Bean Newton's Prophetic Vision
by E.W. Wilder
Poets have long been confused for prophets and vice versa, but upon
occasion, one runs across a poet who actually is the other as well.
Such was the case with Bean Newton.
In "Bean's Blank Page," the poet
looks beyond the time of writing, probably shortly before his death
in the fall of 1998, to a time just a few months distant, but a time
one step closer to the Millennium, one step closer to the total societal
collapse that Newton in other writings indicated would be confused by
a populace become "fripperish and anile" for Armageddon.
The facts he may have gotten wrong, but the Zeitgeist he certainly
didn't.
This poem is followed by a short piece, but one thematically linked,
expressing Newton's deep anguish over the junk science and bad theory
that still characterizes our media and our lives.
--E.W. Wilder, editor of the tentatively titled Bean Down So Goddamn
Long, It Looks Like Lunch to Me: The Posthumous Works of Bean Newton.
