Adrienne Rich - Rereading The Dead Lecturer lyrics

Overthrow and make new
An idea and we felt it
A meaning and we caught it
As the dimensions spread, gathering
In pre-utopian basements figured shadows
Scrawled with smoke and music
Shed the dead hand

Let sound be sense a world
Echoing everywhere, Fanon, Freire
Thin pamphlets lining
Raincoat pockets, poetry on walls
Damp purple mimeos cranking

The feeling of an idea an idea of feeling

That love could be so resolute

And the past? Overthrow of systems, forms
Could not overthrow the past nor our
Neglect of consequences
Nor that cold will we misnamed

There were consequences a world
Repeating everywhere: the obliterations
What’s surreal, hyperreal, virtual
What’s poetry what’s verse what’s new what is

A political art if we
(who?) ever were conned
Into mere definitions

If we accept