Social realities impinge, demanding attention and response.Communities in which we are embedded, constituting our wider identity, cry for conscious participation, sometimes for outrage.
The poems that follow address some of these impinging realities. Written mostly in the 1980s and 1990s, they reflect personal values formed in the 1940s and 1950s and a consciousness transformed in the 1960s and 1970s. Some contain singing praise, others stinging critique. That they are unabashedly liberal in a day when the "L" word is a political liability may dissuade some from reading further. So be it. Perhaps as many others will be heartened to be reminded that the flame for justice still burns.
(from the Preface to Aging Liberal Nostalgic)
Capacities for Both Lie Within.
Remembering the Civil Rights movement elates:
bus boycott,
sit-ins,
freedom rides,
voter registration,
heroism of vision, compassion and courage.
Remembering the Civil Rights movement crushes:
ribs crushed,
children cursed,
hoses and dogs brutalizing,
murders by bombs, bullets or beating,
Nazi savagery.
Capacities for both lie within.
When Warrior Mentality Prevails
You have to be impressed with Ollie North--
not only well prepared and coached but articulate, gutsy, shrewd, loyal,
pretty much your ideal Marine.
Add to it patriotic zeal and a touch of emotion at just the right times
and you have a hero in the eyes of millions.
But you have to wonder, too, unless a flag blocks your view,
what if anything this loyal subordinate, obeying orders, wouldn't justify.
When warrior mentality prevails, look for war to follow.
July 1987
Can Any Truly Doubt
Your hard-core homophobes won't be one whit impressed by new research
pointing strongly towards a genetic basis for homosexuality.
"Everybody knows gays are loathesome for offending the Lord and good taste,
for their vile choice of a lifestyle not only repugnant to decent people
but corrosive to society's Christian fabric.
None of this bilge they were born that way--
if we give in on this one where will it end?"
Remembering not only his words but whom he hung with,
can any truly doubt what,Jesus, were he here today, would have to say?
July 1993
The Broader Patriotism
Nationalism can never be final or Earth is in
big trouble.
If my country right or wrong, then blinders
on conscience.
If my country right or wrong, then inevitably
war.
May citizens of the only known living planet
see and fight for the broader patriotism,
love not country less but singular Earth
home more.
July 1987
His Poison Spews On
It's hard knowing how to respond to the vitriolic Rush Limbaugh.
Ignore him, I've been telling myself--who needs contamination from poison?
But all the while I ignore, his poison spews on.
Appealing to the worst human instincts he fosters them,
fans fear,
canonizes bigotry.
Ache for the planet and cry for her healing
and be branded "environmental wacko."
Contend again the dehumanization of women
and with a savage grin be tagged "feminazi."
Had Jesus ignored the Pharisees he might have saved his skin,
but his sense of outrage wouldn't let him.
July 1994
Extraordinarily Feared
Nobody's arguing for abortion--
the arguing's for choice,
for respect for an individual's right, even duty, to
follow her conscience.
Such infuriates anti-abortionists,
yet were not something else going on,
wouldn't it be consistent for those pro-life to be
pacifists against war,
passionate against capital punishment?
According to my impression, they usually are not.
To be selective about sacredness of life hints that
something else, besides consistent adherence
to principle, is going on.
Freedom of choice extraordinarily is feared.
July 1988
Dreaming
I had a dream for OJ
that instead of trying to beat the rap he'd dig deep to find the courage of
humility
to admit what he did and pray to be allowed to live to make a difference.
I have a dream for Bill Clinton
that, acknowledging his out of control behavior, he seek out help like any
must in the grip of an addiction.
even as he stands firm in his job for the sake of the issues he was elected to
fight for.
Let him add humility and truthfulness to his courage of principle and heart of
compassion
and he'll find not only character but give hope to the rest of us
with reasons of our own not to cast stones.
O these poets with their wild naive dreams!
September 1998
Twisted
"They're angry white men, armed to the teeth.
They hate the federal government, worship God,,and
oppose gun control, abortion, taxes and crime.
And they're keeping their gunpowder dry for the day
they'll be called on to save their country."
A blurb in the local paper in the aftermath of Okla-
homa City to send involuntarily another shudder.
Indistinguishable their brand of religion from that of
the Middle East extremists they loathe.
Good God, that Jesus can be twisted to this.
May 1995
J. Carter: Poet
It lifted my spirit.'
There was Jimmy Carter being interviewed on NPR
not only about his international mediations, of late successful in
averting war,
but about his poetry!
Admiring the man deeply already, I was heartened to discover yet
another dimension.
One of the messages, perhaps, is that peacemaker and poet are
