Here is my poem of the week of July 12th, posted a few days late. It was written on July 5th, way back before the assassination attempt and about a thousand other earth shaking events. It still feels timely enough to share. It’s a first draft and the video is a first take. Meanwhile I keep writing a poem a day, responding to the natural and human and spiritual world. Here’s the text I read in the video. Again the message is, Use Your Voice–to good ends.

The robin chased the hawk away
by voice, naming it
loudly
so that all would
hear, defending life by
love’s courageous choice
to rise
and fly toward
what it knew to fear.

There comes a time
when we must fight off
threat, blood thirsty
bugs that bite or thugs
that sting. It is their
nature,
we must not forget, just
as it is that cowards
want a king. We need to have
compassion
as we fight.

The corporation’s
greed
began as
need.

To risk our lives for
truth,
for what is right, allows the
eggs to hatch and young
to feed. There always will be
hawks,
till this world ends. Love’s
wisdom
fights to let them live
as friends.

7/5/24