C2
Public Record
Excerpt from poetry collection: Clinical Poetry Vol. XVI

a poem created from the essay:
Collectively Forgotten: An inquiry into timelessness. by Kurtsen, Wartsmith, et al.

the most important thing we can learn from history is
what is Timeless?
what are these things that recur?
what will last?
why do some things last
while most others disappear?

Timelessness is inherent.
the amount of things which are Timeless is finite.
although the word suggests permanence or something eternal
our definition will be confined to the human experience,
because if humankind becomes universally extinct,
this question of Timelessness will become immediately irrelevant.
therefore, for this instance we will define Timelessness as
“a quality of any experience or solution
which is universally relatable across the human timeline.”

in order to measure something’s Timelessness,
one must consider its purpose:
does it comment upon or solve a problem that is intrinsic to the human experience?
how universal are its effects (whether across culture or chronology)?
these are factors in understanding
whether something a person makes
is likely to remain relevant for the foreseeable future.

Timelessness and irrelevance are opposites;
countless things are irrelevant,
few are Timeless.

ultimately we discovered that Timelessness
is impossible to predict,
and our initial definition may have been too specific.
according to the initial definition,
nothing is Timeless and every person and thing
tends toward irrelevance…
unfortunately

Glosy Mantell