The Easiest Thing in the World, and other poems: marking the third anniversary of the Pulse Nightclub attack (Poetry Book 3)

AC Benus

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News of tragedy affects people differently. For the brilliant poet AC Benus, the impressions and emotions of the unfolding horrors of June 2016 went into storage. Approaching the third anniversary of the Orlando event, and witnessing how “Pulse-Deniers” attempted to make the attack about anything but the murdering of members of the Gay Community for who they loved, forced an unpacking. These 22 poems deal with grief, anger, beauty, brutality and loss, with rays of hope managing to shine through.

Here is verse arranged in multiple lyrical settings, designed to pit elegant form against horrible message. It is the type of writing Stefan Zweig singled out as important because of its primalness.

“The primeval poem, the one created long before printing and writing, was nothing but a well-tempered yawlp, only remotely resembling speech – wrought from breeziness or anguish, from livid tears or hopelessness, from commemoration or immediacy – but always spurred by an abundance of feeling. It was emotive because it was born of passion, emotive because it longed to generate passion in others. The poems […] were calls to the masses, a reminder to be on guard, a salutation, an ecstasy, a direct electrical discharge from sentiment to sentiment. The poet spoke to others as an individual in a circle, […] a struggle with the listeners for their reciprocal passions. Poets have lost this strident, intimate contact with the people [and their ability] to interact as the prophetic eye upon the crowd.”

With "The Easiest Thing in the World, and other poems," AC Benus returns us to the primal poetry of 'lest we forget' in heart-aching simplicity.