we are so easily charmed
by the sound of our own
voices, that listening has
become a lost art
~kat
Magnetic Poetry Love Kit
Category Archives: Social Issues
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -13 August 2017
The heavens are convulsing this month with lunar eclipses, meteor showers, solar eclipses and retrograde mercurial planets. Is it any wonder we’re going mad down here? But don’t blame the heavens or the gods for what is happening. We can’t keep pointing fingers at others saying, “There! They are the reason why our lives are a mess, not working, or unhappy…fill in the blank…the reasons are many.
It’s time my friends to look in the mirror and decide on which side of fault line you will stand. There is no middle. The middle is an abyss. And the the choice is easier than you think. A few questions to help you along…
Love? or Hate?
Truth? or Lies?
Open? or Closed?
Fear? or Faith?
Apathy? or Empathy?
Ignorance? or Knowledge?
Judgment? or Mercy?
Compassion? or Indifference?
Doors? or Walls?
Black Lives Matter? or All Lives Matter? (…this is not a trick question…)
Love is Love is Love? Or Love is…except for…?
I could go on, but I’m going to stop right here. I believe most of us want to believe we’re doing the right thing. We want to believe we’re good. Contrary to popular, feel good, “we’re all entitled to our own opinion” sensibilities, there is a right and a wrong answer. Of course we would choose the right answer…the right words. But what do our actions say?
I’m not judging. I wrestle everyday with these questions. I fall short. But I would like to declare a do-over for us all. Slate clean. It’s not too late.
What will I do when called to take a stand? What do I do when no one is looking? Can I look in the mirror without wincing? Because at the end of the day that is what matters. At the end of the day we need each other and we’re counting on us to do the right thing; the thing that is good and true and just.
Blessings and grace, love and healing to you this week. Clean slate. Let’s do this! ❤️
Shi Sai Sunday’s Week in ReVerse -13 August 2017
moll with painted crimson lips
feel the blue
but the virus was resistant
for the costly price of love
evanescence gone
no means no, you know
I could tell you things…
she appears as an angel
come out from the nimbus mist
there is no normal
dull, entranced faces
our dreams bittersweet
prayers for our fractured nation
their magnificent innocence…fades far too quickly, like echoes of laughter in the distance.
~kat
A shi sai or ReVerse poem is a summary poem with a single line lifted from each entry of a collection of work over a particular timeframe and re-penned in chronological order as a new poem. Unlike a collaborative poem, the shi sai features the words of one writer, providing a glimpse into their thoughts over time. I use it as a review of the previous week.
Stop…a Haiku
no means no, you know
just as stop means stop…stop…STOP
not maybe okay
~kat
For Haiku Horizons Haiku Challenge, prompt word, Stop.
Legacy
Legacy
Since moving from the Midwest to the South some 30 years ago, I have become keenly aware of class and rank and, I’m just going to say it, blatant racism in the United States of America. It is as thick as the honey dripping from a southern belle’s lips when she coos, “bless their hearts.” I was shocked to learn that the southern-born locals, especially here in Virginia “Where the Nation Reunited”, yearn to have one last (un)Civil battle to set things right…the way things shoulda’ been…the way things always had a’ been before the War of Northern Aggression took away their right to own people, and later dared to demand that they allow their lily-white, privileged, progeny attend school with the coloreds. I know my words sound harsh. I mean for them to sound that way. It was a culture shock to me back then, just as the current state of unrest in this country is a shock to some folks now.
Fast forward to the 21st century and it’s plain to see that the bitter divisions we are suffering are nothing new. None of us should be surprised by the ugliness that has been unearthed by this latest battle of Conservatives versus Liberals.
I listen to pundits on tv who wonder how long it will take to undo the damage done in less than a year by politicians who seek to destroy government on the backs of the middle class and the poor, while lining the pockets of the rich, and their own. I’ve thought about it and I don’t expect us to recover anytime soon. In fact, the way I see it, this was just a relapse. Eventually we may slip into remission; the ugly underbelly of our worst devils may crawl back under their rocks. It’s been a sickness raging just under our skin for several centuries now.
And make no mistake, here in the South the Rebs are in no hurry to stop this train. They finally have a hero who talks like they think; mean and spiteful and hateful. With rebel flags flapping in the wind they’re locked and loaded and ready for that do-over to set things right. Those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it…and repeat it.
i wasn’t prepared
for the venomous rancor,
lines drawn in concrete,
pompous trumpeter swagger,
all civility be damned
i wasn’t prepared
for the costly price of love;
humanity’s end
~kat
For Colleen Chesebro’s Weekly Poetry Tuesday Challenge, a Haibun/Tanka/Haiku prompted by the words Hate and Pride.
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