Here I elaborate on a poem by Peter Schreiner: “Earth.” Its text, contained in the graphic below, is available on Schreiner’s web-site Crows Head Soup. A state of being viewed with the vegan in mind. Awareness replaces normalcy, the gentle side of being aware is naturally repelled by flesh, fur and bone when known as resources, nourishment, craving. Normality is the unquestioning exploitation of fellow sentient beings alive today on this planet. 99% “living” in factory-fresh farms.
Borrowing a favorite phrase from a seldom followed play of T.S. Eliot, The Family Reunion. A Greek chorus explains the characters contained on the theater stage.
Sudden Solitude in a Crowded Desert
The concept became a byline for me one day while listening to the audio for this play. I was on the back porch, it was the late 90’s. Days of very early social media connected my life with others by a 1200 baud modem. Three States and a river. OH IN KY.
Very few Google searches yield much information on the Unix box located in a small room at the local phone company, TriState Online.
This link takes you to the full text at archive.org. You can search for “sudden solitude” there.
Sudden Solitude played into a concept in that poem “Earth.” The mashup that occurs when you imagine the inexplicable in everyday life. Things unquestioned in a polite society proud of its dominion. All matters familiar, ordinary and comforting (comfort food) in a moment of unexpected insight. A spinning coin flipped skyward that reveals the unanticipated: solitude/crowded.
Privileged consumer of all things animal from marrow to fur, then quite suddenly you become a witness, then a consumer of no thing animal.
Cognitive dissonance sets in when you identify enlightenment from the vegan point of view. At this point I fervently hope that readers remaining to read this far are not already convicted vegans. Dismissal out of hand is something you must expect when promoting marginal epiphanies. billziegler1947 is a tribute to the music of the crickets, I’m actually proud of that tribute.
My comment on “Earth”:
“Secular lands” evokes imposed national borders for me. Each sentient being I meet opens a complex but complete universe contained in one transient body: distinct personages/animalages. Borders are as much cage bars as they are expressions of nationality, but they are all arbitrary. Anyway that’s my reader reaction. Hope it makes sense to readers of these words.
It feels good to revive Sudden Solitude in a Crowded Desert, a thread to weave into the discussion here.
Thanks for reading.
billziegler1947 
These extracts from your post bring to mind two of my poems, which I humbly offer: The Master and his Squire and Step outside.
I’m a wannabe vegan myself. Not ideal, I admit, but at least I’m moving in the right direction.
I’ll try to find the time to experience ‘The Family Reunion’; however, I’m seriously in need of more round tuits.
Heads-up: links on ‘Earth’, ‘Crows Head Soup’ and ‘the theme of the play’ are all dead, and ‘http://poetictouch.com/’ (the domain mentioned in the Alec Guinness image) claims to be ‘Coming Soon!’, but I strongly suspect that ‘soon’ here equals ‘never’.
This last part of this comment was brought to you courtesy of 💥?Random Raiders!💥.
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