i don't have the highest hopes for human civilization. not that i'm a nihilist but that it seems the lot of humankind is base brutality and mad sweeps by the few for power. the results are suffering, death, famine and disease. the programs i watched on the national geographic channel have haunted me all day. there were graphic images of torture, executions, battles, firefights etc. etc.

even so, i'm a pacifist by nature and actions. and i am an idiot optimist. i've quotes joseph brodsky before, as for human civilization we're fucked. but for the individual there always remains a chance.

fucked up and hopeful.

michael lally, a poet i don't know personally but from his blog and his poem 'my life' published in the outlaw bible of american poetry writes this searing defense of poetry, art and pleasure in our terrible times. adorno had it wrong. not only is poetry necessary, but required work. it is every person's right to creative expressions. to give that up would be an admission that human nature is nothing indeed but base, vile and it deserves extinction.

i don't say this as a guild man. but as a man who must live in this world, as horrible as it is. because i have, you have, we all have, a natural right to pleasure of the highest sort. poetry is that pleasure for me, but it could be anything for anyone else.

enough of the soapbox. read lally.

peace for us