Oso Para Vos

«If art and literature become static then the creative impulse dies. Some in the ‘old literary guard’ seriously need to consider retirement. Teaching the history of literature is an honorable profession. Requiring new authors to continue writing as previous generations is not. We live in a different world, and we have a different mindset. What was ‘rebellious and revolutionary’ in their youth is now often ballast around our necks.»

Restricting “new voices” and “new ways of writing” will only result in hard times:

SATURN’S BLUES.

when the moon is in Fresno

and the sun sets a purplish

haze over early-autumn skies,

the cold winds of Hell

breathe heavily against

the hopes of local heroes

and the women who made them.

farmers stare off into the fields

without realizing, and housewives

pull their young close to their

bosoms – suddenly and

without explanation.

intuitively they sense the onset

of a long and severe influence;

a time of hardship and hindrance

when the faith and courage of

more than a few good men

and women are put to test.

the carousel is out-of-control,

and in the whirlwind confusion

crops will fail, loved ones will

pass away, jobs will be lost

and the simplest of dreams will

be stifled by saturn’s blues:

a mocking nursery rhyme telling

of horror and despair, and sung

over and over again with endless

variations on the same cruel theme.

— Adam Donaldson Powell