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Rhymes & Reasons

Category: History / Topics: Change • History • Music • Popular Culture • Social Movements

Taking Stock of Woodstock

by Greg Asimakoupoulos

Posted: August 16, 2009

How that concert forty years ago impacted society…

When the Beatles crossed that London road,
Dear Abby, what did you suppose
was happening in rural New York
this week in '69?

Could you have known that music fest
would make such news? Could you have guessed
that Woodstock would prove just as big
as landing on the moon?

Dear Abby, it was bigger yet!
As I look back and recollect,
it seems those days of rock and roll
would bruise our culture's soul.

It celebrated booze and drugs
and unclad couples locked in hugs.
The lyrics and the atmosphere
rebuffed authority.

That weekend concert would portend
a values shift that would not end.
Since then, we are less civilized.
Our stock is wood not gold.

We are less cultured than before
and (though more wealthy) we are poor.
Free love has proved much costlier
than any could have guessed.


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Greg Asimakoupoulos (pronounced AWESOME-uh-COPE-uh-less) is an ordained minister, published author and chaplain to a retirement community in the Pacfic Northwest. Greg maintains a blog called Rhymes and Reasons, which he graciously provides to SeniorLifestyle.

Greg's writings have now been assembled in book form. See the SeniorLifestyle Store.

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Posted: August 16, 2009   Accessed 166 times

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