Some days the words refuse to let me go.
On other days words pretend I am someone they do not know.
The cut-direct should not hurt so.
Tag Archives: poetry
THE DAWN OF DISCONTENT
Darkness has not yet lifted
from the night of a waning moon.
This is the time of discontent
when one feels most alone, but soon,
the sun shall rise.
Others choose to sleep through darkness.
I cannot. Like a lone wolf,
I choose to stay awake, woke to wonder
hidden in all I yet may discover
in people and places I have never known.
I plant seeds of yearning in my soul
that love may take root and grow
beyond my own cultural limits,
beyond the bounds of all I know.
I try to stay awake, though weary,
to watch the new day dawn.
As it surely will.
As it surely will.
As it surely will.
Turn three times and make a wish.
I wish to fearlessly face the heat of these days
with cool calm and laughter so strong
it awakens the entire world.
Will the new dawn reveal
that which was destroyed
while an entire nation slept?
This question is what makes some people
sleep the whole day long.
Their eyes appear open, but they sleepwalk;
perhaps hoping they are dreaming
and the day is a mere nightmare
from which they will soon awake.
I cannot pretend. Not I.
Even in the dark my eyes open wide.
I must see what darkness has wrought.
I tend to the garden I have created,
to the life of growth I have sought,
as the sun rises over roots sorely stressed.
I cannot allow the plants, nor my self, to die
even though they can no longer thrive.
I am awake in the dark, but not alone.
So long as I see clearly, if not cheerily,
the life of other living things all around me
resisting the threat in the day ahead and hanging on.
Sensing our togetherness is what makes us strong.
I watch the discontented dawn.
The sun continues to rise.
As will you. As shall I.
NO!
The strongest word in any language is “NO”.
It is every child’s first word for a reason.
To a toddler’s parent it is treason.
It carries more weight than cuddles or cudgels
used to reprimand, remand and reform.
Its power can overturn threats and intimidation.
Its shout can garner attention and create doubt.
Its momentum can move mountains about.
Its clarity quickens response to its shame.
It calls attention to errors or cheats in any game.
It works where no other method succeeds
to enforce self-interest’s vitality and need.
Its surprise increases the ability to annoy.
“NO!” can be weakened if too late employed
Authoritarian rule is under attack
every time the word “NO!” is shouted back.
“No!” used in concert create symphonic dissent,
until the whole world rises to up-end
intimidation by armed and masked men
who invade our streets and use force to bend
our knees and our minds and our very lives.
When will such madness end ?
When more “NO” is heard than “yes”.
On such “NO!” does one’s freedom depend.
Every child knows this to be true.
Speak your “NO!” now before freedom is lost
to me, to all of us, even to you.
THE DEEP SLEEP
Words fail to awaken on the page
when words fail.
Words dreamlike fight rage
in nightmarish schemes
when words fail.
Before Liberty shut her eyes,
and with despairing cries,
fell into freedom’s now-unsafe harbor
words gave us wings to fly
and above all troubles soar.
Now, words shut down
as they are shot down
as all around us words are bound
with hateful cruelty
demanding fealty
to lying thieves
upending beliefs
in a common humanity.
It is sheer insanity
and words fail to do it justice.
Lower courts words fall before SCOTUS’s lust
for false security, the only surety
that this is how nations fall into the dustbin of history.
Words are buried so deep
they too soon fall asleep
to escape the pain of obscurity.
That the people rise
is no surprise.
Whose words will act as guide
to peaceful resolution
and a safe conclusion
to those shoveling dirt into our eyes
and blinding us to truths that must not subside
into a deep sleep
to avoid seeing those who weep?
Who will speak now?
Is anyone still awake, still woke?
FIGHTING WORDS
Poetry has fled.
Art hides in plain sight
behind clouds of flame,
beyond winds of change,
before plutocrats take the stage,
no longer waiting behind the scenes
which hide their rage.
Words have lost all meaning
when facts go unchecked
flung too fast to sustain truth
and belief in its power to right wrongs
for the weak and the poor,
tossed aside by courts which cower
fearing loss of wealth and power.
Which words are safe when lies procure
the party in power’s silent vote to score
total control of each life, each thought,
each breath threatened by dirty schemes
to pollute the earth, water and air?
Words cannot be spoken, claimed by death
of the rule of law.
No words exist to describe the depravity
some of us saw
as our words lay dying
first inside
then outside
where meaning can be lost.
Words remain frozen in heavy frost,
weighed down by cold hearts
and dead souls
seeking total control.
Freedom resides in words
which too often remain unsaid.
Words too softly spoken to wake
those asleep, escaping, all hopes dead.
Too few words of truth must compete
with an onslaught of unchecked lies.
I listen and watch, lost in thought.
I write and I plead against what we have wrought.
Poetry, I fear, carries too-little weight.
Poetry, perhaps, has waited too late
to escape the threat when so many lies
have buried the truth for power and greed.
Money has always been the creed
clothed in religion and faith
which grants God’s grace
to those who deserve to see His face
on dollar bills and hung on towers.
False gods seek our praise as they devour
a country whose best citizens
refuse to use their power to remain free,
and would rather lose their democracy.
Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS
MERRY CHRISTMAS 2024
Hope is the deep breath needed to sing Carols
heralding Jesus’ birth.
Hope is the breath first breathed into all living things.
Hope is the breath that softens
the hard contours of defended hearts.
Hope is the breath that soothes
the rough edges of fearful minds.
Hope is the breath that animates
the graceful move to gift our very selves.
Hope is the breath that lifts
the blindness of hateful eyes heavenward.
Hope is the breath that challenges
the world to dream of peaceful, new beginnings.
Hope is the breath that stores
the strength needed for moments when courage is needed.
Hope is the breath that brightens and enlightens
the darkness within each breathless soul.
Christmas is a time for deep breaths filled
with hope to face another moment, day, month, year.
Keep breathing is all that is required to fill
the world with Hope.
Each breath keeps Hope alive.
Merry Christmas with every breath taken
deeper in every way, every day
during the Jubilee Year of Hope.
Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY
POETRY FUN
I cannot wait to write a poem.
Let thoughts begin to roam
across the blank spaces
where I see only faint traces.
Whatever lurks beneath the surface
is always a surprising surfeit
of what has passed and is to become
a new creation time rolled into one.
Nothing it seems is ever lost.
Experience is the cost
of facing new challenges sent
across the waves of time unbent.
Around and round again I go.
Where I shall end up I never know.
And where I have been becomes new.
And where I go is merely a clue.
When I arrive I shall share with you
the route I took to be renewed.
I hope you will join me on the route.
That is what companionship is all about.
Knowing I shall return at the end of the journey
to your company holds me firmly
upright and focused with eyes wide open
to the beauty of words never-before spoken.
I play today to remind myself in this space
that there is always a time and place
to relax and let go, and just have fun;
to remind myself, I have just begun.
Filed under POETRY
SPRING WILL COME AGAIN
It has always been
understood and too often
forgotten. Spring comes.
CIVILITY
Civility is not servility.
Civility ends when aggression begins.
Civility ends when sexism begins.
Civility ends when racism begins.
Civility has no place
when legislation threatens harm.
Civility has no place
when incitement threatens harm.
Civility has no place
when lawlessness threatens harm.
Civility has no place
when disinformation and lies threaten harm.
Servility cannot become an excuse for civility.
Are we to be lead by uncivil hate and greed?
And should we then be civil and agree to bend a knee?
Servility must never be mistaken for civility.
Civility must not become servility.
No bending knees before hate and greed.
No bending knees at the death of democracy.
No bending knees at any man above the law.
No bending knees at freedom’s last straw.
No servility for me.
I resist any suggestion to show civility
to those insisting upon my servility.
annarino writes 
DECONSTRUCTION
The streets were lined for blocks on end.
Signs reminded all who rejoiced to attend
Why they walked and talked and smiled and waved
At passing cars who braved delays
While drivers honked horns and shouted out
“Vote him out and make it a rout!”
Costumed critters danced to our delight
Knowing their freedom would give him a fright.
Deconstruct the lies we have been told.
Deconstruct the narrative being sold.
Deconstruct the bullie’s hold.
Deconstruct institutional mold.
Gather in peace the young and the old.
Stronger are you, more wise, more bold.
Deconstruct so we can rebuild
What he has destroyed with his minions’ lack of skill.
We know how to do this, and more.
We have done it many times before.
My thanks to my friends in Clintonville area of Columbus who helped me attend this moment of patriots’ challenge to the con men robbing the USA of its power, wealth, ideals and humanity. The lack of media coverage was appalling. The misrepresentation of attendance numbers cannot be challenged when media fails to provide images of the gatherings. A local station covered it AFTER it was over and crowds had dispersed. Another stated hundreds attended when it was actually thousands. We are here. We are resisting. We are going nowhere until the despotism and kidnapping of people and the Supreme Court, universities, news organizations, social media outlets, medical and public health Institutions… even our very language and the meaning of words and phrases has been brought to an end and freedom restored.
We shall not be silenced.
Leave a comment
Filed under COMMENTARY, POETRY, POLITICS
Tagged as activism, American democracy, American History, animals, anxiety, authoritarians, AUTOCRATS, Bill of rights, bullies, citizens united, civil rights, climate change, community, congress, corruption, courts, creativity, DEATH OF DEMOCRACY, democracy, discrimination, disinformation, diversity, DOJ, economics, economy, education, election, elections, environment, fascism, FBI, free speech, freedom, global warming, government, grassroots organizing, greed, gun control, gun regulation, health, health care, history, human rights, HYPOCRISY, immigrants, immigration, insurrection, isolation, J.D.Vance, journalism, judges, justice, laughter, law, leadership, LGBT, lies, light, MAGA, media, mental-health, middle class, misogyny, money, national security, news, news media, No Kings, NOEM, Ohio, Ohio politics, oligarchs, pandemic, patriotism, peaceful protest, photography, poetry, poets, political propaganda, politics, power, Project 2025, propaganda, protest, racism, republican leadership, Republican Party, resilience, resistance, resistance movement, rule of law, security, silence, social media, Supreme Court, teenagers, trump, Trump administration, truth, U.S. Supreme Court, Us Constitution, VOTE, voter suppression, voters, voting, voting rights, white supremacy, woke, women's health care, workers, youth