May Day 2007

Out of the corner of my eyes
I caught the first purple
Blood blossom of the Azalea
I knew the Spring...
Morn had begun to bloom
Budding, the new year was before me

Over There, Over Here

A dull
A dull, a dull
Throbbing of the sunlight
Thru the trees
The caw, caw, caw
Of the crows over there
Nearby
The pound..., pound..., pounding
Of the ocean on the lees
The glitter,
Glitter,
Glitter
Of the sand on the beaches
Over there
The spires
Reach,
Reach,
Reach to sky
As over here
In the throbbing of the sun
In the trees
The crows
Caw, caw, caw

I heard...(Traditional Haiku)

The birds sing in Spring
At first light of dawn
The last hoot of the night-owl.

There

The sun falls hard on my back
The crow caws
Caws again & again
The rays beat
Beat on my scalp
My feet pad the earth
The earth is mine

May I rest there
There 'neath that tree
May it bear fruit
Fruit
That nourishes generations
Again & again...

(Children's Haiku after Lewis Carol & 'Winnie the Pooh') :

Within

I hear the squigg'ling
My tumkins squawks so
Frimsey is born thus in me.

Remember ? America
dedicated to
32nd  President of these United State
Franklin Delano Roosevelt's
"Freedom from Want"

Instead of bombs
How about we drop
Tuna fish sandwiches ?

Isn't it less expensive
in the long run ?

 

Song of Freedom

Children of American Independence
Arise !
The time of democracies’ glory has arrived
Raise the standard against the despots of industry
You – whose sweet sweat made this nation
Claim your prize !
Howling as soldiers of freedom
Scatter the coins of the tyrants
Pick the fruits of your labor
Cut the gold chains that bind you
To the purses of wealthy men’s sons !
Those who would be your kings
Would take your blood to drink
They will take your blood, your sweat, and your flesh -
Do not yield up yourselves to slavery
Sour the juices of the bloodless would-be kings !
Scatter them on the winds that blow thru your field & forest !
Do not corrupt the very land of your fathers toil
With your ruined limbs & the limbs of your children !
You are the rightful owners of your land !
Claim the prize & occupy the castles of your creation !
Seize the joys of your days & years !
Free yourself, Americas
from the chains of servitude !
March on
No longer slaves of rich men !
Refuse to strip the body of another brother !
The tyrant claims you !
And your nation !
Follow cherished liberty only into battle!
Hold up your shield & wield your sword
At last the master of your destiny !

Italian New Year

Times Change :

It was an old clock.
The barometer still worked, I think.
But earth had revolved a thousand times
While its hands stood still ;

The young lady, I & my husband discussed the past.
I came to a final decision &
Threw the broken thing out the door

Away from us
Into the cold winter world.

All the Same People who
Ate at my family table
Are here ---
All the people who
Sat at the first Thanksgiving Table
Are still here !..

I am trusting in God that we gather All Ways
Again for the Original Thanksgiving  !
This Year !!!

There is Glory in the Meadows

Gath'ring near the edges of the woods
With the power of their wisdom
The Elder women are meeting in council
Discussing War in The Longhouse
Because the Men have passed their message
The fate of the Tribe was up to them
They have gone to test their strength
On the Little Game the Whites have left them
For the meager dinner that remains
Prior to this war
Men & Women have decided together

Here we see the passing of The Tribes
Men go off to die
Women will starve or....
Make new husbands of the whites
Can we blame them ?

They were our great grandmothers !
They kept our blood alive !!!

COMMON SENSE :
after the pamphlet by the same name
authored by Tom Paine
in 
in 1775 at the request of General George Washington, our 'Founding Father'
who twice refused the title King George
at the end of The American Revolution
whose bones were 'stolen' & are still 'lost'
himself a soldier
traveling by the General's side &
rallying the troops
(thusly kept together
The Continental Army
during that 'coldest winter' at Valley Forge
so that the next day they might go on to Princeton,
& thence cross the Delaware
after a bloody war of 17 years
culminating in the formation of our Nation
& the finalization of our Constitution
in his speech in these words :
"Now is is the time
of the fair weather patriot
& the sunshine soldier''
Tom Paine


