poetry notebook

‘Fool,’ said my muse to me; ‘look in thy heart, and write.’
Sir Philip Sidney, Astrophil And Stella

(For Tim Grosvenor’s “The Collective Egg” http://tgegg.posterous.com/)

Wanting to contribute something better to efforts to improve things in Madagascar, a place I’ve never been, have often dreamed of, know little about beyond superficial awareness of the diversity of lemurs whom I’ve admired from afar as brothers since a very young time of my life (The Golden Book Encyclopedia), I began casting about for data, more facts, a “greater understanding” but discovered that these were of no use:

Sir Philip Sydney came to mind,
so I stepped outside into the rainy
darkness to say that my heart is broken
that dirt poor people in
desperation hunt lemurs to sell to rich,
bored, punks teeming with self importance
for meat while we, even yet the richest
country despite the Third Word distribution
style of our collective wealth, enrich
arms and energy dealers and privatized
service companies through a war we never
should have started and because of which
the ruling class cries poverty
to legitimate needs. May
the greed of a few no longer
squander the lives of so many
may we take back what is ours and
share it with those who most need it.