Into the Ruins: Poems

Frederick Glaysher's poetry is one of artistic energy, and articulate and penetrating voice confronting much of the human experience not reflected by a great many postmodern poets. Indeed, after growing increasingly disaffected with contemporary academic literary culture (especially the Marxist antics of deconstruction) Glaysher resigned from university teaching to launch a success career in real estate. His is a poetry of lyrical passion and clear-eyed depiction. The Thinker: Staring into the portal I see humankind/stretched out on the rack of this century,/gassed in the trenches of Europe,/vivisected in the meat shops of Germany,/forced to kowtow in China and India,/in Africa and the archipelagoes,/by the British, the French, the Japanese,/by all those intent on empire,/intent on the worship of themselves./Staring into the portal I see ourselves/revealed in the terror of what we are,/of what we cannot face, cannot bear,/try always to ignore,/while the cost grows greater and greater,/while like Ugolino we grope over the dead,/the victims of our rapacity,/our devouring lust./"O Master, the sense is hard."