The BlueIris Semi-Nightly Poetry Break, 11/16/07

[BlueIris]

"Poem"

I lived in the first century of world wars.
Most mornings I would be more or less insane.
The news would pour out of various devices
The newspapers would arrive with their careless stories,
Interrupted by attempts to sell products to the unseen.
I would call my friends on other devices;
They would be more or less mad for similar reasons.
Slowly I would get to pen and paper,
Make my poems for others unseen and unborn.
In the day I would be reminded of those men and women,
Brave, setting up signals across vast distances,
considering a nameless way of living, of almost unimagined values.
As the lights darkened, as the lights of night brightened,
We would try to imagine them, try to find each other,
To construct peace, to make love, to reconcile
Waking with sleeping, ourselves with each other,
Ourselves with ourselves. We would try by any means
To reach the limits of ourselves, to reach beyond ourselves,
To let go the means, to wake.
I lived in the first century of these wars.

—Muriel Rukeyser

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. Very nice, my dear BlueIris...

She would find things much the same these days, I think...

Unfortunately...

Thank you...

:hug:

[BlueIris]

4. Yes, Rukeyser, who died in 1980, wrote a poem that was quite forward looking here.

[ThomCat]

2. That is a very vivid image of living in an emerging media world.

That's a cool, fascinating poem.

[BlueIris]

3. Amazing how much currency it still has, no?

[DarkTirade]

5. War... huh.

What is it good for?

[BlueIris]

6. I just...this poem really captures what my daily life was like between April '04 and Jan '06.

I was never not aware of the collapse of civilization under the weight of so many wars, and I was only interested in connecting with others who shared that awareness.

[BlueIris]

7. Some links about Muriel Rukeyser:

http://www.arlindo-correia.com/200305.html (good selection of her poems featured here)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muriel_Rukeyser

[RetroLounge]

8. Very nice...

:hi:

RL

[BlueIris]

9. Retro! So nice to see your comments in a poetry thread again.

[RetroLounge]

10. ...

:hi:

RL

[BlueIris]

11. Kick.

[BlueIris]

12. Before I adjourn to my sleep chamber—kick.