Tag Archives: humanity

OCEANS

I could become an ocean

If I unleashed the rivers of tears

Building behind eyes seeing,

Building behind ears hearing,

Building behind a mind

Buried in grief over what I find

Hidden within family and friends,

I thought were of a kind;

Who saw hate and felt repulsion,

Who heard lies and became disgusted,

Who watched inhumanity and scowled,

Who with outrage spoke aloud.

Instead, they smirk and smile,

And change the subject acting proud

To shut down discussion and discomfort at discussing hard truths.

Either they are in avoidance of discord;

Or worse, they approve of lies and hate,

And are simply happy to see hate flourish.

They are not the least discouraged.

I could become an ocean.

Instead, I check my emotion.

I seek to find some common ground.

Impossible when they shut all true conversation with me down.

Is this what pushes us apart,

a river of tears breaking canyon

walls of disagreement apart?

I could become an ocean

Washing them away as I allow

My tears to flow.

Until the valley of tears

Washes hate clear

And silts and nourishes the soil

That love may once again grow.

I could become an ocean.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

LEAD WITH THE HEART

Lead with the heart

and the mind will follow

a path of peace and hope,

strong enough to carry

dreams and generosity

for all those you meet.

No matter how difficult

the journey it will not be taken

alone, silently, fearfully.

The heart knows best what matters.

The heart knows the best path.

The heart unites us joyfully.

The heart beats life determinedly.

The heart overcomes strife.

Lead with the heart and do your part

to create a world worth living.

Some paths are famous and large.

Some paths are unrecognized and small.

Every path matters to those

who walk it and make it their own.

Every path converges as we move

into the great unknown.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

MY FELLOW AMERICANS

I hold my tongue.

It takes strength I do not have.

Whimpers escape

On shattered breaths,

In silent screams.

The fight worries my soul,

Battle weary and choking,

On words held tight inside.

Once the scream begins

I doubt I could stop.

I wait for your speech.

I yearn for your promise

To stop the authoritarian

Who has taken over our house,

Emptied its vaults,

Stolen its wealth,

Sold its power

To the highest bidders.

So, I write. That I can do

While I wait for you.

To me, this nothing new.

Do you believe me now?

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

EXAMINATION OF CONSCIENCE

Photo by MART PRODUCTION on Pexels.com

How easily done depends

on the sinner and sin done that day.

No “ I lay me down to sleep”

before this Catholic child closed her eyes.

An examination of conscience, 

a deep and complete review 

of my sins committed that day, as I prayed

in true contrition for my sins; and a promise

to make restitution to all I had harmed

in my self-centered, humanly-corrupted way.

Only then, could forgiveness be petitioned

and God swayed. Sister told me so in class.

Father told me so in the dark confessional.

I await an examination of conscience by all

who voted for MAGA  entranced and enthralled

by promises of heavenly and earthly reward

for allowing hate to invade and invoke

the souls of nation recently made awoke

by African-Americans and women who showed

they were equally great to any American.

Make America Great Again only meant

make America white again.

And my church paved the way.

Her misogyny always ready to deprive

women of any control over 

the length of their skirts,

the choice to love or escape 

abuse in any man’s embrace,

manage their reproductive health,

choose or excuse another’s hate.

Abortion became the rallying cry

to bring sinners off their knees and to the polls

to vote for the liars who played priests like fools.

There is no place for judgment or blame.

Sinners all, we play the same game.

There is a need for an examination of conscience,

for restitution to a nation’s sacred tenets defamed

by such reckless, sincere but sinful moves.

Now, priests and pastors see the error of their ways

as they accompany immigrants to hearings

to protect them from MAGA misrule?

The MAGA the churches helped elect

is not a surprise. And, it remains a sin to be

examined deeply, and completely reviewed.

I await the results of such a self-examination.

I await the restitution to be completed.

I await the apology for distorting Christian theology.

I await the chance to forgive, wholeheartedly.

I know my church is only human.

If only it could remember that truth.

1 Comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

AWAKENED

Photo by Louis on Pexels.com

This is no way to wake up.

Perhaps, it has become the only way.

We may have stayed asleep too long.

we may have missed the call

of our immigrant ancestors.
We may have been too deep in our own dreams.

We may not have heard the alarm

in the voices of those awake,

and made to suffer

while we dreamt on.

