The Poet’s Job Undone.....Part 8 Poem by Paddy Scott Hogg

The poet’s role is to rebuild
The soul of man
From broken fragments fallen
In an age when inhumanity’s confusion reigns
Upon the head; where darkness
Sweeps its shadows across the heart by day;
To link the fire of the sun
With veins
And love, that runs
Where joy is deeper than the sea
And hearts express their every thought
Prophets broken on the shore

At last, forever, unstinted by the spoils
Of greed, or war, or famine
Or power hungry brutal men
In their ape disguise
Silver backs on Dominance Hills
Constructing Hell through village streets
Spooning out reality,
Marshalling the fences around our thought-limits
As creeds and cults of ignorance come
Signposts for the mind
For sheep to fold in ease
Comforted by stupidity’s cliched pillow -
Sitting, waiting, non-players, played like cards
Herded to the rear of the ancient tribal cave
Watching the dancing flames
As the voices bark the tune of dark-soul days
Back where freedom is what’s given to the slave:
There is no time, or year
Just power and psychological armies
In the clashing night
Where intimidation rides from the eyes
Around an empire of weaker hearts
Who beg for nothing and whose hope is buried
Near the racing shadows, pelt and crust;
The poet’s fight against manipulation
To kill the hatred and remain untainted
And cast Reason’s beam of light deep
Far into the heart;
To liberate the confidence of hope and thought;
To teach irreverence that She must question all
To meet the forehead of those who leer
And judge his gait,
And ask what lies and deals, amid the whispers
The reptile spreads with glee
Among its deadly friends.