Liberty's Vigil, the Occupy anthology, Launches!

Liberty’s Vigil, the Occupy anthology, 99 poets among the 99 percent, has been given a web page at Foothills Publishing:

FP and Liberty

See my review and praise for the editors, Karla Linn Merrifield and Dwain Wilder, here:

Owl On Liberty's Vigil

You’ll find one of my best anti-war poems, “Protest,” among the offerings--but the really interesting thing about this anthology is the fertile enthusiasm among the contributors. We have each other’s email, and the electronic bombination has been travelling this way and that faster than bees pollinate a bower.

Readings are being organized all over the United States. Some of the poets are in other countries, spreading the effort there as well. In my ten years as a poet, I’ve never seen this much fervor over the launch of an anthology.

Poets are the bellwether of any country’s moral compass, and many of those in the Empire are frenetic from the sad truth: America is sick with decadence, riven by cruelty, obese with greed, atrocious from war. The bulk of the people are not protesting (yet); but poets are speaking out, yelling, proclaiming with the literary equivalent of a clarion that we need to overcome the inequality and bellicosity that dominate our lives, and in truth menace the entire world.

Buy this anthology, or write your own anti-Avarice poem, or pick some work by a great prophet like Pablo Neruda or Wilfred Owen--and then read your piece aloud at a gathering, or post it where others can and must see. Pin your anguish to the words. Let the public know you care about the descent of American into tyranny, plutocracy, and dissolution.

Courageous artists are speaking. You are one of them, if only you challenge the invisible yet insidious walls of silence. An honest poet speaks freely, fights the momentum of malfeasance.

Whether or not you use a pen or a keyboard, or call yourself a protester, is immaterial.

Owl