Robert Sward

Author of the essay, "Why I Publish In e-Zines," in praise of RealPoetik, Robert Sward has published over 20 books, most recently "Heavenly Sex" and "Rosicrucian in the Basement," available from Amazon.com or, sward@cruzio.com His "Collected Poems, 1957-2004," are scheduled for publication by Black Moss Press in 2004.

REPORT FROM THE FRONT

All over newspapers have stopped appearing,
and combatants everywhere are returning home.
No one knows what is happening.
The generals are on the phone with the President,
a former feature writer for The New York Times.
No one knows even who has died, or how,
or who won last night, anything.
Those in attendance on them may,
for all we know, still be there.

All over newspapers have stopped appearing.
Words once more, more than ever,
have begun to matter. And people are writing
poetry. Opposing regiments, declares a friend,
are refusing evacuation, are engaged instead
in sonnet sequences; though they understand, he says,
the futility of iambics in the modern world.
That they are concerned with the history and meaning
of prosody. That they persist in their exercises
with great humility and reverence.