[Nigel Mace]

Well..... I find it interesting, disturbing and/or revealing (?), that this thread has been available on the site for over 50 hours in the midst of a world crisis in which our fates might be measured in as little as minutes, and yet almost nobody (pace Ralph, and twice!) - especially from the States, whose manifestly unstable and incompetent President has not only the power but also the bombastic proclivities that could immolate the world - has had anything to say. No treasured poems haunting their uneasy souls and none hammering at the doors of frantic or reflective utterance.

So does poetry matter/mean so little to our little Sphere's inhabitants? I confess that I find the prospects so appalling that I cannot find the words - at least not ones infused with any concentration of meaning or expression which can attempt a worthy engagement with the circumstances. But other words do haunt me. Am I alone in this?

Perhaps I should admire the sang froid of others - but, in truth, I find it slightly chilling.

P.S. I first penned this before seeing your second contributuion, Ralph - and my sincere respect for making the attmept, and doing so thoughtfully twice! I keep finding myself tempted to recycle things I wrote around the times of Iraq 2003 and in its various hideous aftermaths and during the peddling of its almost equally disturbing 'aftermyths'.
The great difference then was that I was reasonably sure that they would be read by some sort of audience somewhere, however paltry. Now..... ??