Her Couch of Silence

<p>Poet Mitchell A. Kramer began writing his epic poem <i>Her Couch of Silence</i> as a younglawyer and completed it forty years later. It is the centerpiece of his new poetry collection by the same name.</p> <p>The title poem explores the history of western civilization experienced in one day. The woman of the couch spends a day in Philadelphia envisioning life from tribal human sacrifice to the horrors of modern warfare and from saints to monsters. </p><p>TV Newscasters</p> <p>Besieged by pictures words faces </p><p>peddling the reconstructed old </p><p>or the vaguely new we sit </p><p>immobile ensconced in leather </p><p>watching a skewed or awful world </p><p>snippets of murder robbery </p><p>tales of home invasion tales </p><p>of killings fill quiet evenings </p><p>reality that is faked </p><p>contests where illiterates </p><p>demonstrate inadequate education. </p><p>We live solitary amid visions </p><p>amid would be leaders needing </p><p>sound bites without substance </p><p>amid pundits spouting nonsense </p><p>amid calls to overmedicate.</p> <p>How would it report the second coming</p> <p>as a sporting event or as</p> <p>a tale to be ignored?</p>