WE THE PEOPLE …

Our America’s Real Project for 2025 … Making Good Trouble !

As the first 100 days of a presidency bought by a ketamine-fueled billionaire approach their end, it becomes increasingly obvious, even to those so desperate to believe his lies that they voted for him, our nation’s governing body is in need of a good scrub.

Our less-than-perfect efficiency that nevertheless provided care for our Elders, Vets, and America’s Most Vulnerable Citizens and Non-Citizens alike, is what needs to be restored, not tax cuts for the already super rich.  It’s time to replace the drunk-on-the-job Secretary who holds the keys to global disaster, as well as the beloved Speaker who, while he did a great job “back in the day,” has so far failed to recognize the New Day that is upon us and the kind of energy it’s going to take to hang on to our Democracy. Remember when we had a real Department of Health & Human Services? Remember when we had a Secretary of Education who knew the difference between AI & A1, an Attorney General and a Secretary of State who understood the purpose of their jobs? Remember this from my October 29^th post ??   

Let’s take a minute out of this busy month to honor & celebrate “Good Trouble” by giving a big shout out to some of our good troublemakers, starting with Senator Cory Booker. WOW!  Then there are the Voters of Wisconsin, the intergenerational team of Bernie & AOC, Harvard University & the good people of Cambridge who showed up by the hundreds to ‘encourage’ the administration to do the right thing, and even the Supreme Court with its unanimous verdict about the Law (yes Law, not Foreign Policy). And then there’s us … you and you and you with your writer’s cramp from all those postcards, sore feet from showing up and marching, to say nothing of what we used to call ‘telephone ear’ from all those calls, making sure your voice got heard.  YAY!!

And Here We Are  … already past the middle of National Poetry Month with poems to write, art & music to make, songs to sing and birthdays to celebrate. “We will not march back to what was but move to what shall be, a country that is bruised but whole, benevolent but bold, fierce and free, we will not be turned around or interrupted by intimidation because we know our inaction and inertia will be the inheritance of the next generation, our blunders become their burden.” These words are from “The Hill We Climb” by America’s youngest inaugural poet, Amanda Gorman, spoken at the 2020 inauguration of (hopefully not) the last real President of the United States of America.

But now, let’s poeticize the day that brought millions to the streets, with this from Lynn Unger.

APRIL 5

I don’t know how this all turns out,
and neither do you,
but I have to confess it doesn’t look good.
I wish we were headed
for a picnic, for a waltz in the park.
I wish we were not ruled by broken men
who want to damage everything
that they cannot possess.  I wish
I could tell you what we do now.

The street is littered with the petals
of cherries that bloomed before
the big wind came. Tonight
there will be frost, and tender buds
will burn. But still, the woods
are unfolding into green,
and just outside my door some frog
is bellowing for all he’s worth.
Who knows what happens next?

All I can tell you is that fields
Are ablaze with dandelions
Who have never known
The meaning of defeat.  

As usual, there is SO MUCH to say, to see, to consider, to question. How to choose? Here’s some of what’s on my list.

I’ve always known that my April birthday plunked me down in the midst of some very smart & creative company, like Carol Burnett & Maya Angelou, Carolyn Forche & Annie Dillard, Harper Lee, William Shakespeare & Ted Kooser, as well as two U.S. Presidents, Thomas Jefferson & James Monroe.  I didn’t know until just this year that David Hogg, one of my favorite young men whose work I support and admire shared my birthday month.  As a survivor of the Valentines Day 2018 Parkland School Shooting, David has made gun control and now Leaders We Deserve the organizing principle of his young life. I say keep an eye on this one. What a great GenZ representative he is.  Happy Birthday, David!

And Happy Birthday to Barbara Kingsolver, multi-talented writer of not only prize-winning novels like The Poisonwood Bible, Demon Copperhead, and The LaCuna, but essay collections, High Tide in Tucson & Small Wonder, and an amazing poetry anthology titled Another America.  Here’s a beautiful piece, “Ordinary Miracle.” If nothing else, be sure to read the last three lines.

