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VOID


                                First version: June 4, 2005  
                                Second:        May  3, 2005    
                                Third:         May 22, 2005      


   Wallace Stevens:
  "To see the nothing that                                          
   is not there ... "                                                    
         
                                                                
   Washington Square             
   Park was under                                                         
   assault by Robert                                                   
   Moses.               He wanted to build a midtown highway in
                        Manhattan that would have replaced                
                        Washington Square Park in Greenwich        
   What would that      Village with a highway entrance ramp.          
   have done to the                                                
   folk scene?                                               This idea was    
                                                             shot down by    
   If it had         (Would we have                          "grass-roots"    
   happened...       gone into the                           forces organized 
   who would be      1960s without                           by people like  
   able to see       Bob Dylan?)                             Jane Jacobs.      
   the strange                                                                 
   gap it left                                                           
   in our                                                    Shortly        
   culture?                                                  afterwards,     
                                                             this Park      
   Hard enough to see                                        became a       
   what's there...                                           venue for      
                                                             folk singers,  
   There have been other                                     war protests...
   battles that were lost.                                   
                                                    
   What voids have they             
   produced?                                      
                                    What have we
      We live in shelters           done to     
      riddled with holes.           ourselves?  
                         
      Surrounded by ghosts...
      
      
                                             
                                    "... and the nothing that is":

                                        political                     
                                        conspiracies;                   
                                                                       
                                        organized crime; 

                                        apathy, despair,          
                                        paralysis...              
                                                                  
                                                         
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