by William F. DeVault
the digital renaissance kicked off about 25 years ago
words and images spinning out of control
around the world.
my Panther Cycles have been read on every continent
my poem “A Touch of Heather”
has been banned in a Catholic Girls’ High School
in Dundalk, Ireland.
half of the women I have said “I love you” to
in my poetry
are continents away
romance is only part of the whole, though
the essence, the Zen, is communication
mediocrity often, ironically, hidden by sound and fury
and photoshop
in the beginning is the word
in the end is the word
and that still small voice that spoke to Elijah
is still the word on the page
that outlives the theatrics
and sometimes
sometimes
builds a legacy
for poetry, like God,
is not in the wind. the earthquake. the fire.
it is the still small voice
penetrating our minds
our souls
our understanding
with trippingly excellent words and allegories
bent and spent against our defenses and pretenses.
quoted, sugar-coated,
Shelly, Shakespeare, and Byron (my brother in practice)
do not survive their flesh because of a dog and pony show
but because
the words matter.
now we stand on a precipice.
Western civilization teeters and totters and slaughters
shepherds in Afghanistan and black men in Wisconsin
because our bullets hit harder than words
but poetry, like gravity, is a subtle energy
and converts our lovers
our brothers
our sisters
our children
and their children’s children’s children
into a splinter of the truth we spat out
because we saw the red wheelbarrow
and it invoked a sense of wonder and thunder
within the poet’s dreams
rise up. rise up. rise up and let your words unleash
real, true, universal power to elevate the revolution
to power love and pain and guilt and joy
and the occasional memory of things
we wish we’d done or wish we hadn’t
tear down the false idols, stand at the barricades
and lead the parades of emancipation
for every black white red brown man woman non-binary
gay transgender bisexual lesbian queer liberal conservative
and spread your mindseed to the world, to the universe
so that even if bad men and madmen
destroy us all and all the planet
one day someone or something will hear your words
and envy us our passions and our truths
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ABOUT THE POET ~
William F. DeVault was declared "The Romantic Poet of the Internet" in, 1996 by Yahoo, and named the US National Beat Poet Laureate from 2017 -, 2018 by the National Beat Poetry Festival. He has written over 30, 000, poems, nearly 30 books, 5 CDs of his poetry, and his current book is the, romantic and erotic collection of 225 sonnets "liaison" from Venetian, Spider Press.
Last updated January 06, 2022