Slice of Life – Resisting and Resting

 

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The resistance is happening.

I thought we needed to resist in 2017, but now it’s ever more imperative. On Saturday, I couldn’t believe the visceral reaction I got as I listened to the Republican talking points our representative spouted. We couldn’t help but respond like we did in the video, for he did not have one word to say against the nonsense. Now I have given him complete ownership of beliefs like: “Long Live the King” and “Zelenskyy is a dictator”. I left that meeting feeling like he will not be reelected in ’26. I hope it’s true. Jay Obernolte, one of the richest congress members, has a doctorate in Public Administration and his dissertation was called “”Managing Budgetary Conflict Between the Executive and Legislative Branches of Government.” Important and timely, yes. It seems he may have had something to say, but no. Not.A.Word! He repeated trump lies and gaslighted the audience for an hour.

I wrote this poem today for The Stafford Challenge.

Rejuvenation

What did I do this bright day
when resistance seemed spent
and in vain. I rallied and went
for a bike ride without delay.

“Blinded and corrupt,” I say.
My country’s governing, I lament,
but thoughts to heaven sent
up on the ridge. Fears away.

Resistance is our decree
being human, becoming me
speaking up and out, no curse

The arc will bend, we’ll see
for Justice and Morality will be
our hope, in better and worse

_____________________________

Rhyming words were taken from Gerard Manley Hopkins sonnet, “I wake and feel the fell of dark, not day.”

25 February 2025 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Poetry Friday – The Addams Family and Relief

Poetry Friday is hosted today by talented Laura Purdie Salas and her precious new board books. 

I’ve spent the last two days at the hospital with my husband and niece. My husband’s brother has been admitted with a mild heart attack.

We came this week to visit the family and mostly to watch our great niece play Morticia in The Addams Family musical. Tonight was opening night at her high school.

We were relieved to be here when my brother-in-law had chest pains, and we’re thankful that now he is doing well after an EKG and angiogram with three stints put in. He wasn’t able to watch the play tonight, but he should have a chance to watch another show sometime in the next ten days.

I read a touching poem today on Joseph Fasano’s Instagram site, joseph.fasano. The poem is called “The Race” by Sharon Olds. It is a race for the poet to make it home to say goodbye to her dying father.

Here’s a short section from the middle of the poem:

at the top I saw the corridor,
and then I took a deep breath, I said
goodbye to my body, goodbye to comfort,
I used my legs and heart as if I would
gladly use them up for this,
to touch him again in this life.

Read the rest of “The Race” here.

I’m so thankful that Jim’s heart attack was a mild one, and no one had to rush to say goodbye today.


P.S. I’ll be hosting Poetry Friday next week right here. Next Friday is when you can share your “____ is a Word” poem with the Poetry Pals. Read more about it here and here.

Slice of Life – Protest and Open Write Poems for February

17 February 2025 TwoWritingTeachers.org

Today there were Not My President Day protests all over the country, especially in state capitals. I have hesitated to say “not my president” because on some level I know we have elected a felon for president in this county, but we have not elected the acting president, Elon Musk. For that reason, Not My President Day was a perfect name for the protest. I went with my sister, her granddaughter, and a friend to a protest in Palm Springs, California.

I hope we can continue to #BuildTheResistance and have each protest grow in power and numbers. Read more about 50 protests in 50 states on one day at #50501Movement. There is no way we should find ourselves watching while our democracy is in such great peril.

 

Poetry is a good way to protest, as well. Here are some poems from this month’s Open Write.

February 15, 2025 “Show Your Love” with Donnetta Norris

It’s Black History Month and
here we are in america
aiming to forget all that was,
so our future will be born
ignorant and closer to where
our white ancestors made war,
nurturing the rot that became
our unfolding. No justice, no peace.
Today we rename and
amplify past genocide
and call it patriotism.


