Thanks all for the responses - they are all fascinating and there are
some poems I have never met before. Keep them coming! Yes, it is
very hard to choose one poem, I just went for the oldest and most
enduring. I was finally very torn between Blake and Rukeyser, but I
met Blake first.
Yesterday's anti-war rally was large for Melbourne - organisers said
45,000, commercial tv said "more than 10,000", so I figure my
estimate of between 20,000 and 30,000 was about right. A various
crowd, from Muslims for Peace, Jews for a Just peace, Museums against
War, Doctors against War, families, trade unions, the Greens, the
Democrats, a Labour splinter group, the usual crowd of Marxists. I
was with the Actors for Refugees. All overshadowed sombrely by the
bombing in Bali. As the US rhetoric rattles up, I fear such things
will become more common: it lends credibility to what is now being
called Islamism, or fundamental Islam. These things feed each other,
evil Janus faces.
A friend wrote me yesterday quoting Plato, which seems somehow
relevant to both the poets and the war:
"I suppose it is
profitable to their rulers that the subjects should not be great in
spirit or make strong friendships and unions, which things love is wont
to implant more than anything else. In fact, our own despots found that
out by experience; for the love of Aristogeiton, and the friendship of
Harmodios, grown strong, brought their rule to an end." and so he goes
on to say that these prohibitions against individual reality and feeling
make the laws out of "the grasping habits of the rulers and the
cowardice of the ruled" or "laziness of soul."
Best to all
Alison
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Alison Croggon
Home page
http://www.users.bigpond.com/acroggon/
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