In the hundreds of thousands of words that have been written about the impeachment of Donald Trump, there is a singular omission: the word “corruption.” Maybe it does appear in places. I certainly have read only a minute fraction of everything that has been written, but the focus has been almost entirely on what is impeachable. Merriam-Webster defines corruption in several ways: 1a : dishonest or illegal behavior especially by powerful people (such as government officials or police officers) : depravity 1b : inducement to wrong by improper or unlawful means (such as bribery) //the corruption of government officials 1c… Read More
Continue ReadingAnother Poem
I am finding poetry much better at depicting the craziness of these times. I would love your comments. Bang Bang You’re Dead There’s a gaping hole in America’s heart. The bullets of racism have torn it apart. Shots from aimless guns—a profanity— Are blindly killing dreams and humanity. Anger and intolerance expose the lies Of our mythic exceptionalism. Better cries That we are all too human—selfish, corrupt. Our President is at center stage, acting out Our nation’s unwritten play, telling us who We really are. It’s not me, I say, I care, But if I really cared and lived it,… Read More
Continue ReadingRead This Aloud
I know I am in the same boat with many of you. It helped me to find expression in poetry. You can fill the word in ****. Pissing in the Wind John Ehrenfeld That is how I feel today; The angst just won’t go away. This political season Defies all rhyme or reason. Can the country’s center hold Against a party so bold And completely corrupted, When a death interrupted A most fraught situation, That threatens our dear Nation And shows the venality And crooked mentality Of the Senate majority Serving a minority Of the whole population? It has led… Read More
Continue ReadingA Flickering Candle
Poetry seems more appropriate than prose these days. A Flickering Candle Politics has replaced reality; Politicians live in another world. Their talk is the height of banality; The proud banner of truth tightly furled. There is something rotten in the Senate Because its leader demands obeisance. His lackeys need to be given the gate Or, even better, charged with malfeasance. What’s the point of demanding such power When their false promises never come true And all their vile schemes can naught but turn sour. There has to be something that we can do. The people, said the Founders, have the… Read More
Continue ReadingLife and Liberty in the Balance
The President’s recent approbation of those who would protest against the orders to practice social distancing ignores both common sense and the essence of libertarianism. Whether either of these parties are aware or not, the conservative idea of individual liberty arises from the seminal essay, On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill. He is very clear about its limits in this key section of the essay. This comes at a place in his essay following the enumeration of what constitutes individual liberty. What I contend for is, that the inconveniences which are strictly inseparable from the unfavourable judgment of others, are… Read More
Continue ReadingThe Coward Who Would Be King
Once again, Trump has shown his true colors, dispatching the intelligence inspector general in the middle of the night. If it were not for the Congressional protocol for firing an inspector general, Michael Atkinson would, like others cast off by Trump, learned about his fate through Twitter. In his case, the news came via a late-night letter to the intelligence committees of both houses of Congress as required by law. His firing comes on the heels of the removal of Captain Crozier, the commander of the aircraft carrier, USS Theodore Roosevelt, on the basis that a letter he wrote complaining… Read More
Continue ReadingA Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste.
Not since WWII has there been such an opportunity for self-examination and behavioral change. The COVID-19 pandemic poses the same unsettling force to societies around the Globe, with one big difference, the enemy is not some other nation, but an invisible, still mysterious force. If the US is an example of what is being done in other nations, the immediate responses have been to isolate individuals to slow down the spread of the virus and pump money into the economy to soften the blow, caused by the first step. As I write this, the number of cases of COVID-19… Read More
Continue ReadingAn Old Poet’s Warning
I have been writing poetry for a while. I put something on my blog earlier this month. A number of the poems have a political theme and won’t stand the test of time or literary chops, so I might as well expose them now. I will be adding more from time to time. Here’s a sonnet, written about a year ago. An Old Poet’s Warning “The centre cannot hold”–Yeats’s sharp line Seems to be on the verge of coming true. His “second coming” is blocking my view And I feel shivers moving up my spine. His slouching “rough beast” has… Read More
Continue ReadingMy Safety Valve
I think I may have posted a few of my poems on this blog before. I have been writing poetry fairly seriously for the last couple of years. Mostly sonnets, but a few old-fashioned, structured poems like villanelles, sestinas, and pantoums. Here is a villanelle I wrote around Election Day, 2018. I find writing verse is a good way to relieve the tightness that I find pervades every part of me these days. Villanelles repeat the 1st and 3rd lines of the first stanza in an ordered way through the rest of the poem. Where I stand on the political… Read More
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