Category Archives: Social Issues

November 29, 2017

Women Scorned

By Kat Myrman


‘Why, what could she have done, being what she is?
Was there another Troy for her to burn?’
—W.B. Yeats

Women Scorned

From the shadows, secrets silenced
by violence
with no amends
from vile men,

women have found their voice to tell
tales of hell
and finally
the world sees

that they refuse to be ashamed,
they’re naming names,
they will be heard!
Let truth emerge!

~kat

A Minute Poem for Jane Dougherty’s A Month With Yeats: Day Twenty-Nine.

Today’s verse is from Yeats’ Poem, ‘No Second Troy’.

13 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Minute Poem, Poetry, Social Issues

November 19, 2017

Praying…Not Praying

By Kat Myrman

‘We who still labour by the cromlech on the shore,
The grey cairn on the hill, when day sinks drowned in dew,
Being weary of the world’s empires, bow down to you,
Master of the still stars and of the flaming door.’—W.B. Yeats

Praying…Not Praying

Those of us who have lost hope in praying,
pray that there is a special place in hell
for those self-righteous zealots in churches
defending vile monsters high on the hill.
Piously waving tomes filled with fables,
quoting their misplaced contextual creeds,
heaping full judgment on anyone other,
claiming compassion while lowly hearts bleed.
Surely a just god would be disgusted
by vacuous souls who claim him by name,
who pour salt on wounds; hang with abusers,
no tinge of conviction, remorse or shame.
If you are listening god, if you’re out there,
isn’t it time for your rapturous sweep?
Call forth your faithless; send them wherever.
If they’re not here we might actually know peace.

~kat

Another verse From ‘The Valley of the Black Pig’ for Jane Dougherty’s ‘A Month with Yeats – Day Nineteen’ poetry challenge. And it’s those pigs again! My poetry as a result, of late, seems more like rants. But I do find them cathartic. Living in this alternate reality is not for the faint of heart! Peace!

12 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues

November 18, 2017

Valley of Forgotten Souls

By Kat Myrman

Valley of Forgotten Souls

They hide inside layers of second hand clothes,
loudly conversing with monsters and demons,
roaming the streets, their treasure in buggies,
nightmares in flesh, they come out every evening.
Calamity haunts them wherever they travel.
Long since abandoned, no family or kin.
Begging for pennies with no place to call home.
Survival’s a game that so few of them win.
Outcast, these destitute vagabonds rally,
warming their hands at makeshift barrel fires,
bedding down in dark alleys; shelters of cardboard,
no dreams of a future where they can retire.
Where is the hope for these life-burdened souls?
Untreated insanity rattles their brains.
Could they be angels, to test our compassion,
or are they just people with forgotten names?

~kat

Almost didn’t make it in time for this week’s MindLoveMisery’sMenagerie Sunday Writing Prompt. But an encounter with a homeless man, screaming obscenities as he shuffled behind a shopping cart loaded with refuse and cardboard, gave me my heartbreaking inspiration. The prompt was to choose a title to write about. I chose “Valley of Forgotten Souls”. The photo is by Miriam’s-Fotos at Pixabay.com

7 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Poetry, Social Issues

November 18, 2017

Of Flying Pigs and Truffles

By Kat Myrman

From “Valley of the Black Pig”…

‘The dews drop slowly and dreams gather;’ —W.B. Yeats

Of Flying Pigs and Truffles

Those pigs! They are flying…fleeing in droves,
exposed by the truffles they guzzled with glee,
their gluttonous bingeing, now everyone knows.
Soon they will pay for their vile thievery.
Those truffles! So rare…such delicacies.
They should be savored by pallets discerning,
their place on the plate given prominency,
respected and honored in delicate servings.
It’s been quite the scandal, this wild exposé.
The talk of the barnyard, in locker room speak.
Oh, those pig’s days are numbered, not sorry to say,
and to truffles uprising, the victory tastes sweet.

~kat

Inspired by the news of the day, the slow dripping drop of the dews and the title of the Yeats poem, for Jane Dougherty’s ‘A Month with Yeats’ – Day Eighteen Poetry Challenge.

12 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Digital Art & Photos, Humor, Poetry, Social Issues

November 16, 2017

R.E.S.P.E.C.T.

By Kat Myrman

0325_suffrage_cog-1000x547.jpg

‘Do you not hear me calling, white deer with no horns?’—W.B. Yeats

 

sickening the surreptitious poison
seething decades long, progress regressed
strides reversed, equality is frozen
by patriarchal fools who ‘know what’s best’
deafened to the earnest accusations
of innocents so easily oppressed
gather they, in secret consultation
seeking to exploit, for gain, the nation

slowly voices from the ash, defiant,
demanding recompense, proclaim, ‘me too’
legion, they are over being silenced
willing to face demons, armed with truth
exposing vile molesters, cads and tyrants
and they’re not backing down, this is a coup
apathy is never a solution
stir the masses, join the revolution

~kat

A two-octive Ottava Rima poem (abababcc, dededeff – Each line is of a 10 or 11 syllable count) for Jane Dougherty’s ‘A Month with Yeats – Day 16‘ poetry challenge based on the verse above from Yeats’ poem ‘He Mourns for the Change That Has Come Upon Him and Longs for the End of the World’

14 Comments   |  tags: , , , , | posted in Challenges and Writing Prompts, Ottava Rima, Poetry, Random Thoughts and Musings, Social Issues