Welcome to Poetry Friday. This week hosted by teacher and poet Margaret Simon Here at Reflections on the Teche. Thank you, Margaret for hosting!
Ten years ago, I completed a haiku project about the American Presidents. I wrote a haiku or tanka about something specific about each life and a short factoid to fill in a fact or two. I thought I’d share what I wrote about Millard Fillmore, who was born in Upstate New York in a town called Moravia. There is a state park in Moravia named for him. You will find water falls, a swimming hole and walking trails.
Waterfall at Millard Fillmore State Park
Fillmore was President during the Compromise of 1850 which was an attempt to appease the South. Part of the agreement was to allow federal Marshalls to cross state lines to hunt down runaway enslaved people in the North and return them South.
We all know the Compromise of 1850 failed. The South could not be appeased, but the law was tested out:
In October 1851 the Marshalls came to Syracuse to capture a fugitive named Jerry. But famously, they failed miserably. The citizens in Syracuse, white and black, rescued him from jail and spirited him to nearby Canada in an event known as The Jerry Rescue. In the link you can see the sculpture dedicated to this event.
Here’s my haiku about President Fillmore, who is not on the top ten list.
Millard Fillmore
Hate was mounting—why
could you see only money
in a field of cotton?
#13 MILLARD FILLMORE (1850-1853) Mr. Fillmore, failed to see that slavery was immoral. In 1848, he was concerned only about the United States economy and cotton, which, at the time, depended on slaves.
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This haiku seems relevant today, as everything has a price. The pesky needs of humanity inconveniently keep getting in the way of world peace, as Fillmore discovered.
Thank you, Margaret for hosting. I’ll be hosting next week. See you then.