Headline Poem 3/23/14 -- Crazy of Days

Russian Navy Takes Over Ukrainian Sub in Crimea.  This image on the news triggered a conversation with one of my kids, and then a reflection on my part. Many of the things we tell our kids just don't make sense in "the real world." You can't just take something that doesn't belong to you... except submarines, countries, and other people's wives... crazy of days.

Crazy of Days

You and me in the crazy of days

Dividing fragments of heres and theres that we see

To make wholes we believe in and beds to lie in

Borders are changing and we have our hearts set on Zion

The submarine has been taken over
Submerged so long it doesn't realize it isn't over 

The nerve of the man to take the plaque and flag down 

Marking an exchangeable value that he can't take back now

Like before it was theirs
And then theirs 

And now ours

How do you explain this world to your kids?

We talk about shopping malls, lawsuits, and missing planes

But have countries killing their own, making stones, and throwing them 

Is the history in books so far removed, we no longer learn from it?

We can go to space if we have the funds 

Donate money to anyone

We can travel the world to volunteer 

As long as there are layovers to cheer

But not everyone is allowed to go 

Hard to believe, but the world is round and not fair

And then there are she and he and their affairs

Kissing one and making life with another

How do you explain what we've read and seen to each other? 

There's a key hole to peep and another to pry in 

When you're older we hope that you use the right one

Until then please watch both sides
Read this and that and then make up your own damn minds
Learn how to think and how to discover
The world is not ours, but it's ours to wonder and uncover 

Me and you in the crazy of days 

One step turns into four and then five, and more
We are the ones who we need to rely on
For the mouth that we feed becomes what we need, and so on

Headline Poem 2/22/14 -- In the house with the purple door

(Photo credit Mail Online)

Jessica Tatiana Long is a 17 time Paralymic medalist swimmer from Maryland. She was born in Russia, and was adopted by an American family. When she was 18 months old, the lower half of her legs were amputated due to being born with fibular hemimelia.  Tonight, her story, "Long Way Home" aired, which documented her travels back to Russia to visit her family -- both parents now married, and her brother and sister. Her mom was 16 when Jessica was born. Their house in Siberia has a purple door, and inspired today's poem.

In the house with the purple door

secret spring lovers 

upon the snow covered streets

    a dog barks

awaken heart, 

today we sing our battle cry.

words written in the dark

too young for raising

welcome baby girl

we release you.

so sweet inside the halls

a shadow hovers over love

crippled, but not broken,

under an endless sky

not alone 

two halves make a whole.

set free to fly,

uncertain if she will ever know

where she first was given a name

changed, she has two.

calling her home where sun 

settles on the windowsill,

she returns to feel the wonder of them.

around the small table, 

they gather

in the house with the purple door.

Headline Poem 2/1/14 -- A Sochi Parade

(Photo credit Reuters/Thomas Peter)

Today's poem is about the upcoming Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia. I lived in Orange County when the Summer Olympics came to Los Angeles in 1984. I remember seeing many improvements in preparation for the various events. Then I remember after the Olympics were gone thinking about how strange it was that we were put on parade for the whole world to see. They did not see what was here before or after, but only this small pristine, graffiti-free moment in time. I look at pictures of Sochi, Russia and wonder what they must be thinking as the hustle and bustle of preparations continue, all leading up to the moment when all things Russia will shine. "A crumbling Sochi hides behind Olympic facades" and "Sochi's indigenous people" and "6 of 9 Media Hotels are ready" are a few of the headlines that contributed to today's headline poem. The picture above is an Asirkhan villager named Ashkirkgan Chachukh. She is 82, and her great-grand daughter Saira is 4. This picture was taken in their living room in the village of Tkhagapsh in the Lazerevskoye district of Sochi October 26, 2013. "The Olympic Games are far away, they don't concern me. The only thing I wish is that they pass peacefully. God forbid, only no war! Then everything is good" Chachukh said. Tkhagapsh is one of the few remaining settlements in the Sochi region, that mainly consists of ethnic Circassians, Sochi's indigenous people.

A Sochi Parade

At a snail's pace
life happens as it should
when the machines come,
the shells are crushed,
unable to move
beaten and passed by
the road is longer,
and the slime lights the way
for the out of town guests