Oh, my goodness. Is there any goodness?
With the killing and dying in Israel and Gaza, the House of Representatives in disarray, mass shootings daily and now this horrific one in Maine, and an election-denying radical as the new Speaker of the House. On the other hand, there was a bit of goodness for today–I submitted three poems to Carol L.’s Nature Poetry Anthology, I took a walk around a mountain, and I cleaned my house.
I couldn’t think of anything else to write about for my Inktober “beast” word today than about who was elected in the House. This is a Golden Shovel poem with a striking line from something he said yesterday. “At the end of the day it’s the problem of the human heart, not the weapons…we have to protect the second amendment.”
At the End of the Day,
Mike Johnson, that is B.S. It’s
definitely the
guns that are the problem.
As if people of
other nations don’t have the
same worries of human
mental illness and evil heart
condition. But in the U.S. we cannot
resist using the
war-machine-killing-weapons
we’ve stockpiled. We
must stop. We have
to keep and save humanity, to
lift life and protect.
It is well past time to abolish the
gun-worshiped second
amendment.
Today is Poetry Friday, and I’m late, but I came anyway. Thank you, Carol, for hosting and bringing out the bats!
Your Golden Shovel is golden. It is so true.
Bravo, Denise! The first line of your poem says it all for me. Thank you for calling it out.
A most pertinent subject for your Golden Shovel poem, Denise. I am loathe to start commenting on the gun culture that so blights American society., it could turn into an essay…
It is such a negative example of ‘exceptionalism.’ As for the new speaker- an appalling choice! More power to you though for raising your voice on these critical issues.
I wish it weren’t true. Keep poeming up. We must continue to fight with the power of good.
Way to take his words and turn them back on him! I feel your anger, your despair. I’m inspired by you. Maybe we need to create an entire anthology that takes the words of the right wing wackos and sends them back into the world laced with TRUTH.
His statement doesn’t make sense on the most basic level. If the human heart is the problem, we’d better keep guns away from people with human hearts. Thanks for your truth-telling, Denise. (It’s cool that you took a walk around a mountain!)
I agree, it was a week more fraught with turmoil than the ones before which were bad enough. I read someone’s words that said something like “If you say the problem isn’t with guns, it’s with people, then why give guns to people?” But of course, per this new Speaker, it’s people’s hearts. Thanks for the shout for the need to do something, Denise. It’s terrific that you used his words for a better message!
Your poem speaks such truth. All the suffering is heartbreaking. Thank you for your poem.
Denise, your passionate plea rings so true. The state of our world and esp our nation is horrific. Heartbreaking. I don’t comment often on my blog because it’s my escaping place. But I appreciate sometimes hearing echoes of my own thoughts in others’ posts.
Denise, you have such a range Inktober poems that are all interesting and varied. One in particular made my laugh, October 19th plump. What a hoot of a poem. Thanks for sharing your wealth of poetry and good luck with your submissions.
Denise, Thanks for being so forthright about this. I also think the selection is poor and yes, guns and their accessibility are part of the part if not the problem itself. Beast is an appropriate title. Thanks for sharing it.
Hear Hear! Thanks for putting your words out there Denise!