The Time of the Fires

Written the very long day of January 20, 2025, when Martin Luther King Jr. Day shared the calendar with the second inauguration of Donald Trump as president of the United States.

Plato insisted: no poets in the Republic. He

feared the power they could assume,

speaking of passions rather than rational

order, of beauty and despair instead

of virtuous behavior.

He was not wrong.

Baldwin agreed: artists in a society will

always be at war with their culture—

and yet it is a lover’s war: poets wish

only for the world to see itself, and in  

that reflection find freedom.

He was not wrong.

We live in the time of the fires, when 

burning is easier than creating, tragedy 

more palpable than joy or grace. It is 

our time. Delivered to us by one who 

wants to be king.

He is, sadly, not wrong.

We live in the time of the fires, when

artists and poets and dreamers

can only sing their faith and truth

into an abyss as deep and dark

as the souls of the oppressors

and wonder what the future

(should there be a future)

will make of our time.