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Review of Life Imitating Art (Sunday 9th July 2000)

Life Imitating Art stands as one of the poet’s most incisive socio-cultural commentaries — a work that departs from purely spiritual introspection to confront the mechanisms of mass manipulation in the modern media age. In this poem, the poet examines the pervasive influence of advertising, cinema, and digital communication on human consciousness, exposing how culture itself has been repurposed into a vehicle for conditioning and control.

From its very first line, the poem adopts the cadence of a manifesto: “In general, the media / Commercial advertising / And Hollywood / Are all about mind control and manipulation.” There is no metaphorical veil here; the poet speaks plainly and directly, signalling that this is not a work of abstraction but of urgent critique. The tricolon structure — “media, commercial advertising, and Hollywood” — immediately sets up the thematic trinity of institutions that, in the poet’s view, govern perception and behaviour in contemporary society.

The poem’s progression is relentless and cumulative. Through repetition and enumeration — “on paper, radio, internet and television,” “every hour, on the hour, half past the hour” — the poet evokes the inescapable saturation of media imagery. The rhythmic insistence mirrors the very bombardment it critiques: the repetition of lines functions like the repetition of advertising itself, drawing the reader into a pattern of overexposure, until the effect becomes almost hypnotic. This structural mirroring is a subtle but effective device, blurring the line between form and content — between critique and enactment.

Central to the poem’s thesis is the inversion of the adage “art imitates life.” The poet reclaims and reverses it, showing how “life imitating art” has become the new paradigm — a world in which lived experience is shaped by artificial images rather than the other way around. “Unreal fabrications of the real world” is a phrase that captures both the epistemological and moral anxiety at the core of the poem. Reality, under capitalism and mass media, becomes performative, pre-scripted, and detached from authenticity.

The poem’s tone oscillates between lamentation and indictment. Its critique of media culture is not delivered from a purely intellectual stance, but from an ethical and spiritual one. The poet suggests that this manipulation extends beyond behaviour and into the realm of soul — “Yet more distractions / From truly knowing and understanding / One’s inner self / One’s true self.” Here, the poem reconnects to the broader metaphysical concerns that define much of the poet’s oeuvre: that alienation from self is the root of social and ecological disorder. The “psychological illusions unchallenged” are not merely aesthetic concerns, but obstacles to spiritual evolution.

One of the most powerful sections occurs when the poet details the normalization of harm through entertainment: “Endorses stereotypical role models / Of theft, deceit, violence-against-women / Power abuse, dictatorship, murder, addiction…” This list operates as both social diagnosis and moral outcry. Its stripped-down syntax and cascading momentum underscore the cumulative damage wrought by repeated exposure to narratives of violence and exploitation. The poet identifies the subtle pedagogical power of media — how, “via its original creative intent,” it “teaches us subconsciously / How to be devious and manipulative / For our own ends.” The inversion of creativity into corruption is perhaps the poem’s most chilling insight — that art, once a vehicle for revelation, has been co-opted into a system that reinforces ignorance.

Stylistically, the poem’s strength lies in its clarity and precision. There is little overt lyricism; the language is direct, almost journalistic, yet heightened by the rhythm and intensity of its delivery. The poet’s tone is prophetic rather than academic — that of a witness speaking truth to a culture in denial. This raw immediacy places the poem in dialogue with traditions of political poetics — echoing voices such as Allen Ginsberg’s Howl or Gil Scott-Heron’s The Revolution Will Not Be Televised — yet refracted through the poet’s characteristic lens of spiritual consciousness.

In its closing movement, the poem returns to the theme of disconnection: “From truly knowing and understanding / Another human being / Or the spiritual nature / Of the world we are living in.” This conclusion transforms critique into lament. Beneath the anger lies grief — for a humanity estranged from both itself and the planet that sustains it.

In summary, Life Imitating Art is one of the poet’s most socially engaged works — a lucid, uncompromising examination of mass conditioning and its impact on consciousness. It articulates a warning that feels increasingly prophetic: that the saturation of artificial images threatens not only our perception of truth, but our capacity for empathy, authenticity, and spiritual awareness. Through its unwavering moral clarity and cumulative rhetorical power, the poem stands as both critique and call to awakening — urging the reader to reclaim their sovereignty of thought in a world of persuasive illusion.