Poetry – We used to be cool – a poem about getting old and hip
We used to be cool
Being cool. What’s that about? Some people just are and some people never could be. It’s not so much fashion and style as attitude.
Kerouac in his lumberjack shirt and jeans was supercool.
Miles Davis had it.
But Michael Jackson was just a showbiz phenomenon.
To be cool is to be locked in to the flow of the universe, the cosmic dynamo – to have the energy flow straight through you – to be an individual. There are no trends when you’re cool. You just is. You be.
Back in the 50s it was the American blacks who were supercool. They set the pace for the hipsters. They wanted to live, to go and to hit into the energy of life. They had nothing to buy into, nothing to lose; theirs was the ultimate freedom.
The Beats sucked into that energy – go, go, go – the jazz, the wailing sax.
The Rockers tasted a different beat and rocked.
The Hippies dropped out and grooved.
The Punks wanted to tear it down.
The moment the fashions and styles were born they were dead. All the trendies jumping on the wave as if it was fashion. It wasn’t. It was life. There was no part-time life.
But then you see what you have become.
We used to be cool
We used to be cool
But now we’re cold
Used to be hot
But we done got old.
We used to be hip
Riding the crest
But I guess we fell off
When our hips went west.
We used to be with it
Daddy-o
Now it’s our hair
That’s all go go go.
We used to be fab
And groovy too
Now we’re just sad
Me and you.
We could crawl off and die?
But what’s the point?
It’s not so much joints and hip
As hip joint.
Opher 15.4.2015
These are my six books of poetry. They are available as paperback or on Kindle from Amazon – all for under £5 for a paperback. You could buy the whole lot for just £27.62!!
They are not conventional poetry books. They are like you find on my blog with a page of explanatory prose followed by the poem. The prose is as important as the poem to me.
Codas, Cadence and Clues – £4.97
Stanzas and Stances – £5.59
Poems and Peons – £4.33
Rhymes and Reasons – £3.98
Prose, Cons and Poetry – £4.60
Vice and Verse – £4.15