Is it Thursday Yet?

*

A reader sent this in.

Even though the poem was written four years ago,

It is remarkably timely and on the mark.

Call and Answer

Tell me why it is we don't lift our voices these days
And cry over what is happening. Have you noticed
The plans are made for Iraq and the ice cap is melting?

I say to myself: "Go on, cry. What's the sense
Of being an adult and having no voice? Cry out!
See who will answer! This is Call and Answer!"

We will have to call especially loud to reach
Our angels who are hard of hearing; they are hiding
In the jugs of silence filled during our wars.

Have we agreed to so many wars that we can't
Escape from the silence? If we don't lift our voices, we allow
Others (who are ourselves) to rob the house.

How come we've listened to the great criers -- Neruda,
Akhmatova, Thoreau, Frederick Douglass -- and now
We're silent as sparrows in little bushes?

Some masters say our life lasts only seven days.
Where are we in the week? Is it Thursday yet?
Hurry, cry now! Soon Sunday will come.

Robert Bly, August of 2002

For the last few years,

I have wondered, "what does it take"?

When will we cry out?

Last night, on PBS, Hamilton Jordan appeared

with another Republican.

They talked about how the parties

are not dealing with the issues.

Not the real issues.

They talked about the need to address Climate Change,

and our dependence on oil, and the alarming deficit.

And they talked about how the parties seems to want

to play to their base.

They talked about a Unity Candidate,

a Unity Slate, that would be chosen on the internet.

Is it Thursday yet?



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art courtesy of Vincent Grek