Like sharing in a self help circle
Speaking in the first person
Looking inward
Striving for honesty and humility
My words may speak to you or not.
What matters is that I dare to do it and care not how you judge me.
But looking inward is not at all the whole story.
Caring what goes on in the world counts big time.
I do not aspire to the poetry of self alone.
I call that a false identity in isolation.
The circle is a shared experience.
Meeting together provides support.
The world out there shapes our lives.
Our experience is not just biology and humanity.
Private property is not natural law.
The suffering of the poor is not necessary.
I have wanted to write a political poetry.
Is that a contradiction in terms?
Everyone with eyes sees the destruction of the planet.
How are we going to stop this?
Joe Hill at his execution said:
“Don’t mourn, organize!”
So heroic and yet the IWW failed
And the historical outcome is de-industrialization.
Gandhi exemplified the non-violent struggle
But mass movements heave forwards then subside
Like waves crashing on the beach
As the tide of human history ebbs and flows.
For each of us it begins with what we control.
The personal is political. Do you live by the golden rule?
That’s a start. Do you do community service work?
That’s helping to make the world a better place.
