Monday's Poetry: "Money"

by Pa Rock
Poetry Appreciator

Several years ago I started noticing the "Where's George" dollar bills, paper U.S. currency with a special hand-stamp that invited holders of the currency to report the location of where they acquired it to a special website.  The website would provide a history of all of the locations where the bill had been reported, thus letting those with an interest gain some knowledge of how money circulates.  I even contributed to the process by reporting several of the bills that I came across.  Eventually, the system seemed to quit working - and now sightings of "Where's George" bills are becoming much more rare.

But that wasn't the last of stamped money.

Ben and Jerry, the guys with the ice cream, have been promoting special stamps with left-leaning messages about getting money out of politics.  Their company, The Stamp Stampede, offers a variety of hand-stamps with messages related to ending the big-money control of politics.  Ben and Jerry are promoting cause-oriented messaging on money, something which nagged at my conscience.  If they could tout their own political points-of-view on U.S. currency, wouldn't that same venue soon be overrun by individuals considerably less honorable than the virtuous Vermont ice cream makers?

Well, yes.

Yesterday I found out just how susceptible our paper money is to political lowlifes when I received a dollar bill in change at a local quick stop.  The bill had a small red stamp on its reverse side which read:  "TRUMP:  Make America Great Again."  I handed the bill back to the cashier and asked for a clean one - and he complied.

I fear we may be at the front end of a movement that will eventually deface our currency to the point that it becomes little more that folding graffiti.    People with a burning desire to get their message out before the public should post it on the internet - or fit it into a tattoo - and not rely on others to spread it through daily commerce.  That is just wrong.

With money on my mind, I have selected the poem "Money" by the late British master poet Philip Larkin for this week's poetry selection.  It is a clever verse that discusses money - and the habit of saving money - from the perspective of the money itself.




Money
by Philip Larkin

Quarterly, is it, money reproaches me:

    ‘Why do you let me lie here wastefully?

I am all you never had of goods and sex.

    You could get them still by writing a few cheques.’

So I look at others, what they do with theirs:   

    They certainly don’t keep it upstairs.

By now they’ve a second house and car and wife:

    Clearly money has something to do with life

—In fact, they’ve a lot in common, if you enquire:

    You can’t put off being young until you retire,

And however you bank your screw, the money you save

    Won’t in the end buy you more than a shave.

I listen to money singing. It’s like looking down

    From long french windows at a provincial town,   

The slums, the canal, the churches ornate and mad

    In the evening sun. It is intensely sad.