~Charles M. Blow
I am not a poet who writes about current events, by and large, but there are lots who do.
photo by Holly Victoria Norval
Two Years In
by Christine Potter
I could not have imagined this any more
than you could remember how the trees
looked naked of leaves back when it was
still summer and they were crowned in
great dollops of green. Nor could I have
predicted which one would snap four feet
read the rest here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
DEAR SENATOR,
by Cambra Koczkur
My first-grader pours his own cereal.
He stands on a stool so his elbows
have room to bend, but still needs help
from mom if the milk bottle’s full.
My girl, five, wiggles as I weave quatrains of
gold on yellow ribbon through her hair and
speak our rhyming poems into the mirror.
“You carry my love with you,” we say.
read the rest here
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Another from Rattle (you'll understand why I can't post an excerpt of this):
Free Shipping by Abby Murray
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A poem by Brandon Amico: Gun that folds up into a teddy bear.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Miss Rumphius Effect has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Tricia!
11 comments:
I've read all these poems over and over. My heart is aching while I lounge here warm and snug drinking fresh coffee.
It takes only a few minutes to remember that the NRA has tentacles reaching here into Canada and that there is a movement to deregulate gun registry and allow ownership of any kind of gun to anyone.
Any trace of smug has disappeared.
I find it so hard to write about current events. These work so well. Dear Senator will stay with me. Thank you for sharing these.
"Gun that folds into another gun."
These are sobering.
My youngest granddaughter asked her mother where she hides when there's a lockdown at work. I am continually sad that the children are growing up like this, making their hiding a regular thing. Each one is a poem to admire, though also to grieve because they have to be written.
Each poem is intense and powerful. "Dear Senator" really resonated with me. I keep hoping that the Senator actually read it.
"Four million dollars is power past my reach,
so I send poems into the world, then hope,
like dandelion seeds they will take root
wherever they may land. This is yours to keep."
These poems are so thought-provoking. I sometimes write just to try to make some kind of sense of current events--or more to try to come to terms with it. The Dear Senator will stay with me.
Whoa. These are powerful. So powerful. Those honeybees drowning, burning. My heart hurts. If you don't have a garden, if you don't drive cross-country in the summer and never once have to wash your windshield you might not know that ALL of our insects are disappearing. These poems inspire me to say more; do more.
I, too, find it difficult to write about current events. It takes me a long time to process them to the point of being able to write about them, rather than just feel my emotional response. These are brilliant. Disarming in so many ways.
As much as these poems punch me in my gut, thank you. I don't know how to write these poems so close to the moments when I'm feeling the anger and sadness--no, it's bigger than sadness. I'm glad these women have. I'm glad I can come back here and find them when I need them...but I wish there weren't reasons to have to.
Yes, as Mary Lee said a most powerful-filled poem collection Tabatha. Their strength for me falls in reeling me in with their magical metaphors about the horrors of today–and I think the trees do know what's happening. And thanks for the link to Mobius.
I recite: poetry has power! I read these and I think: I'm exhausted from this effort. I don't know why I believe that exercising any power, including poetry's, would not be tiring. It feels late to learn that most things worth doing are hard work.
Post a Comment