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| Harold Bloom 1930-2019 |
No one is left now
who will swing his arms wide-----
claim knowledge of the entirety
of The Western Canon
The man who wrote the book
on who the wise among us
ought to remember
has left the stage
Who now can swoop in
to tell us how it is?
Gone are the Great Claim-Makers
More than ever now
we need help knowing
where to look
for what is true & valuable
None of us can claim
to have read everything
Some of us can raise a hand
& solemnly swear
we are up to no good
Many of us can remember
a time when we used to feel
we knew more
Knowledge begets holes
in our theories about this world
The Critic has left us
his anxiety of influence
The Critic has left us
a list of what once signified
our greatest gifts
Mark Danowsky is a poet / writer from Philadelphia and author of the poetry collection As Falls Trees (NightBallet Press, 2018). He’s Managing Editor for the Schuylkill Valley Journal.