Muriel Rukeyser's "Poem" discusses the impact of media coverage of wars that occurred during her lifetime on her and people around her. When we apply it to our current circumstances, it just enhances the poem's subject. Today, the number of "devices" and sources of information has only grown, and while technology has attempted to bring people closer together, it has instead pushed them away.
The poem expresses the impact of global communication on the lives of ordinary people. Outside of devices, the author expresses the need for conversation and engagement. When she says, "most mornings I'd be more or less insane," she's referring to how we reach for our phones instead of newspapers first thing in the morning to get information. We're bombarded with horrible news from all around the world, yet there's little we can do. While we do it to stay on top of crucial information, the bad news we receive in the morning might have a negative impact on our attitude for the rest of the day. Being "more or less insane" implies that to me.
While technology has helped us to communicate with individuals all over the world and keep in touch with those who are far away, I believe it has also increased the distance between people. We are more conscious of what is occurring elsewhere, and we have gotten more emotionally interested in things that do not immediately concern us, rather than focused on our immediate problems. "Slowly I would get to pen and paper/ Make my poems for people unseen and unborn," she writes in lines 8-9. We've reduced face-to-face human engagement in favor of focusing on individuals we don't know, events we haven't witnessed, and circumstances we can't control.
