1922 (Poetry Marathon 2022 Hour 4)<\/p>\n
The war to end all wars
\nHad ended
\nThe Spanish Flu epidemic
\nWas over
\nThe era of
\nElectricity and automobiles and airplanes and radio
\nWas now
\nHuman potential was exponential
\nThe stock market reflected the confidence
\nThat things will only get better
\nIn a world where we finally understand
\nThe economy is everything
\nA new kind of dancing to a new kind of music
\nLed to a new kind of understanding
\nOf human nature
\nBenevolence momentarily overtaking the
\nNegative reaction to modernity
\nAnd yet <\/p>\n
A warm dry wind
\nBlowing from West to East
\nA realization that
\nHuman capital is unpredictable
\nAs European empires built
\nOver centuries
\nCould not recover
\nFrom the destruction
\nOf war
\nAnd the devastating effects of the flu
\nAnd the combined unimaginable number of deaths<\/p>\n
The low pressure of reality
\nMet the high pressure of expectations
\nOf technological advances
\nCreating a long-lasting unsteady shifting unstable violent storm
\nThe consequences of which led directly
\nTo the economic and then political collapse
\nExperienced through the mid 20th century
\nEven more unimaginable deaths
\nFrom war and famine and deliberate cruelty
\nHow do we call it inhumane?
\nAnd still today <\/p>\n
And yet<\/p>\n
TV and computers and access to unlimited knowledge
\nHuman capital is fungible and ultimately expendable
\nIn a world where we have internalized the understanding
\nThat the economy is everything
\nAnd yet<\/p>\n
We have recently learned there is no point
\nIn trying to modernize
\nBecause the only thing that matters
\nIs what a few men thought
\nAbout human rights at the end of the 18th century
\nThe lessons of the 19th century,
\nThe 20th century
\nAnd the 21st century do not matter
\nWhen it comes to life and death
\nAnd perhaps yet<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
1922 (Poetry Marathon 2022 Hour 4) The war to end all wars Had ended The Spanish Flu epidemic Was over The era of Electricity and automobiles and airplanes and radio Was now Human potential was exponential The stock market reflected the confidence That things will…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2879,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2879"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109802"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109802\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109952,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109802\/revisions\/109952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}