Category Archives: POLITICS

February 6, 2022 · 4:39 pm

REMEMBER THOU ARE DUST

Call the sun names.

Carry buckets of coal.

Bring shovels to bury the dead.

Careful, now, how you tread

on the burnt offerings

of now fallow fields 

and forests turned desserts.

Take to the sea.

In sheltered ports linger

to avoid the worst storms.

Set sail in steaming waters

which no longer cool

temperatures nor tempers,

and boil over onto shores

of discontent.

Remember thou are dust

and to dust thou shall return.

We are over-heated earth.

We are worsening storms,

more violent, 

making everlasting wars

within ourselves

and our false borders.

We are both victimizer and victim

of global warming.

We cannot escape

ourselves.

We are dust

and to dust

we shall return.

1 Comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , ,

January 30, 2022 · 3:29 pm

WE FORGET WE ARE ANIMALS

We forget we are animals

defined by our biology,

determined in our theology

to become gods.

We claim supremacy

in our ability to reason.

Thus, science is treason

to our basest animality.

There is no true supremacy

in puppies seeking comfort in the pack,

but a leader holding back

its basest urges so they thrive.

Their is no supremacy among ants

plundering crumbs left behind

by birds with greater speed

after picnickers have had their feed.

Like puppies, birds and ants

we seek opportunity

and shared camaraderie

in order to survive.

Supremacy would deplete our strength,

interrupt the flow of shared effort,

deprive us of the joy of joint accomplishment.

It would make us less and steal our comfort.

Science steps in to stop such a fray

using reason to light our way.

Science untended 

leaves a world upended.

Viral storms circle the globe

behind fires and drought,

rain and flood,

leaving illness and death.

Economies fall before we do

onto bended knees of recovery.

Myths replace stories

as reason loses glory.

We forget we are animals at our own peril. 

We must forgo supremacy

to sustain democracy.

We must remember who we are.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , , , , ,

January 29, 2022 · 2:10 pm

AFRAID TO BEND

Sometimes, I think

I have forgotten how to bend.

Life now seems mere posturing.

We stand 

for something.

Or, we stand 

for nothing

real.

We sit on our hands.

We run from truth.

We sleepwalk through twi-light

days and nights blended

and mended by calculation

of who holds the reins

of our harness.

So, I stand

and I stretch

to find some balance

of thought and action;

a tiny fraction

of what reality 

used to be.

And I dare not bend

for fear

of losing

my balance.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as ,

January 27, 2022 · 3:05 pm

THE FINEST LIGHT

Forty winks and now

we see you,

until we don’t

lest we are mistaken

we have awakened.

The sun stays hidden

as we pretend

night is at an end,

and a new day begun.

The winking does not end.

The winking does not bend

the light enough to hide its glare 

crouching low behind the clouds.

Would it be wrong to open eyes wide

on days like these

bathed in cloudy skies?

Seeing truth shining bright

might justice be the finest light.

Stop winking.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

January 19, 2022 · 11:56 pm

Lift Every Voice and Sing,by Louise Annarino,3-2-2013

Lift Every Voice and Sing,by Louise Annarino,3-2-2013

Lift Every Voice and Sing,by Louise Annarino,3-2-2013


— Read on annarinowrites.wordpress.com/2013/03/02/lift-every-voice-and-singby-louise-annarino3-2-2013/

Leave a comment

Filed under COMMENTARY, POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , ,

January 15, 2022 · 6:13 pm

GRIEF LINES ABOUT THE BROW

GRIEF LINES ABOUT THE BROW

1-15-2022

I held grief at bay

in tightened fists

determined not to allow

its escape, until I lay

it down upon the page,

Where it sapped my strength.

Taking up the pen

is little help today

when the nib etches lines

of grief about my brow,

too close to allow the flow

of ink upon the page.

Democracy means more to those

More recently saved upon its shores.

The lands of autocrats and hypocrites,

we thought, had been left

behind, beyond our pained sight;

now resurrected by the Republican right.

A Right reinforced by clerics bent

on reasserting ties long rent

between church and state,

Now reinstated by the Court

and pro-life misogynist dictum

making women victims.

The Right backlash to Obama

is a fierce and hateful trauma

which dares to take away

our diversity and our vote,

our personhood and culture,

our history and democracy.

Grief is still heavy today

but less than yesterday.

