I’d like to throw a poetical gauntlet down.
People who do stand up to Trump are skewered. One person dismissed John McCain with “Oh well, he’ll be dead soon.”
This is the reason why I wrote
POTUS 45: Concept of Operations . The news outlets are being used to manipulate the narrative(s) in this country rather than informing them of issues that will gravely affect them. I don’t have a big audience (obviously) nor does that poem dazzle (even more obviously), but it was a way for me to plant a flag about something that I observed and wanted to articulate.
Anna Akhmatova wrote in 1961:
No foreign sky protected me,
No stranger’s wing shielded my face.
I stand as witness to the common lot,
Survivor of that time, that place.
I wanted to bear witness to what is happening in my country – even a poem that isn’t that great.
I don’t know if writing a poem will help the situation in the U.S., but I do believe in the power of poetry – and the freedom of speech which I am determined to exercise while I can.
Now for the gauntlet – if you don’t like the situation we’re in, why not write a poem that bears witness to what you see?
I look forward to reading them.