Poem: Respect for the River

Respect for the River

While the river looks rough

From the hills up above

When you are in it stuff 

Seems to give way to love

Of the rush and roaring,

The rapids engulf you

In the whiteness rushing

Throwing the boat into

Disarray, perhaps turning

It over and your life

Jacket keeps you floating

Amidst the turmoil’s strife.

Yes, it’s that rush, the fear

You might drown in the waves

But your hope in life here

In your body makes you brave.

And I love the water,

I love it so, but know

When seeing daughters 

And sons drown, it deserves

Respect for its steady flow 

That rushes until I can

Only feel this majestic

Beautiful wave caress me.

May 2023

 About This Poem:

The Salmon River is just a part of me and I love it. This poem is about that and my knowledge that people constantly die in it because they don't fully respect it, often out of a lack of understanding. It's a dangerous river because of its depth, its current, and its deceivingly calm spots. People who aren't familiar with that don't get it and people who are familiar with it sometimes, at their peril, test it.

249. American Activism

American Activism

I have had over a year to think about another thing that I love about America and it hit me that I really like how American people don’t just put up with things they disagree with. Henry David Thoreau refused to pay his taxes (no withholding from paychecks in the 19th century) and spent a night in jail because he objected to being complicit in paying for the Mexican American was with which he disagreed. Rosa Parks just got sick and tired of sitting in the back of the bus while paying the same fare. Martin Luther King, Jr. led protests and was often thrown into prison for civil rights for Black Americans.

While Americans often avoid politics and stay pretty mute about it, seeming to be disengaged, they organize and join protests and rallies frequently when their elected officials don’t listen to them at all, claiming mandates merely by being elected. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s is a great example, but I think we’re living in another turbulent era when Americans are again speaking out in ways other than voting.

Some of my friends and I gather regularly to organize and write letters encouraging our elected representatives to listen to us. While that has some success, many of us have gone to protests, stood outside in the cold encouraging people to vote, or sign petitions to raise our concerns on the ballot for people to have their say with the vote. Like I said, our success varies but it feels good to be with others who demand that their voices are not ignored. This is something that I love about Americans: we are activists.

 

Poem: Who Doesn't Know the Shame?

Who Doesn’t Know the Shame?

Who doesn’t know the shame

That others place upon your name

For being something they assume,

Heaping upon you all their gloom?

It may be ‘cause of your skin’s hue

Or because of your accents clue

Of where you come, lands they’d undone

In spite from a king’s sense of fun.

It’s un American to think

One’s better because of some rank

Made up by finances from poor

Who found thieves ransacking their door.

But we Americans seldom

Care that here we’re not a kingdom

For we have fallen for masters

Tearing us from our own lords.

Who doesn’t know that shame

Others have placed on your name

For being something they assume,

Heaping upon you their own gloom.

May 2023

About This Poem:

This is a poem about feeling misunderstood, something that has happened to all of us. I think two things can come of being misunderstood: 1) you resent others for not understanding you; 2) you begin to understand others feeling out of place because you have been there. This poem aims at that second feeling: empathy. The photo is just a selfie gone bad, but I kept it and now I know why. :)