Poetry For Politics: How To Make It Through The Last Week

If you're like me, you've recently found yourself lying awake at night worrying that Reverend Wright might decide it's time to head to Washington to make another speech, that bin Laden might emerge from his cave to announce he has a man-crush on Obama, or that the fate of the free world rests on that two point drop in the latest Gallup Daily poll.

Yes, it's the last two weeks of the '08 election and the robocalls are in full bloom, Joe the Plumber is looking for love, and the Republicans are going down firing at everything that moves. Just this past Thursday, Matt Drudge played up the incredibly dubious mugging of McCain staffer Ashley Todd by a 6'4", black (!!), politically impassioned mugger/expert knife etcher, hoping he might help turn the election by igniting racially-based fears. Then Fox News executive vice president John Moody wrote this:

"This incident could become a watershed event in the 11 days before the election. If Ms. Todd's allegations are proven accurate, some voters may revisit their support for Senator Obama."

I'm sure that makes perfect sense in his racist head. The whole thing, it was revealed Friday, was just some third-rate race baiting by a troubled young woman.

Yes, you'd better get the scotch ready--it's not going to be an easy final week. As Matthew Arnold wrote in "Dover Beach,"

And we are here as on a darkling plain
struck by confused alarms of struggle and fright,
where ignorant armies clash by night

Well one ignorant army, anyway. To help get you through these last nine--I'm guessing increasingly painful--days, I'd offer these poems.

First, here's an excerpt from the revolutionary Percy Bysshe Shelley's classic "Ode to the West Wind." A perfect poem for the Fall, which seeks to remind us that after such dark times comes Spring:

Make me thy lyre, ev'n as the forest is:
What if my leaves are falling like its own!
The tumult of thy mighty harmonies
Will take from both a deep autumnal tone,
Sweet though in sadness. Be thou, Spirit fierce,
My spirit! be thou me, impetuous one!
Drive my dead thoughts over the universe,
Like wither'd leaves, to quicken a new birth;
And, by the incantation of this verse,
Scatter, as from an unextinguish'd hearth
Ashes and sparks, my words among mankind!
Be through my lips to unawaken'd earth
The trumpet of a prophecy! O Wind,
If Winter comes, can Spring be far behind?

And here's the conclusion of Tennyson's "Ulysses," one of the great inspirational poems in the Western canon.

... Come, my friends.
'T is not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down;
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew.
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are,--
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.

If that doesn't get you fired up and ready to go, I don't know what will. Of course, if somehow fear and bigotry win the day, you'd best take your advice from Dorothy Parker's "Resume":

Razors pain you;
Rivers are damp;
Acids stain you;
And drugs cause cramp.
Guns aren't lawful;
Nooses give;
Gas smells awful;
You might as well live.

I guess. On a more serious note, I can't think of a more meaningful poem for this week than "I, Too, Sing America" by Langston Hughes. Born in Joplin, Mississippi in 1902, Hughes knew racism well, and he answered it here with a proud, challenging style that echoes Whitman. It stuns me to think that this was written--that Hughes faced these issues--just over fifty years ago. And it makes me smile to think of what's about to happen now.

I, too, sing America.

I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I'll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody'll dare
Say to me,
"Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

Besides,
They'll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed--

I, too, am America.

He is. And by next Tuesday, I hope, no one will ever be able to dispute that.

Comments

[knowBuddhaU]

Thanks for the Hughes. Whitman is my favorite.

O Brother! My Brother

Washington Poets Association
http://washingtonpoets.org/owas/view.php?a=1116
(First voice: Isis speaks to Osiris; second voice: a caregiver speaks to a retired pilot; third voice: we all speak with One voice; fourth voice: our shared Being aware of our shared Becoming.)

My brother is my God; yes,
My brother is my Husband, too;

My brother is my Pilot,
For whom
I am

Ground c r e w .

My brother is my Pater, He who
Rhymes with Mater in Water;

In sum, O Brother! my Brother! my Brother, He is
Y O U !

O Sister! My Sister

[First voice: Osiris speaks to his beloved Isis; second voice: Luke speaks to his sister, Leia Skywalker; third voice: we all speak with one voice; fourth voice: Being Aware of Becoming.]

