Stamps Defaced

When looking at beautiful postage stamps, we looked into other worlds. Like a peep into other cultures, other times and values that somehow faced us with symbols that were meaningful to other nations or those that remained subjugated to old ideas of what is good and benevolent, or artistic and worth international respect. Sending letters in envelopes with sometimes outstanding and attractive paintings, unknown people, and forgotten pasts revived memories. Picture postcards were a sign of Sending Love from far away... Now disappeared. And yet, when one is reminded of beautiful painted pictures or symbols that had significance, on postage stamps, stamped, as if by an "Angry post office clerk" shocked those who love beauty and aesthetics. To stamp a piece of multi-colored paper that showed "postage paid" was the duty of post offices. Yet, it "smarted like a slap", in eyes that sought gentleness with "things beautiful, worth nothing" to most of the world, but like an actual face, "put paid to". Pasts live in such memories, and even those memories are now fast getting lost. Ordinary postage and the Art of making and appreciating postage stamps is termed decadent culture. But you can't Press Buttons on a mobile and get such beauty. A beautiful, sunny evening in Winter, and that warmth in Minds is like carefully collected postage stamps that were not defaced. They can't compare with text messages any more than Jello with the best pastries from a faraway delicatessen, or bakery. Poems in memory of the Lost Art of Reliving.