Poem: Another enslavement (with apologies to Tessa Ransford, 1997)

So another fragile art

Suffers enslavement

And powers that worship power

Fight another kind of war today.

But is this an enslavement, then,

Or the attempted obliteration of all art,

For all time to come?

Der zeit ihre kunst

Der kunst ihre freiheit,

That, at least, could later be restored.

Is there any such chance again?

I have many doubts.

Like Goethe, I lament poor Gretchen’s fate:

Mein Ruh’ ist hin

Mein Herz ist schwer;

Ich find ist nimmer

Und nimmermehr.

I am dumbfounded

By the self-assurance

Of the worst of this generation

Their prodigal haste

The manner in which

They ride roughshod

Through this, the new Wild West.

What do you think has happened?

How long shall we endure

This shameful captivity?

And what else can we do?

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* Pub 1999

Omer Tarin