Striking line by Nikki Giovanni in “The Great Pax Whitie” “And america was born / Where war became peace / And genocide patriotism”


February 16, 2025 “Hope Lies Within” by Stacey Joy

truth
unarmed–
believe it–
truth unarmed and
unconditioned love
will have the final word.
truth and love stronger than fear.
Yes, in reality, hope will
have the final word. Right stalled today
is stronger than evil’s triumphant gain.


MLK Nobel Prize speech “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”


February 17, 2025 “Healing Hurts” with Britt Decker

A lifetime of sisterhood,
so fragile now in old age
with your inimical, hateful beliefs.

Do you also find my beliefs to be
destructive? Hmm…

Not to the planet,
not to the poor,
not to the cold,
the hungry,
the oppressed,
the marginalized.

Perhaps you are worried
my beliefs will lead to the
destruction of my
chance for eternal reward.

I think I’ll take my chances.


February 18, 2025, “Inhabiting Life More Fully” with Amber

Patriotism
shines through warriors under
Mother’s spacious sky

February 19, 2025 “Characters We Love” with Seana Hurd Wright

Brave and bold
Tenacious and honest
Uncompromisingly courageous
Humble and intelligent
I wish more people were
like Louis the Swan

Poetry Friday – Love Letter

Poetry Friday is full of love at TeacherDance with Linda Baie hosting. 

A happy Valentine’s Day to all!

What would you like to be to love?

“I’d like to be a lemon, to be zest all the time, or an olive tree to shimmer silver on the earth.” ~Nathalie Handal
Read more of Handal’s “Love Letter” here.

Love Letter
After Nathalie Handal

I’d like to be a rain cloud
to burst forth,
refreshing
streams in the desert.

I’d like to be the sand,
porous and strong,
filtering imperfections,
for water pure and soaking,
filling the well of life.

I’d like to be bread
to feed the fragmented
and fragile.

Thank you to all the Poetry Friday friends who sent beautiful postcards!

I’d like to be a snake to transform, renew, and grow.

 

 

Slice of Life – Shower Tiling Finished

10 February 2025 TwoWritingTeachers.org
Removing this 40-year-old tile was a three-day job!
We got the old tile off to this cement and chicken wire base.
The collected palette for the job.
Getting started sticking on the tiles
Lady Liberty holds high her torch, even here.
My sister pieced together this design with the tiles that she had on hand.
My sister Lori is such a hard worker (and an artist)
Grouting in progress.
The grouting is just completed. (The grout will lighten up when it dries.)

A Trinet

Shower remodel
Found tiles
Sourced from ancient yard sale treasures
Piecemealed together with love and abandon
Grandpa’s house
Approaching antiquity
Safeguarding today

Poetry Friday – A Love Letter to 2025

Today is Poetry Friday, and Carol Varsalona is hosting today with a lot of love at her blog, Beyond Literacy Link.

A Love Letter to 2025

Dear 2025,
I don’t want to love you.
After one month, I think
you are worse
than the incompetence
inundation of 2017,
the COVID crisis of 2020,
and the war, family deaths,
and disappointments of 2024.

What good would it do
to love you, 2025,
in your sorry state?
For you have already brought us
an abominable and unelected
South African-born president;
a plan for Gaza to become a resort
for the rich, while displacing
the residents (those who haven’t
already been killed or displaced);
tariffs on, tariffs off;
a new concentration camp
at Guantanamo Bay;
poster boy 1/6 insurrectionists;
rich oligarchs taking over,
and Congress
wringing their hands,
no clue what to do
in the flooded zone,
a muzzle velocity of absurdity.

Now, second thoughts
on that title,
I don’t necessarily
love you, 2025,
but I will choose Love.
I will choose Love.
I will choose Love.
I will choose Love.

It’s a long and winding road
to Liberty and Justice for All

Spiritual Journey Thursday – Doors

One of the interesting old doors in the Manama souq in Bahrain.

