Warrior Poet Prose

A warrior poet laureate has a new article in the New York Times opinion section that begins with:

“LIFE, I found myself thinking as a line of Alameda County deputy sheriffs in Darth Vader riot gear formed a cordon in front of me on a recent night on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, is full of strange contingencies.”

In the article Hass lays out the details of the riots cops beating on him and his wife and many other students who were peacefully demonstrating, which is their constitutionally protected right, which I might add, was successfully defended in this very location 40 years ago.

He further explains: “One of my colleagues, also a poet, Geoffrey O’Brien, had a broken rib. Another colleague, Celeste Langan, a Wordsworth scholar, got dragged across the grass by her hair when she presented herself for arrest.”

Hass goes on to explain the enormous stress the California university system is under after decades of corruption have eliminated the states ability to generate revenue with fair and justified taxes on the wealthy while at the same time the state is being forced to spend as much money as possible to make the elite and wealthy even more elite and wealthy.

There is very little, if any, editorializing in his Hass’ report. It was more accurately a first hand report of high-quality journalism about the truth, which is something the New York Times knows very little about these days.

Earlier this week the New York Times even went as far as reporting on their front page in a celebrated tone that Occupy Wall Street had finally ended. In truth on that same day more that 30,000 citizens were on the streets of New York celebrating the truth of the two month anniversary of a movement that gets a bigger and bigger turnout with almost every new demonstration.

Robert Hass’ more honest reporting, which the New York Times classified as a mere opinion, concluded with a clear impression that this moment in history has only just begun…

As in stay tuned, or to be continued… As in contingency upon contingency, upon contingency, somehow the most powerful and wealthy will no longer be. As in somehow, someday in the not-too distant future we will all be much more free!

The summary of his ‘editorial’ begins with: “The next night the students put the tents back up. Students filled the plaza again with a festive atmosphere. And lots of signs. (The one from the English Department contingent read “Beat Poets, not beat poets.”)”

You can read his full report here.

By DeaneTR

One of the most articulate poem-reading voices on Sound Cloud is Maura Mcgovern.

She not only has a great voice, she pays attention to to the newest in Web technologies. Many months, if not years before the mainstream is using the latest Web tech, Maura has already been using it…

Here’s to Maura as a Warrior Poet… We hope she contributes to our cause often!

Of course many others are offering opportunities for her voice as well. Probably too many opportunities to keep up with?

This is what Sound Cloud is all about!!!

Meanwhile: Here’s a quote she posted on her blog recently…

“If for a moment you are inclined to regard these taluses as mere draggled, chaotic dumps, climb to the top of one of them, and run down without any haggling, puttering hesitation, boldly jumping from boulder to boulder with even speed. You will then find your feet playing a tune, and quickly discover the music and poetry of these magnificent rock piles — a fine lesson; and all nature’s wildness tells the same story — the shocks and outbursts of earthquakes, volcanoes, geysers, roaring, thundering waves and floods, the silent uprush of sap in plants, storms of every sort — each and all are the orderly beauty-making love-beats of nature’s heart.”

— John Muir