He raises his hand palm down and applies it like a cap visor
\nto his forehead, shading his eyes from the yellow sun-glow.
\n“Sky blue and cloud gray are easier to look at,” he says.
\nNext morning, the dreams we recount are difficult, scary.
\n“The happy dreams, happy stories are uninteresting,” he says.
\nHe says we are a species obsessed with the dark side:
\nthe blues in the night, vampires, traffic accidents, shootings,
\nterrorism, abuse\u2014 these fill our media and awareness.
\nIt is much easier to write about these than about happiness.
\nWe are experts about what we want to avoid, and we know little
\nabout what we want to attain. We should spend more time
\nand media space discovering an appreciation of the dimensions,
\nnuances of happiness; our artists should aspire to expressing that.
\nWe all raise their hands palm down and squint under them at the sun.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A little speculation about writing the last two poems. (#982) Continue reading