War Of Words Poem by Sandra Feldman

I thought this would be another poem about poetry, with WAR OF WORDS being a metaphor for the way in which our poems inspire other poets to emulate or exceed them. It's a friendly and productive rivalry. B-U-T instead this is one of your societal critiques and is possessed by a similar anger at the way things have degenerated in the public sphere. Whether it is the sphere of politics, business, education, diplomacy, etc., the success of liars and the toleration of such corruption are bad signs for a democratic society. When Wordsworth saw such decline in 19th c. England he wrote a sonnet summoning the moral spirit of John Milton. We have so many we could summon. Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Emily Dickinson (for the interior life of integrity) , Maya Angelou, and so many others - and those are just the poets who fight the good fight!