The poet’s role is to rebuild <br />The soul of man <br />From broken fragments fallen <br />In an age when inhumanity’s confusion reigns <br />Upon the head; where darkness <br />Sweeps its shadows across the heart by day; <br />To link the fire of the sun <br />With veins <br />And love, that runs <br />Where joy is deeper than the sea <br />And hearts express their every thought <br />Prophets broken on the shore <br /> <br />At last, forever, unstinted by the spoils <br />Of greed, or war, or famine <br />Or power hungry brutal men <br />In their ape disguise <br />Silver backs on Dominance Hills <br />Constructing Hell through village streets <br />Spooning out reality, <br />Marshalling the fences around our thought-limits <br />As creeds and cults of ignorance come <br />Signposts for the mind <br />For sheep to fold in ease <br />Comforted by stupidity’s cliched pillow - <br />Sitting, waiting, non-players, played like cards <br />Herded to the rear of the ancient tribal cave <br />Watching the dancing flames <br />As the voices bark the tune of dark-soul days <br />Back where freedom is what’s given to the slave: <br />There is no time, or year <br />Just power and psychological armies <br />In the clashing night <br />Where intimidation rides from the eyes <br />Around an empire of weaker hearts <br />Who beg for nothing and whose hope is buried <br />Near the racing shadows, pelt and crust; <br />The poet’s fight against manipulation <br />To kill the hatred and remain untainted <br />And cast Reason’s beam of light deep <br />Far into the heart; <br />To liberate the confidence of hope and thought; <br />To teach irreverence that She must question all <br />To meet the forehead of those who leer <br />And judge his gait, <br />And ask what lies and deals, amid the whispers <br />The reptile spreads with glee <br />Among its deadly friends.<br /><br />Patrick Scott Hogg<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-poet-s-job-undone-part-8/
