We know the substance of the scandal : because of the injustice, corruption & militarism of the world political economy, that "tree of life" is watered with the blood & tears of the poor & oppressed. "Wisdom cries out in the streets" : even on the editorial page of the NY Times (see full-page editorial of Sunday, on the effect on the world's poorest farmers of agricultural subsidies in the rich nations).

But does this mean we must respond by pledging allegiance to some political faction, and then dilute & corrupt literary values in petty partisan checkers games - red/black, "mainstream/innovative", "quietude/post-avant"? Far from it. Poets will search simultaneously for the center of humane values, and for the spiritual and technical resources of the masterpieces in our language, which both emanate from and reflect that center (whether in terms of praise or rebuke, lyricism or satire, vision or jeremiad).