Category Archives: humanity

I Grieve

Posted on by
3 
I grieve for lives lost because of others’ greed.
I grieve for dreams crushed and opportunities denied 
because of prejudices and abuses of power.
I grieve for hope dying, for hope lost.

I celebrate silly memes whose sole purpose 
is to express creativity and humor and joy in life; 
proof of the indomitable vein of humaneness within us. 
I celebrate sober acts of love, good will, humility, 
generosity and bravery of everyday people 
coming together to support, care for and 
protect one another. 

I challenge myself to not look away, to not try to
distance myself from the brutality, the 
callous disregard of suffering, the shortsighted 
squandering of natural resources that are the 
very foundation of life on earth. 
I challenge myself to right the wrongs.

I pray for wisdom.
I pray for sanity.

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Ten prompt from NaPoWriMo.net calls for “a meditation on grief.” I didn’t entirely meet the criteria of the prompt, but I’m still on track for a poem a day in April.

Persona

Posted on by
2 
I can read  minds, you know, and it’s not always pleasant. 
Like right now, you’re showing interest and kind of nodding along like you totally buy into what I’m telling you, because 
that’s the persona you want to project: openmindedness.
But what you’re really thinking is that my purported ability to 
read minds is totally bonkers, and I must be, too. 

We all have personas that we try to sell.
Intellectual, confident, bad ass, honest and open…
Yep, that last one is a projection, too. I mean, maybe you are 
honest and open. I’m not saying you aren’t. 
But you also want to be seen as honest and open,
because that’s your persona. 

So here’s the problem with reading minds:
I can read who you are, who you think you are, 
who you think other people think you are,
who you wish you were, who you wish others would think you were…
That's a lot of reading, and -- as I said -- not so pleasant. 

So, what about me? Who am I? Who do I think I am? 
Who do other people think I am? Besides bonkers, that is. 
I really haven’t a clue. What do you think I am, a mind reader?

It’s National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo)!

Day Six prompt from NaPoWriMo.net: In your poem today, try writing with a breezy, conversational tone, while including at least one thing that could only happen in a dream.

Improv Screams

Posted on by
6

Day 5 of National Poetry Writing Month (NaPoWriMo) 

Today’s NaPoWriMo prompt is a bit complicated to explain.

… inspired by musical notation, and particularly those little italicized –and often Italian – instructions you’ll find over the staves in sheet music, like con allegro or andante.

We are presented with three columns of words, and instructed to

First, pick a notation from the first column below. Then, pick a musical genre from the second column. Finally, pick at least one word from the third column. Now write a poem that takes inspiration from your musical genre and notation, and uses the word or words you picked from the third column.

I won’t reproduce the full columns, but the notations include gems like, “play like you are about to start crying,” “tempo di murder” and “with a hint of frenzy.” Musical genres include, “yacht rock,” “jazz fantasia” and “breakup anthem,” among others.

My selections were: genre “power ballad;” notation “improvisatory screaming;” and the word vampire.

Thus, my poem:

Screaming Meemies

A ballad not for faint of heart
this story I’m about to [scream]
a tale so foul [a shuddered moan]
derived from Satan’s basest dreams.

The clock tolled noon one fateful day.
A lightning strike; earth split a seam
and from the depths of hell arose 
a fiend astride a golden gleam.

This incubus [a prolonged shriek]
this vampire spewing blood and greed
loosed upon our hallowed grounds
to feast upon our direst needs.

A knight in armor tarnished gray,
and yet a hundred score and five,
fell at his feet [cue gnashing teeth]
to save careers (and ruin lives).

Such devastation [Banshee’s screech],
depriving souls their tended dreams,
all done to fatten Satan’s purse
and trample those of lesser means.

This [haunting howl] yet to resolve,
to hell consigned or fait accompli?
No hero comes to save the day.
It rests on you, it rests on me.

It’s time

Posted on by
2 
We can’t straddle fences 
once the barbed wire goes up. 

We can’t walk a fine line 
when the lines have blurred into nonexistence. 

We can’t look the other way 
when there ceases to be any other way. 

If we concede that this is the best we can hope for,
we are forsaking hope and forsaking one another.

It's time.

We are only as helpless as we allow one another to be.

Fire in the Ballot Box

Posted on by
8 
Burn the ballots, ban the books, bash the ones who disagree.
When did it become the norm to forego common decency? 
Ignore the truth, assert your lies loudly and repeatedly. 
And God forbid you dare to challenge ye olde patri-assity.

Why do you try to stop the votes, what do you fear so mightily?
Why must you foment rage and hate, distrust and blind antipathy?
Why lurk in darkness, wearing masks to veil your true identity? 
Why hide behind your guns and flags, then call it Christianity?

I am not Dem nor GOP, to none do I pledge fealty.
I aim to act with common sense, with self respect and dignity.
Far from perfect, none too wise, often lacking clarity.
Perhaps we’re more alike than not. Let’s strive for peace and harmony.

Thanks for the Favor

Posted on by
Reply 
A book is not about the cover that protects it.
A gift is not about the paper that wraps it.

A favor, though, is about all that surrounds it,
and not merely about the favor itself.

A favor is a gift of protection; of connection;
the resurrection of feeling secure and loved,
and the knowing that someone has your back.

A favor is about the wrapping; not mere trappings,
but the tapping into kindness and caring and 
feeling seen and warmed by the soul of another. 

When you do someone a favor, know that you, too,
will be fortified by the community you are 
helping to create and maintain. Know that you, too, 
will be enveloped in the love and wellbeing that comes
 
with the honorable act of giving.