Happy New Year

The "oughts" are rolling by, aren't they? The hysterics of "Y2K" seem like only yesterday, to me anyway. To Tucker--whose technological skills are highlighted in a feature story in the N&O today--it was almost half a lifetime ago.

Here's my new year's discovery: the site of an interesting poet and translator, George Szirtes--and his blog.

Found via wood s lot, who cites Szirtes' 1999 "New Year Canticles":

1.

The new government is the old government,
The new year is the old year in new shoes,
The new testament is the old one reversed,
The new man is the old man newly cursed.

The new poor are the old poor plus a few.
The new itinerant is the old bum.
The new lie is the old lie, and then some.
The new Titanic steams on through old scum.

. . . [go here and scroll down for the whole poem]