Fast and funny, smart and very nimble <br />is his mind, the poet thinks, <br />making what is complicated simple, <br />mixing metaphors like drinks, <br />until, becoming quite inebriated, <br />his speech begins to slur, <br />and, manic as a tom-cat that has mated, <br />his poems fail to purr, <br />and thoughts like literate lemming herds stampede <br />as fearlessly they dash <br />till, unrestrained by Microsoft, with speed <br />on pixeled screens they crash, <br />as slow as death and very sadly humbled, <br />like cats that have been fixed, <br />while, static as statistics, he has stumbled <br />in metaphors he's mixed. <br /> <br /> <br />Barbara Ehrenreich reviews 'Faster: The Acceleration of Just About Everything, ' by James Gleick ('Pantheon' in 'Think Quick' (NYT Book Review, September 12,1999) . She says the book is 'nimble, smart, often funny, and -best of all - fast.' She explains that Glueck says that 'we glom onto Diana or O. J. or John Jr. like a lemming herd in full stampede. Against all expectations, the collective brain that emerges from our ever-richer connectedness is turning out to be kind of dumb'. <br /> <br /> <br />9/15/99<br /><br />gershon hepner<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/mixed-metaphors/
