Half way

I'm a little over half way done with blogging for this poetry project, although I have a feeling I'll continue blogging afterward. Most likely, the blog will no longer focus on poetry, but that will certainly come up at times.The section I'll be covering today is "They Said: Politicians and Leaders." Instead of focusing on just a few poems like I usually do in these sections, I'm going to try and and on more and look at overall themes in the sections. The first poem of the section, "They Said" by Reg Saner speaks of the way democracy works or to be more specific, they way it is supposed to work vs. the way it actually works. It seems to say that leaders often grow too powerful which takes the democracy out of the democracy. "As the President Spoke" seems to hint that the president of the country eventually gets to a point when he is no longer himself, but the image we make of him. "Waiting for the Barbarians" by C.P. Cavafy tells of "barbarians" who are coming to the senate and because of this, legislators just stop doing their work. It seems that the "barbarians" could either be symbolic of the opposing political party coming to take over the legislature or people who are going to try and accomplish things for once. I think that either way, it is a poem about our political leaders and how they often don't do their duties to their best ability. Also in this section is a passage from "The Teeth Mother Naked at Last" by Robert Bly. Bly writes about the lies that our leaders tell us, mainly those told by the president. Bly claims that the president tells some fairly obvious lies, although I'm fairly sure this is all supposed to be metaphorical. The president doesn't actually tell any of these lies, for the ones purported by the narrator would accomplish nothing for the president. However, I think this poem is just making a statement that it often seems that the majority of what our leaders tell us isn't true.
Overall, this section seems to be warning us of the dangers in trusting politicians and our leaders. The poets are either revealing our leaders for who they truly are or giving us guidance, although vague, on how to respond. I think this section seems to be the most disconnected from the rest of the book outrightly because it seems political, although it doesn't have to be. And figuring out how to deal with leaders who aren't always trustworthy and truthful can be very difficult, which makes this section fit it well with the rest of the book, in my opinion.