(Artwork: A Child's Nightmares in Gaza) We are in a time when we are charged with the task of resisting racism and injustice of all kinds. Before we can do that effectively, we need to better understand what it feels like to be over-policed, discriminated against, subjected to humiliation, and deprived of basic rights and... Continue Reading →
If (a poem)
This Poem is dedicated to all people everywhere who work for a more just, peaceful, and compassionate world. It is about persistence in the cause of seemingly forlorn hopes, seemingly quixotic quests, and seemly lost causes. Stay true! Don’t give up the ship! Carry on! And if the world isn't roundMere noise at the rootInstead... Continue Reading →
Africa
African Tapestry At first lightAfrica is like our soulsLong dark green hillsLoping into a distanceWhich can't be measured.Alive like nothing we have met beforeAnd longed to meet.The pounding of small delicate hoovesEchoing the pounding of the heart We travel never reaching thereThose colors dependent on a distanceWe never find ourselves insideThe singular color that lies... Continue Reading →
Oxymorons: A Poem
When people speak from both sides of their mouth you get…. Oxymorons People who once liked the old segregationLater turned and became fans of deregulationThey boast of their love of our great constitutionBut still wave the flag of the confederate solutionThey boast that they’re patriots and wave high the flagBut simple “voting by mail” somehow... Continue Reading →
The State of the Ship
The helmsman of the ship of stateDrunk on power, at his wheel pratesOf terror, evil, and bad menWhile his servile followers "ahem" Surrogates note every lame botched wordBroken syntax, the absurdAnd loyally his words transmuteInto a fine bold stance that sounds astute War isn't war but reconstructionJustice is equal to obstructionTorture doesn't bring one shameIf... Continue Reading →
Two Poems about Palestine, Truth, and Balance
The Ruins of Gaza Jerusalem/ Gaza (2012-2014) If there were no separation betweenEvents in space because of timeHow would we order our world?We would have to live with our history thenAnd live with our acts always. Ancient walls would beObscured by the images of the handsThat lifted the stones, again and againAnd we would see... Continue Reading →
Two Poems About Lying Politicians
Birds of a Feather I wrote these two poems in response to events between 2003-2004, when I was living in Saudi Arabia. Really good poems probably don’t need explanatory notes, but just in case… The first short poem “Talking Heads” was inspired by some art I saw in ancient cities I visited. I was struck... Continue Reading →
Wisteria (a Poem about Love)
Of all flowersWisteria is most like love.As a shoot youDo not suspect its power. It needs a thing to climb onEven, at first, the slightest wispOf a reed,Or a dry stick; A gestureOr a glance or riskIt spins tough coilsIt seals its secret tight And uses it to ladder to the lightWhen it flowers it... Continue Reading →
Nakba Day, The coming Eid, and Lockdowns: A Short Reminder and a Poem in Solidarity with the People of Palestine
Girl in Lockdown Peace to everyone. Special Greetings and Eid Mubarak to all my Muslim and Arab Friends. May 30 is one of the most important of Muslim Holidays—the Eid at the end of Ramadan. May 15th was also “Nakba Day,” the anniversary of the start of the catastrophe that still leaves five generations of... Continue Reading →
A Poem: Monkeys Fall
The following poem was inspired by a 1990 trip through East Africa with my old friend Kyle Foster. It is about evolution, survival of the fittest, the imperfections of nature, human error, global warming, and politics. A contributing incident happened while I was sitting in my woodland home in the Pacific Northwest and watching a... Continue Reading →
