This is what one of the protesters called out during the Senate session in Wisconsin last night, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel online. What eloquence and wisdom, amazing under the pressure of protesting the powers that be. Let the people be heard, and let this wonderful change in our country happen without violence.
Oh, I do hope we can find a way to work together in cooperation and collaboration, with fair wages and salaries, living wages and salaries, health care for all. Why can't we? We've been a proud, industrialized country for years, admired for our freedoms and our working democracy, a haven for so many. Why fall down now into a land of petty mini-tyrants? And greed. Well, alas, we know why. The money and power question always answers itself. It's the "business as usual" answer.
Still, I think we are more creative than that. I think we can find solutions, shift to sustainable living (to use the new jargon), and be proud of ourselves again. It will mean providing and encouraging real education, not teaching to tests. It will mean real American workmanship again, not manufacturing intentionally disposable products. It will mean supporting a real economy, not an economy that depends on endless consumption of intentionally disposable "goods" many of which are bad for us (bad foods, products made with toxic materials, etc.) Sigh...
Now I will stand up in my own field and sing out some good fortune:
--3 poems in the new blossombones, just out--by coincidence, in sparkling white against a black abyss
--2 poems out soon (April) in Right Hand Pointing, a hilarious place to do business
--a poem in the new issue of After Hours
--a poem in the new issue of Ekphrasis (poems about paintings)
--a poem in the new (print) issue of Burnt Bridge
--work forthcoming in Adanna and Poetry East
--work in the anthologies Brute Neighbors (just out) and Solace in So Many Words (soon to be out)
Sometimes I wonder if I am speaking out enough, but I see I have been doing my own proper work and speaking in my quiet but steady voice all along. I hope so.
More from Jonathan Koch Galleries.
Woo Hoo Kathleen! That is quite a line up. Thanks for speaking out in your poems. So glad that they are out in the world.
ReplyDeleteWow, Kathleen; congratulations on your poetry acceptances. Wonderful for you.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!
ReplyDeleteI wish your blog entry today could be heard and heeded by those Wisconsin Republicans, and that the rest of their ilk would follow suit. Who are these people deep down? Well, actually, we know that deep down they're largely frightened little boys. But I wish they — and, for that matter, all of our leaders and "representatives" — had the guts to reveal and articulate for us their true beliefs and visions.
ReplyDelete... And I'm delighted that your voice, Kathyleen, will be heard via so many publications. Contests.
Wow! A great post - and what great recognition of your work! You are an inspiration to me as I wait for responses from some of those very same places -no one can hear you if you don't put forth your words.
ReplyDeleteUm, WOW!! Congratulations on all this good news. You are so deserving!
ReplyDeleteThanks for these kind words and good wishes. I hope poetry does matter. I think it does. I know it does its good over time, because I continue to turn to poetry as a way of being human.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the publications! I am going over to BBones soon to read up.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if the downward spiral is reversible. Even with a supposedly socialist president (cough!), the greed still seems to be winning out. just another pessimist....
Yes, my pessimism is exactly balanced by my...wishful thinking. Just as my idealism is always balanced by my cynicism. I've been alive too long. Fortunately, my second childhood is on its way.
ReplyDeleteYowsa Kathleen. A lazy susan of poems out there. Congratulations. Off to fill my plate.
ReplyDeleteGreat solidarity post. If you all thought Thor's Day was rousing, wait till Frigge's Day. The original "She Who Must Be Obeyed."
ReplyDeleteBIG congratulation's on all your poem publications. I don't think any of us can know the worth of what we do. All we can do is follow our best light.
Seana, I was thrilled when I realized a poet I love, Freya Manfred, shares a name with this goddess! Are you going to write about Frigge?!
ReplyDeleteShares a name, or is confused with...I don't know enough about it.
ReplyDeleteWell, I suppose I must, now. Though I'm just about to put up something completely unrelated...
ReplyDeleteI am eager to read anything you write, Seana!
ReplyDelete