Mother's Day Poem Written While Sitting In A Bar In Madrid

Mother's Day Poem Written While Sitting In A Bar In Madrid

Happy Mother's Day,
to the mother of my children,

I am so very grateful.
  

Happy Mother's Day
to my mother, to the mother
of all that is just and good.

Happy Mother's Day,
to Mother Earth:

The earth explodes today
in its exuberance and gratitude.

© Gil Hoy

This is how Mother's Day was born

To All the Women Running for President of the United States

When you see
a little girl

Particularly if she
does not smile
very much,

Or has a tiny tear
on her young cheek,

You be sure
to tell her—

Please be sure
to tell—

Drawing deep from
within your own pain

That you, too,
can be a Senator,

Or perhaps
even President.

© Gil Hoy

Who’s Running for President in 2020?

Gil Hoy

Gil is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

45

In this poem, proper sentence

structure will be followed.

For example, sentences will start

with a capital letter and end

with an appropriate punctuation mark.

Sentences will be grammatically precise.

Some will likely say that following 

such rigid rules

will detract from the poem’s poetic quality, 

but I’m not sure I can agree.

I’m also not sure real poems require words. 

I italicize for emphasis.

For example, is an image held in the mind

 of crying children, of thousands

of immigrant children separated

from their families at the border,

never to be reunited, poetic?

Is the image symbolic and evokes

strong emotions? Is it repetitive

and sick at heart?

Is the precision of language

of one’s internal dialogue

describing the image 

what make it poetic or not?

Can a number be a poem

or at least poetic?

Such as the title of this poem?

I will never think of “45” in the same way again.

© Gil Hoy

Trump denies reports he will reinstate family separation border policy

Gil Hoy

Gil is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

Making America Great Again

He proudly said

“my name is Francisco”

As he served me
my third glass
of crystal clear water

At my five-star restaurant
below the border.

And he proudly 

proclaimed, and I agreed

That his country

would never pay

For America’s border wall.

But he stumbled against 

the back of a chair

As he walked away
in cheap shoes.

I sat long and hard
in my chair

Thinking about

How he became he
and I became I.

The holiest way I knew.
And I felt ashamed.

© Gil Hoy

Trump seeks to cut foreign aid to 3 Central American nations

Gil Hoy

Gil is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

You’re No Washington, No Lincoln

The hatchet fits you 

Mr. President

But not the cherry 

tree legend---

Not truth telling.

No rational parent 

would want their child 

to grow up like you

You’re the poster child 

for a child’s “must-not-dos.”

If your father 

had asked you

What happened to his 

favorite cherry tree

Would you have said:

"I can’t tell a lie, you know 

I can’t tell a lie, I’m sorry

but I cut it down.”

Of course you wouldn’t have. 

You’d have said: 

"It was the brown kid 

who just moved in 

down the street. 

You’ve got to believe me.” 

Lies beget lies

beget lies

beget more lies.

Mr. President, "Honest Abe" 

first got his nickname 

as a young store clerk

He short-changed a customer 

by a few pennies.

So he closed down

his shop 

And walked long 

and far to return 

the correct change.

What would you have done?

You’d have kept the change.

You chose the crooked 

coward’s corrupt, lying 

path a long time ago,

And that has made all the difference.

© Gil Hoy

Donald Trump's file

Gil Hoy

Gil is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

Mr. President:

There is many  

a living thing

That doesn’t love 

a wall.

Like hunters, rabbits  

and yelping dogs

Like the pine trees

and apple orchards

Like human beings-- 

Who aren’t cows--

And quirky elves don’t 

like them much either.

The frozen-ground-

swells beneath can crack 

Even the strongest stone.

And there are too many gaps

Between the stones

nonetheless. You can 

Rub your fingers rough

and raw by placing 

and replacing

The fallen stones.

Mr. President:

I see you walking in the darkness.

An old rough savage-stone 

Firmly grasped in each 

armed hand. 

Like an aged hypothermic man 

who is lost 

and cannot find his way

Like your crotchety, stubborn 

neighbor beyond the hill.

Mr. President:

Spring is coming.

Let’s walk the lines,

Remove the walls 

separating pines 

and trees bearing fruit.

Mr. President:

Forget your father

He was so very wrong.

Good walls, like selfish men,

make bad neighbours.

© Gil Hoy

Declaring a national emergency to fund Trump's border wall may be what finally kills the project

Gil is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

In the Next One

Things will be different.

No more children in cages

No more parents reunited

With their children

without success.

Some say the Presidency

defines the man,

others the man

defines the Presidency.

No more neo-Nazi

death cars

No more dictatorial

fears to worry

About.

A dictator dies

A thousand deaths, 

A true man grows

A thousand lives

No more living things

cut down to their roots.

No more

hardened hate-filled

Walls.

A con-man can only con

even himself for so long.

In the next one

Sleeping babies will

sleep more soundly.