Today ink flows steadily,

freely, hopefully daring leaders

to find the courage to save the vote,

and this beloved country.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , , , , , , ,

December 28, 2021 · 1:32 pm

January 6 Investigative Committee

JANUARY 6 INVESTIGATIVE COMMITTEE 12/28/2021

Secrets erode our fall from earth.

Heaven is too far to know

from whence we came

and how far we have fallen.

No one really knows

if truth be told.

That is a matter of faith

unsure

Unstable

unstoppable

like earth’s wobble

through endless space.

Despite the gravity of the situation,

or because of gravity,

still we fall

deeper into unknowing,

reliant on faith.

Perhaps senseless,

or at best clueless

until the secrets are told

and we able to behold

the truth

Leave a comment

Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , , ,

December 20, 2021 · 4:48 pm

Two-by-Four Therapy

Scene: Dorm room of Resident Advisor where RA is handling suicidal student refusing professional psychological counseling referral.

For the 10th. Day in a row the scene has been repeated, several times a day, for 10 days. I was that RA.

Finally, the RA says, “If what you want is to kill yourself, go do it.”

The student’s reply, “I will! And you will feel so guilty.”

I reply, “No, I shall not feel guilt. I will be very sad that someone with so much to offer took her own life, instead of accepting help to do the right thing…continue living.”

The student angrily returned to her own room. In a suite of 16 young women. I notified the suite that she was in need of constant observation; and to call me immediately if her behavior became more desperate. After months of living with her, everyone in the suite was aware of her condition and threats of suicide.

Within 15 minutes the student returned and with venomous looks agreed to professional counseling. Immediately, I had a counselor from the university on the phone with her, making an appointment for the next morning. This was a success,

Two-by-four therapy is sometimes necessary, but not for the faint of heart. It is one reason I became an attorney, instead of a social worker or counselor. I wanted the biggest two-by-four I could wield.

We always need to listen. We do not always need to speak words. We sometimes need to wave a two-by-four to build the future we want. The strongest negotiating tool is not always the language of rational speech; but, the language of power and control. We sometimes need to speak the two-by-four.

Congress, are you listening? president Biden, are you listening? Local Democratic Party, are you listening? Put on you gloves and start lifting those two-by-fours into place if we can hope to Build Back Better.

Leave a comment

Filed under POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , ,

December 2, 2021 · 12:53 pm

AMERICAN HANGOVER

The morning-after is always a let-down, a moment of weary headache-ridden resignation that the panic held at bay can no longer be denied. This is my country in this moment. We had a grand time for too long, sipping the heady drink of equal rights for people of color who long had been in  bondage; and for women who remained subject to men, and for non-heterosexuals who hid from everyone’s wrath. We celebrated the promise of the power and strength which comes through embracing diversity and equality; long promised, and too long denied. We danced to the tune of American exceptionalism. Our belief in ourselves coursed through our veins. We danced and we drank, then drank some more. Heedless of the obligation to take our achievements seriously, we failed to protect the values we had accumulated over so many years of struggle; and, after such hurtful sacrifices, often too painful to discuss openly. Blind drunk, we waited too long to sober up.

If we had not been drunk, would we have noticed the smirks and innuendos, the open plotting and strategies of those at the Tea Party in our midst? How could we have missed the sheer exuberance of their hate for us? Did our ascension in the world of science and technology numb us to the animal nature seeking power and control, and the fear engendered by an expanding universe of ideas? Did our celebration lead us on a merry chase through such vast fields of entertainment that we stopped to play too long for our own good?

Why did no one tell us to go home and get some rest; and, that tomorrow would be a long day? Or, perhaps they did; but we were too intent on our pleasure to acknowledge the alarm clock would soon go off. And perhaps, the alarm clock did go off, but we simply stopped it and went back to sleep. Why was this not news? Are some truths too difficult to comprehend, or simply too challenging to report? Or, maybe, those reporting stayed too long at the celebration, drank too much, and danced too long beside us.

America, it is time to sober up.

Leave a comment

Filed under POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , ,

February 14, 2014 · 1:46 pm

Hire Better Liar,Louise Annarino,2-14-2014

Hire A Better Liar,by Louise Annarino,2-14-2014

 

The art of deception is a dark art

measured in small paces

inch by inch

by small people,Citizens United,

who would constrict our knowledge

and deny our freedom to decide

for ourselves where truth resides.

 

“Truth in Advertising” is an oxymoron.

Political or consumer goods,

it matters not.

Truth can be bought

on the open market

by secret buyers,Citizens United,

and hidden liars.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

Tagged as , , , , , ,