Bicentennial

After reading Bicentennial I feel as though I am the writer's grandchild.  The first stanza signals to me that he is asking the reader to pay very close attention to each stanza down to the word as he describes situations that require full focus. From math to lovers he does not fail to mention any important yet complex situation to parallel how one must view and read his words. Each stanza, I feel, is meant to capture the reader, as he begins a story and hops around in his own life. As he continues on, he projects his regrets throughout on the characters in the stories he tells us and in the memories he share. I feel that gives the words humanity. He is. It creating a poem but a life filled with his own memories so he experiences and observes. When he ends it by saying "you are experiencing your childhood now" signals some regrets and also makes me aware he id not expect his life to take certain turns. It is almost as if he had an epiphany in his later life and realized all those things that he mentioned his first stanza are poignant corners of his memory that he will take with him.