Have you ever had the experience of
misremembering something?
Have you ever been so sure
that something happened
as you remember it happening -
but then being told, as well as being shown,
that your memory of something
is, in fact, not correct?
Have you ever heard the lyrics of a song
and then mis-hearing them,
and then singing along to the song differently -
even after you are told that the words
that you thought a song comprised of
are slightly wrong?
Of course you have. We all have.
Because everyone does.
Why? Who knows?
But, what if the reason is something
unexpected, memory-altering,
as well as reality-altering?
What if we remember things differently,
because things have been changed
from how they were to how they are now
by a change in the timeline?
You never know. Perhaps, as some people say,
we may all be living in an alternate-reality?
Because it can’t be a coincidence that
some people’s memories of the same thing can differ,
while others have a clear and similar
recollection that things definitely
occurred the way that they did -
but, for some reason, somehow, something,
or someone, has acted in a certain way in the past
and has created new memories
that have been overlaid upon
the memories of what once used to be,
which has created a feeling of uncertainty,
a paradox of perception,
as well as a sense of what is called "déjà vu".
From quotes from a movie
to the logos of food packaging;
from the names of TV shows
to the missing tails of cartoon characters;
from an actor being remembered
for playing a film role that he never played
to the most famous example of some people
remembering something that happened -
but never happened -
which, of course, is the fact that
South African president Nelson Mandela
did not die in a South African prison in the 1980s,
as some people believe they remember he did,
and he was released from prison
and in fact died in 2013 instead;
there are so many instances of what has been called
“False memory” about certain things,
and cited by so many people,
that I believe there might be something
more than meets the eye when it comes to
what has been coined “The Mandela Effect”.
Mandela effect
My Poem “Throwback”
Every day, I look at things,
I look at people, I look at places,
and in my mind I am thrown back in time…
Every day I am reminded about
some of the things I have done,
some of the people I have met,
some of the places I have visited,
and what always follows
is an intoxication of memories,
feelings, colours, that rise
to the surface – like the bubbles
of a glass of wine…
every day, I read things that I have written,
I remember what I did and with whom,
and I am overcome with a wave of déjà vu
that floods my thoughts with
echoes of what came before
and what I had compartmentalized…
every day, I hold on tight to who
and what means the most to me
and I try to remember every detail
of everything as accurately as I can,
while trying to correct for
Mandela Effect – which is a
prime example of how sometimes
our own memories can play tricks on us
and even blatantly make things up…
every day, something new happens to all of us –
even if we don’t realize it…
every day something new becomes
the inspiration for an explorer,
a storyteller, a musician,
a dreamer, a poet, that has such
a phenomenal and an amazing
effect that the aftershocks
from the revelations – that feel
like the tectonic shifts
that you can physically feel
when the Earth moves beneath you –
continue to influence you
in everything that you commit to afterwards…
the past, the present, the future,
the outside, the inside,
the old, the new, would not be what they are
and they would not mean what they do
without our own personal perspective…
the world is built upon things
and moments that are not meant to last –
however, if it were not for
all of the things that we sometimes lose,
all of the things that we leave behind,
and all of the things that are not meant
to last then we would never know
the true meaning, nor experience
the incredible power, of moments of nostalgia,
gratitude, and reflection from something
that can serve as a wormhole back in time
through which we can cast our mind’s eye
upon something in particular:
a throwback to an earlier time in our life.
Mark The Poet 