Month: February 2017

A Poem That Makes Me Think of the 20th Century

For most of last year whenever I heard the phrase ‘Make America Great Again’ I thought of this poem. It isn’t a political poem, for me it just evokes the mixed bag the 20th century was. It seems like all I hear or see is unfettered optimism or profound despair in the last few years. I try not to feel either too strongly when they start to set in. They don’t seem like the truth if I just wait a moment and think. Having romantic nostalgia for the past is just as dangerous as is viewing it in the darkest of terms.

 

Sirens and Bird Calls

The sirens and bird calls

Merge in the distance

Becoming one to my ears

Both are alerts of an oncoming storm

I can see the shadow of what approaches

It’s outline partitioned by the bright sun

No storm ever comes as one

It comes in parts

What you choose to brace for

Wind

or

Water

or

Lightning

or

Mud

Depends on where you’re standing

Gene G. McLaughlin 2017