"Forgetfulness" by Billy Collins

In Billy Collins’ “Forgetfulness,” the reader is treated to an exercise in imagination; the same kind of imagination that serves to form many of our earthly perceptions. As in art, all of life is derivative; every human act has been undertaken once before and each moment has been envisioned by some predecessor somewhere and at some point in the past. According to the psychodynamic theory, the minutest of details are embedded in our collective unconsciousness to form the manner in which we regard the world and the way in which we anticipate the story it tells us.

As Collins points out from his poem’s very onset, we assimilate into our memories and consciousness all that we read in the word of our artists. The line between reality and this absorbed fiction can often be blurred beyond distinction, to the point at which the writer, painter, singer or sculptor ceases to exist in our memory. He or she has become a component of our collective existence; a source from which we derive meaning in life. In reality, however, the details of these pieces of art have been created for us and they are not reflective of our experience except insofar as we experience them through the eyes of another. As such, when we begin to perceive our own forgetfulness, we are not actually forgetting an experience of our own, but rather a piece of the collective exposure provided for us by those who create, as opposed to those who consume.

In an age in which so little is created, Collins’ poem is more relevant than ever. Because the human spirit has never been so fearful of fully engaging the world, we create very little, especially in the way of important inventions, whether of the mind or of the body. We delude ourselves by relying upon our experiences as some guard against the onslaught of what Collins calls “forgetfulness,” but which he really believes is merely a function of human laziness. By and large, the citizens of the world today cling only to details but fail to coalesce these details into some collective by supplementing them with genuine experience.

Eventually, this failure to supplement through experience comes to detrimentally impact the formation of character and identity. We become mere vessels through which the details created by others are birthed, but we do not evolve as distinctly human characters. As we consume these details and become obsessed with their character, we begin to alienate the formation of our own character within them. Over time, it becomes impossible to persevere in an authentically human sense, as we cede our holistic humanity to a compartmentalized one that is destined to contribute to a collective sense of isolation, as opposed to fulfillment. Through these details created by others, we hope to eventually discover an identity or character. However, we are foreclosed from doing so because this process precludes the human spirit from creating itself anew, as every authentic human character and identity must be created as a whole, as opposed to being comprised of isolated details.

Through “Forgetfulness,” Billy Collins speaks to the difficulties of forming the authentic self in an age in which very little is new under the sun. Our humanity has become dedicated only to the most finite of details, as we fear engagement with the real unless it has been filtered for us. Given this, we are often unable to engage in an authentic form of human experience, almost paralyzed against doing so. Of course, absent such engagement, it is impossible to experience the creation of a meaningfully human character. Without the possibility of creating ourselves, we relegate ourselves to the sidelines of humanity, only pretending as though we exist according to our own identities.