As Editor of the Dayton Ohio Industrial Culture Poetry web site it became necessary to define this type of poetry. I defined it with many examples.

The fact that it was written in 1972 and performed twenty three years later indicates that we are somehow caught in the world of 1972. The two performers were handcuffed together symbolizing that both the missionary and the savage are locked together. It was performed in a Coffee house in an industrial area. The concerns of the savage are the concerns of contemporary Industrial Culture Poets. Industrial culture poetry not only shows a sensitivity toward the working man (the one that actually does the physical labor) but as all poetry it calls up images from our inner psyche of him and his plight. Industrial culture poetry is not limited to a "poetry form".   It can take on any form from free to rhymed couplet.  After the Missionary and Savage is a Villanelle I wrote a couple years ago.

In conclusion Industrial Culture Poetry recognizes the working man and the woes brought to him by Industrial Culture.  It uses the romantic natural images as a reference for what might have been.  It does not actually use them in an overly glorious way. It uses many industrial images such as smoke, heat, drugs, sewage, traffic, capitalism.  It more than anything else brings to the forefront the negative attributes of the culture so they may be changed to improve the common man's lot.

Look at our shiny new toys; new cars, color t.v. new clothes.

But the end product is a rat race.

We have simplicity and in that simplicity we have peace of mind.

Look at our modern art.  We have reached great heights of beauty in form and function.

Your art depicts the insanity of the human mind.  Not the beauty of nature.  We are fully aware of form and function.  The most beautiful form is the human form and the functions is that of reproduction.  Does modern art replace that?

But look at our beautiful cities booming with industry.

They may be beautiful but I am blinded by the smog. Look at our trees and the beauty of nature. Or can you not see because of the glare of your toys?

Look at the educational system.  More and more get college education's.

That is not education.  It is indoctrination so that the few with the most toys can continue to have the most.

But look at our system of government.  How it hold millions together.

Yes, but it could not hold them together without them all having a common cause.  The accumulation of more toys.  We are adults.  We put our toys away nearly two-hundred years ago

Life and beauty the young children's dreams so filled

Print clean dresses flying in the air

Strike and survive the strong young boys yelled

The parent's youth and beauty the capitalists had killed

Their freedom their cupboard had all been stripped bare

Life and beauty the young children's dreams so filled

Living in a house without heat makes a heart so chilled.

No silk no oak wood just a plastic chair

Strike and survive the strong young boys yelled

As the garbage and sewage was the air they smelled

Wealth and beauty they were always told was just over there

Life and beauty the young children's dreams so filled

The little girls dancing high on the garden hill

With silken floating flying hair

Strike and survive the strong young boys yelled

Revolution, Revolution for the strong willed

Life only belongs to those that care

Life and beauty the young children's dreams so filled

Strike and survive the strong young boys yelled.

When they see the stars and stripes...I see a swastika

When they see the color guard dressed in green with yellow stripes...I see them dressed in black with two lightning bolts.

When they hear the crowd Indian warhoop...I hear Jim Jones encouraging his followers to drink.

When they see the man in tight pants - with long serpentine penis guarding the eggs...I see sterile glass balls and a hollow ceramic tube.

When they smell the popcorn...I smell the mustard gas of the Argonne Forest.

When they see the players rolling on the field...I see babies that never drank milk from their mothers breast.

When they hear the clash of two helmets...I hear bullets penetrating soft pliable babies skulls.

When they see the Quality Piqua school signs...I see Sparta carrying away the children at seven to condition them to die for their country.

When they hear the mother cheer her son on...I hear the Spartan mother-without tears - as she hands the shield to her son - say - "Return with it, or upon it"

When they see the word Piqua and the yardage marked on the field...I see Leuctra and 371 B.C.

When they hear the national anthem...I hear taps.

When they see a cheerleader do a cartwheel...I see a naked camp follower - with legs spread wide - inviting the sperm of tomorrows last battle.- Then douching with acid - terminating the genetic funneling of a million years.

Who are they?...They are the community leaders that sent the soldiers off to Sparta's last battle.

Who am I? ... I am the one the community leaders executed just before Sparta's last battle. - I am the one executed before every last battle. - I am the one pleading - begging- and crying before every last battle.

What are their names?...Their names are mister, sir, doctor, officer and your honor.

What is my name? ... My name is known by the old women that have cried each night since the last war.- Old women that gave their son's milk from their breast - that cry for the football player son that played his last game. - Ask these old women that douched with alum. These old women with bitter shriveled vaginas. They will tell you my name.