Today is Spiritual Journey Thursday, and Bob Hamera is hosting. Bob asked some interesting questions about opening and closing doors. They brought to mind a time 12 years ago when God surprisingly opened a new door. We went to Bahrain to live and work. I taught English to Arabic-speaking children, and my husband was a hospital chaplain. Before moving there, we had never ventured out of North America. We got our first passport the same year we moved there, and I quit my teaching job and committed to move there before we had even visited. God opened the door wide open and confirmed with everything that happened in our lives. How did my life change? I learned so much about the world and the variety of people in this big world of ours. I learned how God works through everyone and every situation. I met amazing people of different religions and different kinds of Christians too. It was transformational living, and we got to do it for eight years.

Lately, there are faith doors closing and new ones opening. Christian Nationalism is a big slamming door as far as I’m concerned. I don’t want anything to do with that faithless “faith.”

I just finished reading How to Fight Racism by Jemar Tisby.  I realized that I have learned Christianity from pastors and books who overtly or inadvertently practiced “theological racism.” Over my lifetime, I have read and heard more from theologians who believed in slavery, like George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards, than from theologians who had been enslaved or were descendents of enslaved people. I can’t even name any Black theologians off the top of my head.

I’m closing the door on faith that would judge Jemar Tisby, as reported in this article: How evangelical Christian writer Jemar Tisby became a radioactive symbol of ‘wokeness’. I am attempting to walk through the Courageous Christianity door that Tisby writes about in How to Fight Racism. I have lots more to learn. He speaks of the ARC of Racial Justice–Awareness, Relationships, and Commitment. I highly recommend his book full of things you can do today to begin to bring about racial justice in your community.

Slice of Life – Give Me Liberty

3 February 2025 TwoWritingTeachers.org

I have been contemplating Liberty for some time now. As I consider the asylum seekers whose appointments have been cancelled and all the good things immigrants bring to our nation, I am painfully concerned. I will keep fighting back with hope and protest and writing emails and making phone calls.

Fear

I ache whenever I see Liberty faltering.
I cringe whenever I hear the fiery blazes.
I grieve whenever I think of tomorrow.
But not today.

Today I will wear my full sunshine
and bask in hope where the yeses are.
Liberty, look at me.
Blazes, hear me.
Tomorrow, think of me.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.


January 11, 2025 – Inspired by Fasano, Joseph. The Magic Words: Simple Poetry Prompts That Unlock the Creativity in Everyone (p. 41). Penguin Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.


Liberty sat on the shelf at Joann's. 80% off in the after Christmas and before tariffs sale. This resin bauble has one of her rays broken off. Of course, she does. That's why I bought her. In memory. To remember. Seven is the perfect number. And Liberty isn't perfect. She's fragile, and oligarchs and idiots can dismantle her in a quick minute, in an unchallenged executive order, in forced togetherness pointing at a contrived enemy. No longer seven spikes on the crown. Who is going to repair her?

Seven
Liberty sat
on the shelf at Joann’s.
80% off in the after
Christmas and
before tariffs sale.
This resin bauble
has one of her rays
broken off. Of course,
she does. That’s why
I bought her.
In memory.
To remember.

Seven is the perfect
number. And Liberty
isn’t perfect. She’s fragile,
and oligarchs and idiots
can dismantle her in a
quick minute, in an
unchallenged
executive order,
in forced unity
pointing at a contrived enemy.

No longer
seven spikes on
the crown.

Who is going to repair her?

February 1, 2025


Dear Libertas,

You’ve been knocking on our door
since long before your arrival.
We haven’t really
answered your call.

It seems these days, we
want the grass to grow
under your feet. Just look
away, we say, don’t mind her.
We’ll ignore you as you wait
at the door.

Resisters, don’t
ignore. Don’t look away.
Don’t let the grass grow
under our feet.
Get to work.
Now is the time
for liberty and justice
for all.

February 2, 2025