Tag: Optimism

Hope for America

It’s Poetry Friday and make sure you check out Jama’s delicious offerings at Jama’s Alphabet Soup, here. Thank you so much, Jama, for hosting.

Today, while working on an INKTOBER prompt, I encountered the word “wisp.” (Notice I haven’t gotten too far down my list!)

I had already written a short poem using the word FISH, which I’ll share:

HORS D'OEUVRE PARTY

Salmon paté
on plates painted with fish—
to the eye was so fetching 
some guests ate the dish. 

I like writing short and hopefully humorous poems, but when I came to the word WISP, I came up with something of a different tone. Today, I felt quite sad hearing the point of view of someone interviewed on NPR who had no hope. He’s not planning to vote. I understand, as best I can, why some, including many African Americans like the discouraged interviewee, might feel that way. But I hope he can change his mind.

I have several friends and family members who are painfully hopeful that things will improve. Painfully, because hope. though necessary, can make a person vulnerable. So those thoughts inspired a Golden Shovel poem.

Here’s a link that describes the Golden Shovel form. The last words in each line read vertically comprise are a quote from another poem. I needed a quote to use and also wanted poems with the word wisp for my Inktober prompt. I discovered poet Florence Maude. You can read her poem, LITTLE WISP OF HOPE, here.

In a previous post here, I mentioned British playwright Simon Stephens. He said that the only mature way to deal with tragedy is through optimism. That requires hope. So I wrote this thinking of friends and family who are on the edge of their seats, maintaining hope, this election. 

TO MY FRIEND
A Golden Shovel Poem from a line in a poem by poet Florence Maude
“Little wisp of hope, I wish you would stay.”  



It seems that some, like you and me, other’s too, don’t feel in little


amounts; no mere wisp


of love for us passionate ones. No small sense of


injustice do we feel today about America. So, hope,


must always be in our hearts as well. I


can’t imagine, can you, love with no hope? Or a wish


for something that can never, ever be? No, you  


and me, we must imagine a better world and what it would


be like to have dreams like miracles that stay. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend. Nine days till Halloween! Thank you Jama, again for hosting.

About Optimism

It is another Poetry Friday and there is continued tragedy in America beyond the Corona virus. Mary Lee is hosting and she has been using her blog, A Year of Reading, to support the #Blacklivesmatter, the family of George Floyd and all people of color who simply ask for the justice that white people enjoy every day. No one can be neutral. Thank you Mary Lee.

I wrote this to express my frustration.

WHAT A WHITE PERSON CAN DO FOR GEORGE FLOYD

Blind cops
broken justice
black man killed with a knee
four against one. We must speak up!
SPEAK UP! 

© Janice Scully 2020

I was going to post about nature, share a poem about the progression of flowers outside, but it seems inappropriate now. Maybe next week.

What does it take for people to get through tragedy?

On-line yesterday I listened to British playwright Simon Stephens talk about his play SEA WALL, a monologue staring actor Andrew Scott, that he shared this week on YouTube. In this short play an unthinkable family tragedy occurs. In a discussion afterward Stephens said that the only mature response to a terrible tragedy is strive to find optimism. I think that what he said is true, but with the leadership we have in America, racism, and the rampant lack of empathy for those who suffer, it optimism possible? But still we try to find a way forward.

I will end with a photo of my beautiful bleeding heart plant. Maybe there’s a little hope in it because it never quits. It keeps coming back every year. Sympathetic people, tree huggers, etc, those who try to help others are called bleeding hearts as if it’s a weakness, but these flowers seem to belie that with their beauty.

Thank you again, Mary Lee, for hosting.