I am not disappointed (in this Nation)
Or the precepts that founded & built it ;
I am disappointed
in those citizens who have allowed Her
to become guardian of an economic tyranny
which forces the minorities ---
the men & women she has
Turned on,
denying them the Right-full
fruits of their forced service
to an abusive world
Black, White, Yellow, & Brown
(& All shades in-between)
middle-class, Poor & Wealthy of all races
Denied all they ought to have gained
by the Brave Struggles We All pretend to endorse ---
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Who died for legislation he dreamed of
granted but never yielded by those lords we all accept ---
Margaret Sanger
who gained women the right to their reproductive Freedom (their own bodies !)
Now in Peril ---
Abraham Lincoln & John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Both of whom died because they dared to attempt to be presidents
(now equally slandered in exaggerated 'hushed' rumors
Of life-styles accepted today) ---
The President who created by candle-light
(during many long & dark nights)
Then as now libeled for his love of a black woman,
who quietly looked on as their children (1 by 1 by 1 by 1)
reached safety & freedom, before his Death - bankrupt -
Whose creditors revoked the last will in which
he freed all his 'chattel' (!)
who continued to be sold for almost another Hundred years
despite his attempt to grant them their Rights beside their brother Americans
Deleted from his 1st drafts of
The Declaration of Independence he authored
by the very 'slave masters' who sat w/ him
as representatives of the 'slave states'
did so to continue a damnable & abusive system
which Lincoln died denying them
In the Civil War our ancestors fought ---
claiming the lives of more americans
than any other war
whose 'First lady'  died driven near insane by her presence at his assassination
Penniless in a nation, that then as now,
Deprives women of their economic rights
(who herself took blankets
to the homeless 'former slaves of this nation (?)'
camped outside Washington, D.C. during that war)
bought w/ monies gathered by pursuing that 'charity' we now decry ---
A word almost forgotten,
but endorsed in the Bible by these words :
'Faith, Hope & Charity -
and the Greatest of These is Charity !"
Malcolm X ----
(who called his surname X)
like those Native American women, named by the surname X
from whom many of us are descended
whom our male progenitors married
in the sanctity of the very sacrament
our churches still claim to be their most sacred
named X in the very records
of marriages of those who served in our
American Revolution
& The War of 1812
when the british returned to burn & sack our first Capital in Washington, D.C.
- the 'original White House' itself
'Old men'
(Veterans who fought under George Washington himself)
& returned w/ brothers & cousins alike !
Mohamed Ali
(who refused to serve this country under his 'slave name' : Cassius Clay)
& Is yet glorified for the pain & suffering he endured
reclaiming that Heavyweight Title
Refusing to serve in the Vietnam War ---
'The Vietnam Veterans Against the War'
founded by, among others, John F. Kerry
(who won by final count &
by the last tally of the Electoral College
w/out the 2 counties of African-Americans of Florida
& the belated recount of incorrectly recorded votes in Ohio
declared finally 2 or 3 months after the election
The final # of which would have won the election of 2004.....
 
The Shots fired at Lexington & Concord,
April 19th 1775
"THE SHOTS HEARD 'ROUND THE WORLD !"

I Leave A Message
On The World's Chat Machine -
Broadside for Freedom & Justice

America
I am your conscience - Your Consciousness :
The Voice of The Reality of 'Real People'
I speak the Truth of a REAL WORLD
That inhumanity attempts to deny ---
The Dignity of the ONE(ness)
The Good(ness)
Many Turn Away.

I refuse to Allow the Masses
The Rich & the Poor Alike
Those newly arrived, their children,
born on these Glorious Lands :
This New World
To Accept less than our Founding Fathers
Secured for All
In that First Mayflower Compact
The Declaration of Independence
in the Struggle to Form A More Perfect Union
The Constitution of These United States
Whose Principles & Precepts
We Fight to Defend
From EVERY FOE Always
Even to this Day
Anticipating ever that the Sun Shall Always
Rise  on a free world
Whose laws are Just -
in All Honesty & Mercy Pursued
Justice which like the Doe & her Fawn
Must Sometimes Flee in to Our Forests
To gather strength
Return Triumphant to This Land
We the Many
The 'Uncommon People of These Americas'
Now Occupy : Lay Claim Upon
For All Humanity
All Ways Striving
towards
"A Greater Nation"
Common DECENCY
& ---
 
The Greater GOOD !

Mary Barnet
September 1, 2006