I am signaling you through the flames.


The North Pole is not where it used to be.

Manifest Destiny is no longer manifest.

Civilization self-destructs. Nemesis is knocking at the door.

What are poets for, in such an age?
What is the use of poetry?
The state of the world calls out for poetry to save it.
If you would be a poet, create works capable of answering the challenge of apocalyptic times, even if this meaning sounds apocalyptic.


You are Whitman, you are Poe, you are Mark Twain, you are Emily Dickinson and Edna St. Vincent Millay; you are Neruda and Mayakovsky and Pasolini, you are an American or a non-American, you can conquer the conquerors with words.

 
You can never see or hear or feel too much. If you can stand it.


Be a wolf in the sheepfold of silence.
Poems are burning bows, poems are arrows of desire, poetry gives words to the heart.

I am signaling you through the flames.
Wake up! The world is on Fire.


Have a nice day.
–Excerpted from Poetry as an Insurgent Art