Summer politics

Problems of political
philosophy are best un-
derstood if the margin-
al cases are clearly
stated.

     In the afternoon I walk
     to the top of the bluff

     and sit in the sun like
     an invalid or the survi-
     vor of a bad accident
     made thoughtful. The is-
     land feels warm and re-
     assuring beneath my back
     but then it turns scorn-
     ful of my stupidity. 

     Your element is the air,
     it says, blowing its
     grasses across my face.
     Your element is the sun
     which falls in brilliant
     crimson on your closed
     eyelids.

     You relied so much on
     mechanical assistance
     you lost touch with your
     proper element and equal-
     ly lost touch with the sea. 

     Why the undergoing of
     extremes to see a few
     things a little differ-
     ently? What need of such
     harshness?

     The grasses continue to
     brush my face, the sun
     to fall on my shut eyes.
     Far off the sea crumbles
     and crumbles away at the
     shingle.

Franz Neumann
1900 - 1954
The Democratic and the
Authoritarian State
  Essays in Political and
  Legal Theory
1942
Free Press, 1964© 

James Hamilton-Paterson
Playing with Water
  Passion and Solitude on
  a Philippine Island
New Amsterdam, 1987©
op. cit.