We may have found dreams

easier to focus beyond

the painful reality

that comes with the dawn.

Becoming awake means

it is not too late

to set aside hate

which weakens all bonds,

and love our country enough

to make it strong enough

to end the nightmares.

We can and we must 

awaken to a new dawn.

I am awake and I quake

in the light made by evil heat

that feels punishing and wrong. 

Today, I uneasily awake

determined to push on

past those who tell us

some of us

do not belong.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

THE AGE OF HUMANS

Photo by Anna Tarazevich on Pexels.com

I have lived through the  Stone Age, the Bronze Age, 

the Iron Age, the Middle Age, the Industrial Age,

the Space Age, the Communication Age.

I am human, so it seems, 

and able to look back as well as forward; 

a mere mammal trying 

to become part of that thing 

we like to call humanity.

How do we know who we are

when we do not know the neighbor next door?

How much effort does it take to explore

each member of a community?

We do not even truly know our family.

Strangers pose a serious threat

that we have not learned to handle yet.

We play with religion and philosophy

to understand what humans are meant to be.

We have become the source of inhumanity

around the globe we once thought flat.

The more we learn, the more we fear.

The less we know even where we are at.

We who do not know ourselves, can 

never feel safe.

Without self we are never in a truly safe space.

Democracy is as fragile as we.

If we cannot trust ourselves, whom can we trust?

In a democratic republic, trust we must.

Demagogues know this is so.

Wealth and power are hard to let go.

To seize power from “no-nothings” comes easily.

Divide and conquer rallies laughingly.

It has become a right-wing norm

used by our nation’s enemies

who need never use their armies

to cross our borders, when we are so willing

to allow them to sway and inform us who we are

day after day after day after day after day.

Only because we do not know who we are, anyway. 

Or, in any way useful to ruling ourselves.

Like human children, human adults vote to play.

Humans are entering a new age every day.

A I will now become the new me,

a me I never expected to see.

One I never knew, it is true.

A I will know me much better than I do.

It will write and speak and act for me.

Deep inside what I once felt was free

will wither and wonder if I could have become

the real human, the real man or woman

the real me.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY, POLITICS

WAR HAIKU

Photo by Ahmed akacha on Pexels.com

They have already lost

who fight over land no one owns.

Earth is hers alone.

3 Comments

Filed under POETRY

LISTENING TO MOTHER EARTH

Photo by Cup of Couple on Pexels.com

Earth, our Mother, in so many ways

never rests, as good mothers everywhere,

until her children are safe

and able to become their very best.

Earth streams winds seldom seen

in ages past, to cleanse the air we breathe

of toxic chemicals and toxic thoughts,

too often ignored until humanity seethes

with anger torn from shattered dreams.

Earth’s tears drown our shores,

our over-run rivers and streams swollen

beyond the banks of civility and decency,

spreading across villages and cities.

We watch earth’s loving children join hands

to help those caught within the bands

of hatred fueled by power and greed,

furthered and supported by religious creed

distorted by self-indulgent need

to retain a control it never had;

dividing the world into good and bad,

which Mother Earth understands

could destroy her children and leave her all alone.

With Mother Earth we make our stand to secure

a future of loving kindness for all her children,

of every kind. Rock, wind, water and fire we implore

have patience with us as we try to create 

a world right, not might, rules once more.

Leave a comment

Filed under POETRY

HOPE STREET

Where does hope begin or end?

Hope is not a one-way street, I know.

Hope folds back upon itself and those

who travel its streets come and go.

Hope gets caught up in the dark fold

and holds its breath until the street unfolds

where freedom lights and warms the soul

and breath can find its rhythm again.

Wins and losses racing down these streets

means little on this stretch where war has taken hold.

the streets of Harkiv, Cherniv, Chernobyl,

Kyiv, Lviv, and Mariupol and the many towns

and villages along the way show us hope 

passed this way on its way to war and back again.

Bodies lying twisted on Ukrainian streets

executed and abandoned show hope passed through

on its way to our own streets, to our own end.

Hope folds back again and again and again

until our streets meet Ukrainian streets,

util our humanity meets in the streets everywhere,

until we discover all streets meet end-to-end.

Our hopes fold and unfold together on the road

to war and peace, to evil or good, to hatred or love.

Where does hope begin or end?

With each of us.

1 Comment

Filed under POETRY