My sister is my Goddess;
My sister is my Wife.

My sister is my Princess,
For whom
I bear
ALL STRIFE!

My sister is my
Mother!
Beyond whom

There is no

Other.

In sum, O Sister! my Sister! my Sister is my
L I F E!

dp

[jeniferdaniels]

'Umi Says' - Mos Def

Sometimes I get discouraged
I look around and, things are so weak
People are so weak
Sometimes,
Sometimes I feel like crying
Sometimes my heart gets heavy
Sometimes I just want to leave and fly away [fly fly fly, like a dove]
Sometimes I dont know what to do with myself [ow!]
Passion takes over me
I feel like a man
Going insane
Losing my brain
Trying to maintain
Doing my thang
Hey hey hey hey hey
Put my heart and soul into this yall
I hope you feel me
Where I am, to wherever you are [ha ha ha ha]
Sometimes I dont want to be bothered
Sometimes I just want a quiet life, with
Me and my babies, me and my lady
Sometimes I dont want to get into no war
Sometimes I dont wanna be a soldier
Sometimes I just wanna be a man, but

Umi said shine your light on the world
Shine your light for the world to see
My abi said shine your light on the world
Shine your light for the world to see
My dreamers said shine your light on the world
Shine your light for the world to see
My elders said shine your light on the world [hey hey]
Shine your light for the world to see

[llisa]

I will not play at tug o' war.
I'd rather play at hug o' war,
Where everyone hugs
Instead of tugs,
Where everyone giggles
And rolls on the rug,
Where everyone kisses,
And everyone grins,
And everyone cuddles,
And everyone wins.

Hug 'O War by Shel Silverstein

[obama4prez sb2008]

Thanks so much for that! Gave me a smile for the day.

I spent so many hours with Shel Silverstein books as a kid. Even now I dig them out every now and then. That's one of my all-time favorite poems.

[nton]

Terence Trent D'Arby
From: Vibrator
Resurrection

Have you had your death today
And felt the loneliness of what you can't explain?
Have you had your death today
And resurrected joy from the jaws of pain?

[davidword]

ATTICA
They call me a criminal, put me in prison
Lock me up, throw away the key
I’d rather be free than go on livin’
I know my people will remember me

Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
There’s a million bricks in the Attica jail
Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
Someday soon they’re coming down

They got their gas grenades, they got their rifles
They got their troopers and they got their law
Their guards are hostage but they don’t want’em
Think they can buy a million more

Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
There’s a million bricks in the Attica jail
Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
Someday soon they’re coming down

This guard I guarded guarded me here
Made me live my life in hell
The men he worked for gave the orders
Made us both die in this cell

Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
There’s a million bricks in the Attica jail
Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
Someday soon they’re coming down

They think they won because we died here
They think their guns can beat us down
But they won’t stop our peoples army
Our people’s love will make us strong

Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
There’s a million bricks in the Attica jail
Ten thousand bars in the Attica prison
Someday soon they’re coming down
Someday soon they’re coming down
Someday soon they’re coming down

[Berkana]

"Fooled me, can't get fooled again"
(I wrote this a couple of weeks ago.)

An arrow dipped in ink now flies
and to its target swiftly glides
to strike upon its target true
and drive in deep a point of view;
indeed the call to aim and shoot
to lift an ax and strike the root
is given now to all who care
about the way this country fares
to not sit still while folly grows
to what horrors, no one knows.
Speak ye loudly, speak ye swift
leverage every single gift,
give and give until it pains
for naught are all our little gains
if once again we blink and fall
and have a fool command us all;
A not-so-wise man did misquote,
"Fool me once, 'tis shame on you,
fooled me, can't get fooled again"
yet foolishly did many vote
and thus his saying's shown untrue
for legion are the twice-fooled men.

[Nommo]

Margaret Walker's "October Journey"

[RGuillory]

Wonderful! I am inspired and comforted--and will pass your post along. Thank you.

[lily31]

Poetry and Music will see us through this storm and lead us into the sunshine.

A few moments ago I enjoyed the children's choir and "Change my World" ~ now the poetry. I'm ready for the week ahead!!