exabyte choruses of jumbled debris
detritus and hubris, humility and dignity
Mao’s last dancer lifting Pol Pot corpses
in a ballet of ideologies as
art crumbles into propaganda
song lyrics and lyrical nightmares
conspire to create vistas of twisted
surrealist mindscapes, beautiful disease
even Charles and Ray fell prey
in a day/night haze of stalled flight
Isaiah Berlin argues value pluralism
beating a drum in honor of human tragedy
young pioneers of socialist realism dancing
immortalized with graphic clarity
denouncing enemies of the state
of a unified ego / positive freedom
collapses under the weight of oppression
a conscious self-mastery schoolmistress
raps her knuckles in the theater of mind/war
constructing corrective labor camps for the
multiplicity which refuses to comply with
posted slogans knowing the flogging will
continue until morale improves
an undecayable, sainted body
arises in a self-perpetuating
cult of personality,
becomes the god
birthing scribes who
indoctrinate the newly formed history
solidify the moral superiority
of the family of origin
in an attempt to root out the shame
of a peasant, anti-intellectual upbringing
there’s no escape
from the fatherland
cellular memories,
spinning ballerina delusions,
brought about by behavioral epigenetics
while vertigo overwhelms the
perpetually still dancer
I’ve been reading through your work and just adore the intellectual approach to your subjects. I wonder if such pieces have a place in a canon which often seems to undervalue the life of the mind.
Eeeeeeek ‘Mao’s last dancer lifting Pol Pot corpses / in a ballet of ideologies …’ ~ stunning
Wonderful. It is always hard to give you the proper praise. I really enjoyed this piece.
dang anna…you got me early on with pol pot and mao…the propoganda…even the arts…and the first several lines of the isaiah berlin stanza…and the school mistress wrapping her knuckles on the mind/war…no escape from the fatherland…what an eerie verse, but a wicked flow…
everything put together falls apart again
i just love with what ease you tackle difficult topics.. loved esp. the conscious self-mastery schoolmistress part…
I understood the title, Anna, the passionate sense of futility, and the end. My mind wouldn’t work the rest and I suspect that’s the problem with political insight and change: a lazy vertigo is at the heart of the dancer who will not evolve. No one investigates, but Hitchcock makes another film.
Anna, I need my dictionary when I read you. You write beautifully.
It’s alot to take in at one sitting, but I can neither fault the insight or the use of language. It is a very impressive piece of writing
This is deserve many many readings. Lots of insight and deep deep scary feelings you root in me. Who and what can we really trust….?
Damn! This just dances off the tongue. That fourth stanza practically smoke. Love this!
I Think it is the hardest thing to write a political based poem, but you have succeeded well with your language and not gotten wrapped up totally in polemics. I thought your images clear and pointed.>KB
I liked the read, a lot really nice imagery… The image of art crumbling into propaganda is priceless.
It’s looking through an intellectual discourse governing historical and political happenings that touch the heart. Interspersed with strong word-power completes the picture! Brilliant take Anna!
Hank
“ballet of ideologies”
yes, this!
A dark, compacted perspective.. but it has life! the obliques are a great touch and raise some great questions Anna. I think I’ve experienced that ‘haze of stalled flight’.. now to the surging up-draught 🙂
This is chilling, reminded me of a lot of bad moments I would rather forget. Not in a bad way – I just mean that you are so vivid and precise in your choice of words. Well done!
lyrical flourishes fuse with the complexities unravelling into the fantastic final stanza containing ‘epigenetics’ which is my favourite word of the day by a country mile. A perfect title
and picture (wicked carving) and the exploration of my favourite topic delivered with the breadth and range probably necessary for such an expanding subject . . . its like the cosmos, the dark
matter 🙂
The fourth and last stanza were my favorites, Fantastic title and loved the image also, all in all the totality combines to form a mind blowing presentation !! incredibly impressive writing !!
This grabbed me right away, with the title that makes me reflect on Brian’s post on Monday. And how well you ease us through so many considerations of life/death/political ideology and art. Everything is one.