The Future by Nick Drake

Discuss in class:

When you read the title of the poem, what does it make you think of? Does the word 'future' have positive or negative connotations?

Dear mortals;
I know you are busy with your colourful lives;
you grow quickly bored,
and detest moralising;
I have no wish to waste the little time that remains
on arguments and heated debates;
I wish I could entertain you
with some magnificent propositions and glorious jokes;
but the best I can do is this:
I haven't happened yet; but I will.
I am the future, but before I appear
please, close your eyes, sit still
and listen carefully.
I can't pretend it's going to be
business as usual.
Things are going to change.
I'm going to be unrecognisable.
Please, don't open your eyes, not yet.
I'm not trying to frighten you.
All I ask is that you think of me
not as a wish or a nightmare, but as a story
you have to tell yourselves -
not with an ending
in which everyone lives happily ever after,
or a B-movie apocalypse,
but maybe starting with the line
'To be continued...'
and see what happens next.
Remember this; I am not
written in stone
but in time -
so please don't shrug and say
what can we do,
it's too late, etc, etc, etc ...
Already I hear the sound of seats
flipping and clapping as you head for the exit signs.
I feel like the comedian who died.

Dear mortals,
you are such strange creatures
with your greed and your kindness,
and your hearts like broken toys;
you carry fear with you everywhere
like a tiny god
in its box of shadows.
You love shopping and music
and good food.
You lie to yourselves
because you're afraid of the dark
But the truth is this: you are in my hands
and I am in yours.
We are in this together,
face to face, and eye to eye,
we are made for each other.
Now those of you who are still here;
open your eyes and tell me what you see.

Copyright © Nick Drake.
Bloodaxe Books