News of the Day -Chronicles of Chaos Poem, Alan j Wright

This week I am responding to a prompt in a news article asking -Are you feeling swamped right now?

That was all I needed to set my writing mind into furious action. Sometimes a simple question can set the mind alight. I'll let you, dear reader determine how I feel...

I would classify the resultant poem -A Rant poem, and a long one at that. I have written Rant poems previously. They provide a wonderful outlet for strong emotions and unsettling feelings. Anyway, sit yourself down, strap in -here is my Rant poem.

The News of the Day- Chronicles of Chaos

The news

And the views on the news

Are let loose

In torrents

Cascading into the conscious mind

The digital tsunami comes flooding

Endlessly dumping headlines

With updates layered thickly

Delivered by device and design

Sensory overload and mind-boggling exhaustion

Have another helping of despair and dross

And while you're here, juggle this- and this

And have a dash of this as well.

It’s so hard to manage, THIS!

It’s not merely the daily grind

-Whatever yours looks like

It’s all the other stuff heaped on top of that

And on top of that again

Click bait and conspiracy

Influencers spreading like influenza

Follow me, like me, buy my dream

Validate me

Bots and trolls emerge from holes

Dripping hate and bile

All this doom scrolling leaves the reader overwhelmed

Dispirited and smashed

Headlines hit you like a fist

Wars and flareups, bombings and other atrocities

In towns and cities

The Middle east, Ukraine, Lebanon

Conflict rages on and on

The innocent carry the burden.

Media fatigue is the new normal

While an abnormal reality bounces around us

Look over here, now here

The relentless pace of geopolitics

Delivers a world disorganised, chaotic.

But understand this-

This dizzying pace of news is not merely by chance...

We are swamped by design

The zone flooded by methodical messaging

The media, an often-guileless conduit

And the cabaret of chaos commanded by autocrats

seek to move our attention to the next

ghastly instalment of their twisted visions.

And so, we endure our dizzy days

Spinning, not winning

Reeling and feeling swamped

As bewilderment grows.

-And in the distance, I hear a faint melody

And voices singing

-turn off your mind, relax and float downstream…

Alan j Wright

It is Poetry Friday and our host on this occasion is Tanita S Davis. Tanita has issued a challenge to write an Ovillejos. This Spanish form bundles together ten lines, made up of 3 rhyming couplets interspersed with three very short lines, and a quatrain. The last line is a “redondilla,” a “little round” that collects all three of the short lines and casts off the poem, as it were. The Ovillejo plays with repetition in a way that will allow some cleverness and wordplay.

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Linda M.20 March 2026 at 11:28
Oh yes, so much chaos and clickbait. I'm just disgusted by it. My tiny hope is that something new for news delivery will come from such a disaster as today's news outlets. I fear we as a human race are not going to survive this swamp by design. Good rant. I wish I saw a solution.
Anonymous20 March 2026 at 22:16
A spot-on rant indeed! Although I see signs of hope. I think more and more people are getting it and making their voices heard. But how I long to "-turn off MY mind, relax and float downstream…" Time to click off more.
Marcie Flinchum Atkins20 March 2026 at 22:45
Yes to all of this!!! There were so many lines that I was nodding and saying YEP. And a news article asking if you're feeling swamped? Wow! So it's not just me...

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