I Used to Be but Now I Am

Poem: "I Used to Be but Now I Am"

by Ted Berrigan, from The Collected Poems of Ted Berrigan. © University of California Press, 2005.
From The Writer's Almanac

I used to be inexorable,
But now I am elusive.

I used to be the future of America,
But now I am America.

I used to be part of the problem,
But now I am the problem.














I used to be part of the solution, if not all of it,
But now I am not that person.

I used to be intense, & useful,
But now I am heavy, & boring.

I used to be sentimental about myself, & therefore ruthless,
But now I am, I think, a sympathetic person, although
easily amused.

I used to be a believer,
But now, alas, I believe.