“Two Harbors” is the latest in an ongoing series of diaristic occasional poems (ie. the occasions of the day), which is provisionally titled Memorial Day. It follows three consecutive book-length endeavors, written over a 3-year period (2021-23) : Restoration Day (self-published), The Green Radius (Contubernales Books, 2024), and Parmenides in Minneapolis (forthcoming, Contubernales).
One of the thematic elements shared by all these books, and treated in different registers, is a meditation on American democracy, democracy in general or self-governance itself, and what I at least think of as the spiritual ground or sanction for same. Fused with this, in all three books, is a sense of foreboding about the approach of Trump, Trumpism, and related autocratic/plutocratic forces. Perhaps needless to say, this same dual focus is pervasive in this current project (Memorial Day), which I began writing a few weeks ago.
I have the perhaps foolish habit of posting my work (most of the time) directly online, on social media. I think the main reason I do this is that the poems are, precisely, diaristic, occasional, ongoing. No doubt there are other motives! But this is my basic rationale, or excuse.
So here is today’s blind stumble in the wilderness : “Two Harbors”.
