Rangefinder and Powderhorn: Two Poems

"Rangefinder" is set in a discount megastore. As the poet walks the aisles, he ponders the moral ruin evident in the procession of products: the narcissistic cult of movie stars, the insidious ubiquity of pop music, the pernicious abdication by parents and teachers of their responsibilities to children, and the sick worship of wealth. Against the rampant evils of acquisitiveness, inauthenticity, and sentimentality, Klein urges the threefold virtues of attention, self-unity, and complex memory. "Powderhorn" recounts the trials of the poet as a young man discovering and holding fast to his vocation in spite of canting counselors and worldly temptations. As the mature poet walks the city streets, he observes vignettes that conjure the honied snares, false steps, and close calls of his own youth. Notwithstanding changes in the dangers faced by today's young, Klein asserts that the fateful stakes of youthful choices remain the same. Absent rigorous introspection and lifelong study of death, an individual's soul cannot but succumb to the vanities of the world.