A poem conveying my thoughts on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day in 2011.
Far too many Americans alive today
don’t relate to King’s life in any
meaningful way; that is to say,
it’s like Presidents’ Day for many --
they enjoy their day off from work
without giving thought to the man
and the heroic way he didn’t shirk
from spreading throughout this land
his message through peaceful protest
to stop hateful injustices for the Black.
King’s dream of America being a blessed
country revealed to us all “the right track.”
I’m old enough to have lived in the day
of three of America’s great men –
King plus John and Robert Kennedy.
I shared in their dreams back then.
Ever since I have cried over the shame
of what more they might have done,
of all the minds they might’ve set aflame
had they not died from hatred and a gun.
This is such a great tribute to a man who changed the course of history that I read it four times. I applaud your talent Harry as I know Dr. King and the brothers Kennedy are slso doing.
I totally agree with these elloquent lines, Harry.
One would hope that this would be a better country
had Dr. King, Jack, and Bobby lived to make it so.
Dear readers, this is my third book of poems, and inside are a special collection of what have turned out to be not only MY personal favorites, but also the favorites of many of YOU. Some of these have never been available in print before...
Robin Ouzman Hislop's poetry is certainly in dialogue with some of the key architects of the 'poetics of indeterminacy' – both the Modernist strands represented by the likes of Beckett and Stein, and the postmodernist strands represented, initially,
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One would hope that this would be a better country
had Dr. King, Jack, and Bobby lived to make it so.
-gene.