this morning i read a few poems by the great 20th C polish poet zbigniew herbert who lived thru the horrors of WWII, the terror of soviet control & still made poems of great strength & lucidity

i turn to poets & poetry to give me strength, to remind me that i am -- you are -- we are -- human & creatures who share this closed-system little blue planet with fellow creatures

but fuck it too, i've had a hard time writing this past year, writing poems, writing about movies, because the world is shit

climate change is the clincher, how do we create art in a world when our civilizations are in peril & in danger of collapsing, yes, it is the serious & that deadly, we've screwed our home, brother & sisters, & it will only get worse

then when i was feeling my favorite holiday, halloween, on sunday night, when i wrote my first entry in my annual everyday is halloween pieces, a fucking psycho shot over 500 people killing nearly 60 at a concert in las vegas

i'm at a loss, brothers & sisters, i'm at a goddamn loss

i know what herbert would've done, he'd bend his head to his desk, dip his pen in the inkwell, & compose poetry because that is how he lived his life

i've not given up poetry or movies or halloween but i am heartbroken

my friend, john b-r, expressed my feelings better than i could in his piece published a few days ago, I haven't written poetry and this is why 

'I make my poems to save the world. I don't want to save it. Today I root for global warming. I have no words for poetry. I've taken up weaving. Maybe I'll write again, or collage again, if I can figure out how to channel this rage.'

i share with john my love of people along with a hatred of our species

i was born during the summer of love, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the summer of love was a moment when it appeared we as a species were becoming kinder, loving, better beings then that illusion was shattered against the hard fact of our destructive nature

but i am with john, 'i make poems to save the world', the world cannot be saved & we humans shall perish too perhaps in the ongoing sixth mass extinction

& again, to quote john, 'how to channel my rage' & my horror of our age, i ask how to be like herbert & make an art equal to these times