that some of your subjects aren’t living their absolute best lives bother you?
Yes, the sense that "you" should be worrying about god losing sleep and pacing his cloudy bedroom taps into some deep Christian guilt. I assume that's deliberate?
The lasting impression I'm left with, though, is that all these possible paths with which we torture ourselves, all the thoughts of "what if" and "if only" and "coulda, shoulda, woulda" are beyond even omnipotent god's purview. As you say, Brian, he worries about them but doesn't do anything about them. Isn't that what we do? Mull on things beyond our control and twist ourselves in knots. Maybe he won't and we can't, and they're different things, but the result is the same.
And if those things are beyond god, then surely they are beyond mortals. Really, the better thing is to set aside the impossible questions and put our hands to the things within our control: the saving of our imaginations, the saving of our faith (if we have faith) and god (if he exists) through an act of connection. Specifically, dare I say, through the act of writing. (The poet's ultimate solution to all of life's problems.)
The lasting image for me is that of "you" going home satisfied on a Friday night, and the three deserving families, moved into their "fine" homes to live their fine lives. Maybe this is not the point of the poem -- it might even be the opposite of the point of the poem, ha ha -- but for me that glow of satisfaction with an achievement, however small, that makes other people's lives better, is where the real value lies.
(And that turned into a really long comment; sorry about that. I really enjoy how you open up these poems for beginners like me. Thank you! Sorry if I'm stinking up your comment section with my ignorance.)
Sure thing. Bluesky doesn’t have as many people on it, so it moves slower, and you have more control over what shows up in your feed which means I’m able to avoid a lot of the toxicity that I experienced on Twitter, which is the closest analog. As a result, I don’t feel like I’m performing so much, not trying to be a public face.
One of the great control things is that when you block someone (or they block you) the whole interaction basically disappears which limits the incentive and ability for trolls to expand their reach by bullying people. It’s not perfect, and as it grows (if it grows) I’m sure the same problems that developed other places will be a problem there, but for now it’s fairly pleasant. I have an invite code if you’d like one.
I've never seen Good Omens and I've never heard of Mr. Destiny, but this reminds me of It's a Wonderful Life and Sliding Doors and Quantum Leap and Sssssssliders, and that episode of Buffy where Buffy's delusional in an institution and the whole show is her fantasy, and The Good Place, and LOTS of Alan Moore comics, and Back to the Future, and a bunch of MCU stuff that honestly didn't make sense and I don't approve of -- if you can bring back Gamora you can bring back Black Widow...
I thought about most of those examples when I was putting this together but what really makes this poem different is the way Carl Dennis completely gets rid of the desire for the other life, at least from the perspective of the person living it. I also really liked the way he makes the god of the poem kind of weak, in that they feel this disappointment but apparently aren’t able or willing to do anything about it. What’s the point of omnipotence if you’re just going to let a little thing like the fact that some of your subjects aren’t living their absolute best lives bother you?
Yes, the sense that "you" should be worrying about god losing sleep and pacing his cloudy bedroom taps into some deep Christian guilt. I assume that's deliberate?
The lasting impression I'm left with, though, is that all these possible paths with which we torture ourselves, all the thoughts of "what if" and "if only" and "coulda, shoulda, woulda" are beyond even omnipotent god's purview. As you say, Brian, he worries about them but doesn't do anything about them. Isn't that what we do? Mull on things beyond our control and twist ourselves in knots. Maybe he won't and we can't, and they're different things, but the result is the same.
And if those things are beyond god, then surely they are beyond mortals. Really, the better thing is to set aside the impossible questions and put our hands to the things within our control: the saving of our imaginations, the saving of our faith (if we have faith) and god (if he exists) through an act of connection. Specifically, dare I say, through the act of writing. (The poet's ultimate solution to all of life's problems.)
The lasting image for me is that of "you" going home satisfied on a Friday night, and the three deserving families, moved into their "fine" homes to live their fine lives. Maybe this is not the point of the poem -- it might even be the opposite of the point of the poem, ha ha -- but for me that glow of satisfaction with an achievement, however small, that makes other people's lives better, is where the real value lies.
(And that turned into a really long comment; sorry about that. I really enjoy how you open up these poems for beginners like me. Thank you! Sorry if I'm stinking up your comment section with my ignorance.)
I really liked your comment and I think you expanded beautifully on what I was trying to say. Thank you for that.
I was wondering if you could explain why you exclusively go on Bluesky? Is there anything that makes it better than the other social media sites?
Sure thing. Bluesky doesn’t have as many people on it, so it moves slower, and you have more control over what shows up in your feed which means I’m able to avoid a lot of the toxicity that I experienced on Twitter, which is the closest analog. As a result, I don’t feel like I’m performing so much, not trying to be a public face.
One of the great control things is that when you block someone (or they block you) the whole interaction basically disappears which limits the incentive and ability for trolls to expand their reach by bullying people. It’s not perfect, and as it grows (if it grows) I’m sure the same problems that developed other places will be a problem there, but for now it’s fairly pleasant. I have an invite code if you’d like one.
Yeah, an invite code would be great, thanks.