This is not the time to retreat into nature poetry. This is not
the time to withdraw from dim-lit rooms
into the wild bright world, to hide one’s head
beneath the wide sky’s broad blanket. The real world,
the important world flickers on these screens
and all the sunlit trivial expanse outside
mere glare to interfere, to mask our reading
of true poetry, the gutted mockery
and feeble seething, the plodding litanies of martyrs,
the toothless rage of impotent Barakas.
The only imperative is the imperative of my scream.

Ten thousand voices speak as one. A hundred
thousand voices speak as one. This is not the time
for counterpoint. This is not
the time to speak of the vast web that suspends us,
that fills our lungs and bellies.
They loot that world, that nature you revere,
they profit from the suffering of billions, and
piling insult on indignity, they refuse
to cut us in.

This is not the time to retreat from battle,
this vital war of pixel against pixel, to withdraw
into your blessed California,
as if the earth will bring these walls down of its own accord.

Note:Many old comments were lost in a database crash in 2008. Some conversations may seem to make less sense than they would have. A few will make more sense now.

1. 
   embee 2007 07 07 at 1:43:37 am

   Ha! lovely counterpoint…

2. 
   Amanda Marcotte 2007 07 07 at 8:01:21 am

   *applause*

3. 
   kathy a 2007 07 07 at 10:23:21 am

   excellent.

4. 
   Theriomorph 2007 07 07 at 11:49:49 am

   Yes.

5. 
   Daisy 2007 07 07 at 2:39:12 pm

   I know exactly what you mean.

6. 
   nm 2007 07 09 at 2:48:04 pm

   This blog is always a deep, calm breath for me when I need one.  More important, it reminds me that I need one when I’m too busy in the pixel wars to remember.

7. 
   Nezua Limón Xolagrafik-Jonez 2007 07 13 at 12:34:08 am

   i like both I and II. great stuff.