{I'm a student of life, man}

Years ago I bought the two-volume anthology set "Poems for the Millenium: The University of California Book of Modern & Postmodern Poetry," thinking it'd make great reference material. In looking over the books I own that I haven't read earlier this week, I realized that these tomes only serve as reference if you actually READ THEM at least once. I've skimmed, flipped through, made annoyed noises at the concrete poems, and pretty much left it at that.

But I'm a changed woman. I am going to study this. The books are actually fantastic because they have commentary after each poet, briefly discussing her/his significance to whatever movement was afoot at the time -- so instead of just reading poem after poem, you get a decent sense of why certain poets/poems were included.

The problem is that each volume weighs about a metric ton. For real, the thought of carrying this to California with me next week is madness. Not to mention that it's necessary to carry a dictionary along with the book because my vocabulary is vastly inadequate to this task.

demotic: of or pertaining to an area, country, geographic region
palimpsest: a parchment written on two or three times, with each preceding writing erased partially or completely to make room for the next

and the first poem in the book, by William Blake, is cuttingly appropo as we head into protesting the RNC -- here's a snippet from Milton: Book the Second.

Who creeps into State Government like a catterpiller to destroy
To cast off the idiot Questioner who is always questioning,
But never capable of answering; who sits with a sly grin
Silent plotting when to question, like a thief in a cave;
Who publishes doubt & calls it knowledge; whose Science is Despair,
Whose pretense to knowledge is Envy, whose whole Science is
To destroy the wisdom of ages to gratify ravenous Envy;
That rages around him like a Wolf day & night without rest
He smiles with condescension; he talks of Benevolence & Virtue
And those who act with Benevolence & Virtue, they murder time on time

***

Who publishes doubt & calls it knowledge; whose Science is Despair

he talks of Benevolence & Virtue
And those who act with Benevolence & Virtue, they murder time on time

sigh. I know Blake's a visionary, but when so little's changed from 1800 to now, what hope do we have toward some utopia in our time?