{"id":3753,"date":"2011-11-11T08:29:42","date_gmt":"2011-11-11T13:29:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/?p=3753"},"modified":"2011-11-11T08:29:42","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T13:29:42","slug":"poets-for-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/?p=3753","title":{"rendered":"Poets for president!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>
\nMichael D. Higgins, the new president of Ireland<\/em><\/p>\n

Today Ireland inaugurated a new president — Michael D. Higgins. Higgins is 71 years old. He is a supporter of the Labour party. He is an intellectual, and he is a poet. Few countries other than Ireland are capable of electing a poet for president.<\/p>\n

Ireland seems to be returning to its senses after years of whoring itself out to international corporations. When the boom turned to a bust, Ireland’s “business friendly” government bailed out banks with taxpayer money. This was a direct bailout in which taxpayers took on bad debts, not merely an extension of government-backed loans. Consequently, austerity is now the rule for ordinary people in Ireland, though rich bankers took no losses. Once again, Ireland’s population is declining as people move elsewhere, now that the boom is over. The unemployment rate is 14.4 percent.<\/p>\n

Predictably, this awful misgovernment led to a backlash. Higgins has promised that he will govern from values other than wealth. Considering his history and his character, he might just keep that promise.<\/p>\n

A columnist for London’s conservative newspaper The Telegraph, which doesn’t like Higgins’ kind, made fun of Higgins poetry. I strongly suspect, though, that the Irish wouldn’t trade a turnip for what the banker-loving Telegraph thinks. (I certainly wouldn’t.)<\/p>\n

Here is one of Higgins’ poems.<\/p>\n

\n

When Will My Time Come<\/strong><\/p>\n

When will my time come for scenery
\nAnd will it be too late?
\nAfter all
\nDecades ago I was never able
\nTo get excited
\nAbout filling the lungs with ozone
\nOn Salthill Prom.<\/p>\n

And when the strangers
\nTo whom I gave a lift
\nSpoke to me of the extraordinary
\nLight in the Western sky;
\nI often missed its changes.
\nAnd, later, when words were required
\nTo intervene at the opening of Art Exhibitions,
\nIt was not the same.<\/p>\n

What is this tyranny of head that stifles
\nThe eyes, the senses,
\nAll play on the strings of the heart.<\/p>\n

And, if there is a healing,
\nIt is in the depth of a silence,
\nWhose plumbed depths require
\nA journey through realms of pain
\nThat must be faced alone.
\nThe hero, setting out,
\nWill meet an ally at a crucial moment.
\nBut the journey home
\nIs mostly alone.<\/p>\n

When my time comes
\nI will have made my journey
\nAnd through all my senses will explode
\nThe evidence of light
\nAnd air and water, fire and earth.<\/p>\n

I live for that moment.
\n<\/em>
\n— Michael D. Higgins<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michael D. Higgins, the new president of Ireland Today Ireland inaugurated a new president — Michael D. Higgins. Higgins is 71 years old. He is a supporter of the Labour party. He is an intellectual, and he is a poet. Few countries other than Ireland are capable of electing a poet for president. Ireland seems … Continue reading “Poets for president!”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-culture","category-political-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3753\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acornabbey.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}