Author: Gary Beck Source: http://www.polseguera.com/writers/writing-111_desperate-seeker.html Desperate Seeker Desperate Seeker: 'Internet Yearning', 'Diminishing Voices', 'Observer', 'Protective Shield', 'Travel II'   Internet Yearning Ms lonely heart sits at her computer reviewing candidates at an on-line dating service, each one promising to make her happy, most of them so clever she cannot tell who is sincere, who is unscrupulous hoping to take advantage of a vulnerable person, so she is indecisive and does not push the tempting button of connectivity.   Diminishing Voices I do not know why the young become poets, since they seem to be more concerned with aesthetics than issues of our time. I think of Byron, going to Misalongi to join the Greeks in their fight for freedom, dying for an ideal. I think of Whitman seared by the horrors of brutal civil war, nursing the wounded, giving of himself. I think of Ginsburg howling his frustration. the classic outsider accusing, opposing the land that built him. Poets have fallen silent on vital issues settling for security in a university, unfit for current challenges   Observer Each morning       I go to work and see an old woman looking from her window in a ratty tenement       eluding gentrification, allowing her to peer       at a confusing world, face pressed against              unresponsive glass,      seeking to decipher why she's been marooned in a submerging building.   Protective Shields They sit at computers desperate to reach someone, make human contact, but never know who responds, identities concealed by remote electrons, permitting indulgence in communication that does not lead to risk of discovery.   Travel II Eastern Europeans sufficiently endowed with ample euros, some legitimately earned, cruise New York City camera in one hand guidebook in the other looking for landmarks, reasonably certain the secret police are not watching.   'Desperate Seeker' is a poetry collection that uncovers the anger, fear and horror that resounds in the powerful struggle of existence.