A most terrifying figure: a man who answers only to his dreams, and no other authority, not even his self interest. This could be the religious prophet, turned violent. Or, as the Muslim saying goes, it may be the free man, “He who has no master, the devil is his master.”

But then, poets too answer to no authority — except perhaps their dreams.

Poets can be radically political, if they can unsettle, disrupt, or affirm how we dream. This may seem so far from the field of direct action. But in dreams are the seeds of what we each believe heroism to be.