Ordinary Miracle

I have mourned lost days
When I accomplished nothing of importance.
But not lately.
Lately under the lunar tide
Of a woman’s ocean, I work
My own sea-change:
Turning grains of sand to human eyes.
I daydream after breakfast
While the spirit of egg and toast
Knits together a length of bone
As fine as a wheatstalk.
Later, as I postpone weeding the garden
I will make two hands
That may tend a hundred gardens.

I need ten full moons exactly
For keeping the animal promise.
I offer myself up: unsaintly, but
Transmuted anyway
By the most ordinary miracle.
I am nothing in this world beyond the things one woman does.
But here are eyes that once were pearls.
And here is a second chance where there was none.

As has been my habit this past decade, I’ve been celebrating my own upcoming birthday for the entire month, even going so far as to open the gift my sister sent early. As I said in my thank you note, “At this age, one doesn’t even buy unripe bananas.”  Her gift was perfect … a framed copy of that famous quote from Eleanor Roosevelt: Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History.  Thank you, Nancy!

Oh Yes, one more thing. Part of my self-celebration actually started on March 28^th when I was privileged to be the featured guest on Portland Community Radio’s (KBOO) show, “Once Upon a Time;” a twice-monthly conversation with writers and artists, hosted by Consuelo. We had a lovely hour together mostly focused on my memoir, Arms Filled With Bittersweet, where I got to share some of my favorite poems and prose vignettes and respond to callers with questions and comments.  And then I was invited to return for an Encore on April 11th !!  I felt so honored. If you’re interested in listening to one or both broadcasts, you can access them here.  And if you do, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Not too long ago, I encouraged you to check into “Finding Steady Ground” and said that if you became a subscriber, as I had, you would receive creative advice for self-care to help get us through what many are finding to be very very very tough times.  I especially related to these from last week and just wanted to pass them on.

The possibilities are endless about how you can create.  Make food, write a poem, organize a party, take a sketch book on a walk, mend a shirt or a chair, set up a jam session, plant lettuce, knit a hat, paint the bathroom, pick up a game of ball, do a stand-up routine, mess around with wood, clay, beads, fabric, paper.

Whatever you do, let it remind you that we are actors in our own lives. As we see ourselves as actors in our own lives, it’s easier to remember that we can be actors in the larger scene.

But mostly, do it because it’s fun, and it’s human, and it’s the way we were meant to be.

In this time of deep division and ‘taking sides’, we find that the religious High Holidays of Easter & Passover have overlapped. Interesting, you say?  Coincidence?  Hmmn.  I’ve been thinking a lot about it and offer two scenarios. Whether you give them your consideration is not up to me and if you do give them your consideration, your conclusions are, of course, your own.  I’m going to link you here to the 26^th Avenue Poet’s post of two stained glass poems about The Cross, but what I’m hoping is that you will read the full narrative that follows them, in which Elizabeth says things like …

The story of the cross means as much to me as it ever did; more, the longer I live and pray. The symbol of the cross? The one at the top of the church spire, behind the altar, hanging from a pretty chain around someone’s neck, tastefully depicted in stained glass? That, I’ve realized recently, I can do without. The longer I’ve lived with the story of the cross, the more the symbol of the cross has become, for me, a symbol of Empire  …  quick to identify and co-opt powerful symbols for its own purposes. Meanwhile Love keeps showing up in the streets  … to find us where we’re hiding, dazed with grief and fear, and tell us that the story isn’t over, that it’s time to get up and do some more dancing.

The Second Scenario has two parts. The first is this Substack post from Rabbi Sandra Lawson. And the second is this image accompanying the Truthout article you can read here.

While so much is happening so fast everywhere all at once, remember the 26th Avenue Poet reminder that  Love keeps showing up in the streets  … to find us where we’re hiding, dazed with grief and fear, and tell us that the story isn’t over, that it’s time to get up and do some more dancing.

And who better to show us how it’s done than this dear young man named Matt, who only knows one dance and takes it all around the world!

In her poem, “Good Bones”, Maggie Smith reminds us one more time … You could make this place beautiful.  I say, let’s do it together.  Read a poem. Write a poem. Sing a song. Dance as if no one is watching. Love & Love some more.

Until next time,
Sulima