Médecins Sans Frontières say,
"We find out where conditions are the worst --
the places where others are not going --
and that's where we want to be."
Is there such a place for writers?
Is there a land where people cannot express
their urgencies; where, for the lack of a verb,
a turn of phrase, someone may perish?
If there is such a place,
that's where anyone who can write should write.
Enough of the advertisements.
Enough of the game shows and reality shows,
talk shows and mere politics
and celebrity belly fat and blogs.
Enough of the shopping.
Even the poets deal in the arcane,
self-absorbed, deliberately obscure,
misleading, effete.
These are things we specifically do not want.
To build our sentences and paragraphs
in places where they are as necessary
as bridges and schools and doctors and farmers --
oh, that would be the best thing.
~~~~~~~~~~
Douglas Logan
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