SOLUTIONS TO SCHOOL VIOLENCE – 1999

To do this you must eliminate all the social conditioning.  This conditioning consist of a class system to where the wealthier get shown favoritism because their parents support the school system.  The jocks, usually from the wealthier class, are glorified by the school systems for two reasons.  Number one they draw attention to the school system by the publicity they get.  Number two.  They are used to mentally condition the students to, without questioning, die for their country.  Eliminate all sports from the Public Education System. You must then add in this void, Humanities type courses such as Art, Theater and Literature.  Music would be ok to add except as it is currently used in Public Education it is part of the social conditioning.  If you keep it you must eliminate public spectacles such as band, show choir, and musicals. You must eliminate the training for the workplace programs.  These programs essentially are designed to forever enslave the students to the needs of the business community.  This is so widespread because the business community is also the one with the wealth that is supporting the school administrators.  You must add real history classes to the curriculum.  The current history classes are slanted toward Capitalism.   A recent history book I analyzed gave twice as much space to management as it did to labor.  This means a true history of the African American, the Mexican American, and the American Indian.  Not the hogwash now taught. You must tell the students the truth about Capitalism and banking. We live in, and the students are taught in, a very inhumane world because Capitalism itself is abusive and inhumane. If these things were done to improve the school  you could give every student a gun and a bomb and the violence would stop.  More suppression will not stop them.   Eliminating weapons has always been, and always will be a method of suppressing the masses. 

THE SPRING – 1991

One day I found these seeds that had fallen from the tree of knowledge.

I wanted to plant them but it was winter.

The winter continued for many years.

I kept the seeds in my hand.

Sometimes, some would spill out into the snow. There were so many.

I grew tired of waiting for the spring.

I shook the budding trees to see if the spring would come. But the leaves never came out

I cut down the tall dead and dying trees that smothers out the light from the young ones.

But the spring would not come.

I made fires from the decaying old books and buildings to warm the air.

The spring did not come.

I set off explosions and fired my gun to shake up the air.

But the spring would not come.

I grew old and died without making the spring come.

I was buried with the seeds of knowledge clutched tightly in my hand.

The spring finally came.

It came without my effort.

It was going to come all along.

The snow melted and the seeds that I had dropped along the winters way grew and enlightened the beautiful spring day.

Evolution calls all but chooses few.

Civilization is made for the weak…The strong will survive, with it or without it.

Evolutionary law is pre-destiny.

Evolutionary law clears the trail and carries a light ahead. The pre-destined follow the light…The others that do not find the trail nor see the light, perish along the side.

Evolutionary law is a law. It will be. It must be. Nothing escapes it. Not a speck of dust. Not a drop of rain. Not me. Not you.

In a state of Anarchy good and evil define themselves.

Jeff Rutledge’s (Voice,Jan. 12-18) letter was being kind when he said "Art is Dead."

When Civilizations suppress creativity, they set themselves up for extermination. Our species, at one time, was separated from civilization. We had options. We could chose to live with the group or we could go out on our own.

There appears to be no more options. We appear to be locked in with a do or die.

Contemporary civilization is so efficient at conditioning the youth to follow the rules that there is no place for creativity.

Institutional education in America has one goal. "Teach the youth to obey."

They do this first of all by forcing the children to follow the rules. Rules of math, grammar, reading, writing.

They reinforce it by telling the child that the answer to all his questions are with an authority. The authority is his teacher, the principal, the community leaders.

The answer is never from within the self.

The answer is never the child’s relationship between himself and his environment. Visual art is the product of the relationship between the artist and his environment.

School administrators supposedly add music, art and physical education to accommodate the individual.

In most school systems the art department is the smallest (fewer teachers). The reason being that the music program and P.E. programs are set up to use the children to entertain the public. They do this with Christmas musical programs and athletic event.

Even the art curriculum guides, schedules, and teacher placements are manipulated to ignore the individual student.

The death of art may be showing us that the species is locked into it’s destiny. This may be it. We may be just a bunch of insects doing our job as we are being dictated. Doing our job for the purpose of the colony. Without self.

The reason that things are not made perfect is because then things could not change. Therefore we have imperfection. If we did not have imperfection we would have a totally stopped stale universe that does not exist in time. Time is change.

If everything was perfect then time would not exist.

Does this mean that time is God. That our existence (at least our awareness of our existence) depends on imperfection? If change is God then should not change be more appreciated in contrast to conformity? Should not all censorship cease? Should not all people be set free to pursue change? Is conformity (lack of change) evil?