Robert Gibbons' Log
Prose poetry log extraordinaire by Robert Gibbons is set to resume after a long technical glitch. Celebrating with a great politico-aesthetic piece:
To Ask Americans to Imagine History
Bush is Franco. Picasso said in 1956 that his Guernica would “do the most good in America.” He must have assumed that Art makes a difference to philistines. German airplanes practiced new maneuvers carpet bombing civilians under the pretext of destroying a single bridge. On Monday’s April 26th market day, 1937, after 1,650 were slaughtered, bridge stood, church stood, sacred Guernican oak stood. Human flesh burned. Baghdad, Shock & Awe (liberation?), Falluja, uprooting insurgents (occupation?), Sadr City, destroying militia (civil war?). Way too much to ask Americans to imagine history beyond what they see in the rearview mirror of a Chevrolet! Alone in NYC, when Guernica knocked me back on my heels, turning the corner into that room of the Modern, I was struck by the awe & authenticity of terror’s only potential equal.
