I have long been a lover of the traditional and, in particular the chiming clock. My love of clocks can be seen in a number of my poems, including “My Old Clock I Wind”, which can be found in “My Old Clock I Wind and Other Poems”. One derives a real sense of seconds passing (never to return) when listening to the ponderous tick tock of a traditional pendulum clock such as a Grandfather or Grandmother clock. As I put it in my poem “Time”, “the sickle chops and the heart will, one day, stop”.

Given my love of traditional clocks, I was sad to read an article in The Telegraph in which it is reported that analogue (traditional) clocks are being replaced in school examination halls by digital devices. As one headteacher puts it:

“Malcolm Trobe, deputy general secretary at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said youngsters have become accustomed to using digital devices.
“The current generation aren’t as good at reading the traditional clock face as older generations,” he told The Telegraph.
“They are used to seeing a digital representation of time on their phone, on their computer. Nearly everything they’ve got is digital so youngsters are just exposed to time being given digitally everywhere.” (See https://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/2018/04/24/schools-removing-analogue-clocks-exam-halls-teenagers-unable/).

I remember the excitement, as a schoolboy when a large digital clock was installed in the newly constructed school building which formed a part of the Royal School for the Blind in Liverpool, (one of the schools I attended in that great city). While other children thought the device wonderful, I was left cold and would retreat to the traditional wall mounted (pendulum) clock in another (older) part of the same school.

I can, of course see the advantages of digital devices. But, to me they lack (and always will lack) that elusive thing we call character.

(You can find “My Old Clock I Wind and Other Poems” in the Amazon Kindle Store. “Time” can be found in my collection “Lost In The Labyrinth of My Mind”, which is also available in the Kindle store. Links to all of my books can be found here, https://newauthoronline.com/about/).