Well versed

Afterwards, as we know,
There are those who virtuously
Declare: We didn't know.

Things happened somewhere else,
Or didn't happen like that,
Or we weren't really told.

Anyway, we had no power
To alter or divert
What did or didn't go on.
It's a familiar sound
To be heard among us now,
The deceiving whine of those
Who participate and know.

About the poet

AC Jacobs died in 1994, aged 56. He is now regarded as one of the most important poets of his generation. This poem was not published in his lifetime. The eminent poet and critic Frederic Grubb called this verse "the most alarming of civic poems."

If you wish to catch Hearing Eye poets, including David Floyd and Anna Robinson, they are performing a reading at the Barbican Library at 7pm on Wednesday May 21. Admission free.

John Rety of Hearing Eye Press and Torriano Meeting House is a former editor of anarchist paper Freedom.

www.torriano.org
www.hearingeye.org