Here are two Poems of the Week for August 9, 2024. This week the influence of American oligarchs was on my mind as the nation saw their brazen attempts to destroy democracy and take more complete control. Why would people who have so much money want to make earth anything other than a peaceful, just paradise for all? Well, they don’t, so these poems are about where we can find comfort, guidance and strength in the face of this reality.

I chose two because they cover the same territory in two different ways. The first is a hai-net, one of my seven-loosely-linked-haiku poems, with some similarities to the sonnet. The second is a classic Elizabethan sonnet. Both are true to form except for their line-breaks.

these woods we walk through
thickets and tall old growth groves
grew here
without us

the trees know their way
acorn red sprouts
root
grow green
we get lost in there

our house phoebes nest
lay, hatch and feed new phoebes
that go the same way

no one taught buddha
but his life
that heard its truth
be still
and know god

hurricanes toxins
massive forces
this woods finds
ways to overcome

rich and powerful
crush lives destroy earth
lost lost
hear your acorn heart

earth will outlast us
but still could teach us
the way
we were born to know
8/4/24

The only thing
that we can look to
now is what has been
our one hope
all along: a human conscience
that will not
allow the ultimate
ascendancy of wrong,
however strong, without
a final fight, and here we are,
our next last chance
at hand to turn humanity
to choose
the light of love
for all the earth,
and take our stand with
Gandhi, Hebrew Prophets,
Buddha, Christ, all mothers,
microbes, forests,
corals, birds who teach
our heart what must be
sacrificed, who show the way
in loving acts and
words: life wants to live!
And it will be our guide
if we rise now and fight
on love’s meek side.
8/3/24