Culture as a Hedge Against This Soul-Sucking Political Miasma We’re Living In

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

H. E. Wolf mentioned this poem
in the comments this week,
so I clicked the link and
it blew me away.

So today we have our second all things poetry Medium Cool.

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I Like to Think of Harriet Tubman

by Susan Griffin

I like to think of Harriet Tubman.
Harriet Tubman who carried a revolver,
who had a scar on her head from a rock thrown
by a slave-master (because she
talked back) , and who
had a ransom on her head
of thousands of dollars and who
was never caught, and who
had no use for the law
when the law was wrong,
who defied the law. I like
to think of her.
I like to think of her especially
when I think of the problem
of feeding children.

The legal answer
to the problem of feeding children
is ten free lunches every month,
being equal, in the child’s real life,
to eating lunch every other day.
Monday but not Tuesday.
I like to think of the President
eating lunch on Monday, but not
Tuesday.
and when I think of the President
and the law, and the problem of
feeding children, I like to
think of Harriet Tubman
and her revolver.

And then sometimes
I think of the President
and other men,
men who practice the law,
who revere the law,
who make the law,
who enforce the law
who live behind
and operate through
and feed themselves
at the expense of
starving children
because of the law.

men who sit in paneled offices
and think about vacations
and tell women
whose care it is
to feed children
not to be hysterical
not to be hysterical as in the word
hysterikos, the greek for
womb suffering,
not to suffer in their
wombs,
not to care,
not to bother the men
because they want to think
of other things
and do not want
to take women seriously.
I want them to think about Harriet Tubman,
and remember,
remember she was beaten by a white man
and she lived
and she lived to redress her grievances,
and she lived in swamps
and wore the clothes of a man
bringing hundreds of fugitives from
slavery, and was never caught,
and led an army,
and won a battle,
and defied the laws
because the laws were wrong, I want men
to take us seriously.
I am tired wanting them to think
about right and wrong.
I want them to fear.
I want them to feel fear now I want them
to know
that there is always a time
there is always a time to make right
what is wrong,
there is always a time
for retribution
and that time
is beginning.

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Beautiful and inspirational, especially in these times.

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Medium Cool – All Things PoetryPost + Comments (25)

Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in.  We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.

Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered.  We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.

I guess with all the talk of baseball I am thinking of my childhood, watching baseball games with my dad on the “portable TV” we would take outside to watch the nighttime games on the roof.

My dad was a White Sox fan, so I was, too.  My mom liked the Cubs, but I was daddy’s girl, so it was White Sox all the way, for me.

So… crayons.

Oh, how I hated when other kids were not careful with the crayons!  They would flatten the tip of the crayon or push down so hard that the crayon broke.  I’ll bet some of you were like me, and some of you certainly weren’t!

Anyway, tonight let’s talk about childhood.   Memories, life at home, life at school, life at play.  How your little brother would annoy you, or how you would annoy your brother!  Did it all make you who you are today?  Or did it show you who you would be?   You don’t have to stick to those questions; I’m just throwing things out there to get the conversation started.

Whatever you think of, anything goes.

I predict that this will either be the suckiest Medium Cool ever, or a really fun one.  Likely nothing in between.

Anyway, here goes!  (Well, almost.)

In case you are new to Medium Cool, these are not open threads.

Medium Cool – Crayons???Post + Comments (151)