The center folds
and all ’round topple
into the opening void,
what rough beast
rabble in tow
slouches towards Washington
bursting with tawdry pomp
and irrational schemes.
A few notes, this poem of course echoes and directly quotes “The Second Coming” by WB Yeats, a poem which was written after the first World War and still resonates today. For a brilliant analysis of the poem, read “Break, Blow, Burn” by Camille Paglia. The Irish jazz singer, Christine Tobin has put the poem to music on a CD called “Sailing to Byzantium” which is well worth checking out.
Stopdraggingthepanda 
Definitely like the updated version. I sit with my poems for a day or so, but each time I revisit could make changes – it is crazy making stuff this poetry writing, lol.
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Yes, indeed, some one once said “poems are never finished, they are just abandoned”.
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Oh I like that…so true
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i think it is difficult for those of us today to understand just how WWI turned the world upside for people at that time in (isolated) Europe (and the US to a lesser degree). There had been such a relative peace that had been experienced, that the war happened at all was confounding, but that it was also so brutal and barbaric…just what was the essence of human kind suddenly was thrown open to question, with many of the artists concluding that the answer is at best depressing. Yeats tapped into the best of that particular collective consciousness.
As a (unrepentant) post-structuralist I love the opening line…the shift from modernists of Yeats time to the post-modernist sensibility (which infuses what we do whether we like it to or not) could be argued as corresponding to seeing the flat Newtonian physics shift to the vibrant, mystifying quantum physics, where “what is” folds back on its self, taking with it even language…the irrational becomes irrationally the rational….it is only here that we can have a love story that involves Putin.
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Apologies for the late reply, I wanted to take time to read your very eloquent and insightful comment. Thanks for dropping by, much appreciated…enjoying your blog…JIM
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🙂
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