not just the harsh winter
nor the soldats that must be dodged,
not even the icy streets crowded
with frozen, empty faces,
not just the hunger or the quest
for a crust of moldy bread,
more than thud of blade on some
exquisite architecture turned firewood,
there was no tweet or twitter,
no facebook to spin the web of plot…
it was no digital war, that Revolution
where poets were put against a wall
and shot as enemies of the state,
promiscuous, those times of need,
when squalor fed the flames
of lust and one made choices
based on fear with little hope
and less trust, when lettered men
chose to tie their own noose
rather than face life in the gulag
and literature lost the innocence
of simplicity in those darkened rooms
where poets gathered, speaking carefully,
knowing someone among them might be a Judas
I wonder if the Boston bombing would have happened
without the benefit of the Internet and the convenience
of facebook and the like, and if the ‘digital terrorists’ exist
because of an ideology or because we have a sub-culture
of computer geniuses who have grown bored with killing
characters in a computer game.
Excellent reflection, Sarah, both in poetry and reflection. I just don’t believe that the violence available as play and entertainment through computers, television and movie, is as benign as so many insist.
Diane,
“I just don’t believe that the violence available as play and entertainment through computers, television and movie, is as benign as so many insist.”
I agree. It creates a mindset, and while healthy individuals
are able to separate the reality from the fantasy, it is not
healthy individuals who commit violence. So, I believe that
such games exploit the mentally diseased.
Many thanks for your continued support of my work. It means a lot
to me!!
Sarah