Apparition Poem #1345

In late November 2009, I had a computer meltdown. The call was made to the Geek Squad, but they couldn't make it to Logan Square for several days. I was able, then, to use the TUCC (Temple University Center City) computer lab more or less whenever I wanted. It was in the TUCC computer lab, at about 6 or 7 pm of November 20-something, that I composed Apparition Poem #1345, which appeared in Jacket 40 and on the Poets on the Great Recession blog. Annoyance at being outed from writing at home was balanced with a sense of triumph; 1345 was a eureka moment for me. I was able to find suitable metaphors to express precisely what I wanted to express; to make a statement about power, politics, and bureaucracies which wasn't merely fist-waving or agit-prop self-aggrandizement. The core idea is simple: among the human race, power is abused because people simply won't listen to each other. Yet the ramifications of deaf-minded humanity, set on singular courses to create living conditions, to their tastes and their specifications, for masses of people, are enormously complex and ornate. And the issue is permanent.