One of the things an insightful poet does is provide the prophetic vision that pierces the world to x-ray its core – to reveal a reality for all time and place. Reading Amanda Gorman’s poem At First, the night before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, I read these lines:
We teach children:
Leave a mark on the world.
What leads a man to shoot up
Souls but the desire to mark
Up the globe?
To scar it & thus make it his.
His intention to be remembered.
Even if for a ragged wreckage.
Submitted by Ted Ohdendahl
