I have been fortunate to keep working throughout the Great Recession but it is discouraging to see so many out of jobs. And the politicians politely ignore the fact that globalization means that the jobs won't be coming back, or created by the one percent or by small businesses. In reality, when you have the world's highest standard of living, and you globalize, there is nowhere to go but down until you meet Bangladesh on its way up. It has been hard on people released from prison too. They used to be able to get factory jobs, but those are now overseas.
HOW HAS YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE AFFECTED YOUR POETRY?
The Great Recession has brought to the fore the satirical and ironic strains of my poetry.
PLEASE SHARE A POEM(S) ADDRESSING YOUR GREAT RECESSION EXPERIENCE:
WORM FENCES IN THE COLONIES
Zig-zag fences of North America
wormed their way through Europe’s mind
forest-deprived as the Old Country was back then
any plank there fit to symbolize
the one that holds fast keel to rudder
despite these stacked up to proclaim instead
John Locke’s right, divine, to life but mostly property
—for other than the so-called Indian—a right
we might value akin to the helicopter’s Jesus nut
in our mad pursuit of happiness on unsecured credit
circling like a rotor just above the bubble.
ABOUT THE POET:
Ed Zahniser’s poems have appeared in over 100 literary magazines in the U.S. and U.K.; three books, most recently Mall-hopping with the Great I AM (Somondoco Press, 2006); and three chapbooks, most recently Slow Down and Live, a collaboration with artist and designer Heather Watson of Pernot&Tatlin (2011). He was a founding editor of Some Of Us Press in Washington, DC, and formerly poetry editor of Wilderness magazine and an associate poetry editor of Antietam Review. He lives in Shepherdstown, WV, where he is poetry editor of the all-volunteer community quarterly The Good News Paper.
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