Politics

All eyes east today for those of us in the Bay Area, but also inward. The poetic stance -- at once into the world and into the interior? Politics, for the poet, are inescapable because by attending to language and to selfhood, we must decide how we understand each, not only in terms of ourselves, but of our fellow humans too. At best, the poem asks a reader to see in a new context, that is, in terms of the related world. At best, we might view politics (or perhaps civics) the same way. That everything might be understood in terms of one rule, in a version even older than the Christian text: do not do to others, what you would not wish done to you.

Yes, both the poem and the vote are a form of prayer.