© Gil Hoy

Who's running for president in 2020? List of possible Democratic candidates

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and semi-retired trial lawyer who studied poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy previously received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared most recently in Chiron Review, the New Verse News, Ariel Chart, Social Justice Poetry, Poetry24, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, I am not a silent poet, The Potomac, Clark Street Review and the penmen review.

Higher Ground

The stones
of the Acropolis

Are mighty stones,
Weighty stones

Some cracked,
Others stained

Stones of time, tribute
Majesty and merit

Set upon higher ground.

Blue-gray stones set
Above the sea

Above the hill,
And then the world.

They are like
what we imagine
Democracy might be

Majority rule,
Minority rights

Free, fair elections
Cooperation,
Compromise.

Blue-gray stones
set above the world
to remind us

That democracies
have flown,
are fleeting.

The stones
of the Acropolis

Are mighty stones,
Weighty stones,
Set upon higher ground.

© Gil Hoy

Is Trump a Threat to Democracy?

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

Only Children

Last night I dreamed
workers painting my house

Brought all of their children
to work in the morning

With brushes and buckets
of water, to wash and to clean

To scrub hundreds of faces,
like paintings on canvas,

That had appeared overnight
on the walls of my house.

Faces of crying children
in chain-link cages

Taken from their parents
by a cruel, callous man.

Black faces, white faces
yellow, red and brown

And the workers' children
all the while washing
and scrubbing

But never hurting the faces.

And me, all the while looking on
with a growing awareness

of a feeling of shame
coming from deep inside.

© Gil Hoy

Leading Republicans Join Democrats in Pushing Trump to Halt Family Separations

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

America First

Are we a family of nations or are we not? How did this

nation thing happen in the first place anyway where just

about every man woman and child belongs to one like

a fraternity or club Was it the different languages we spoke

Or is that a chicken before the egg kind of thing Because we

look different? No slant eyes here No blacks there We all

know the Americanized lily white Monet Europeans will

inherit the earth Not the Chosen People Not the Nazis nor

Japs Build that wall. Rousseau wrote about this: The man

who enclosed the first piece of ground was… How many

crimes wars murders stopped and mankind saved by pulling

out the stakes Like Woodrow Wilson and the League

of Nations Or Clinton (the philanderer) at the second Obama

Dem Convention: "Democrats believe we’re all in this together

is far better than you’re on your own" Not the selfish spoiled brat

hoarding all the kids’ toys causing him to be sent to his room

for a timeout. When my son was a little boy he fought with his sister

about who would sit in the front seat of the car And he was so sad

when his friend’s mother made brownies for school and the class

bully ate the last one and many many more before that one

and before my son had had even a bit of brownie to eat And John

Bolton’s now the new national security advisor Wants to bomb North

Korea and Iran too Thinks if you remove the top floors of the United

Nations nothing will happen When will the meek inherit the earth

Bolton's boss still loves hoarding kids' toys and gorging on brownies.

© Gil Hoy

America First bears a new threat: military force

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

A Familiar Truth

For so long as the NRA

controls Congress

With its pumping

Mutant

Pecuniary

Poison

Lifeblood

Corrupting souls

Buying silence

Innocents will

continue to die

From high-powered

Weapons of War

Bought in America

like a bag of groceries

from a grocery store

While Wayne LaPierre

Scribbles his want list

for Republican

Bought and sold

baby-kissers counting

their bankroll gore.

If Congress had lead balls

in its hearts, brains

pelves

If images of dead

school children grew

so palpable, so intimate

That their fever

opened a passageway

To eternity and back

Would the madness

Stop then?

Would lone wolves

Still sing their rancid

Noteless songs

A Witch’s Brew of shrill

staccato tempo

Tentwentythirtyfortyfifty

Pigeons intheblinkofaneye

That numbed ears

don’t see anymore

That tastes forgotten

and too familiar

anyway.

© Gil Hoy

Students from high school targeted in mass shooting criticize GOP reaction

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

Double New Year's Eve Bill

Making My 2018 New Year's Resolutions Early

If I make enough money, I just might get

A tax break. If I join the 1% and belong

to the right club.

Then, I can schmooze with the right

fancy folk, forget the middle class

joke, nothing more than a pig

in a poke.

Or, maybe, I’ll just become a Pass-Through

Corporation.

And when I do, I’ll make sure

all that extra cash

   t
    r
     i
      c
       k
        l
         e
          s

d
o
w
n.

© Gil Hoy

Senate passes sweeping GOP tax bill, but House to vote again

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.



Winter Lacerations

Feeling paper cuts,
Add tax cuts for the wealthy,
Thinking cut and run.

© Kay Weeks

Kay Weeks worked for 30 years for the US National Parks Service in the area of National Historic Preservation, retiring in 2005. She writes and publishes poetry in the US and the UK.

Searching for Inspiring Presidential Biographies Christmas Coming

Looking for a Christmas present

for my son.

He wants to be a politician.

Not the merriest of Christmases

nor the happiest of New Years

in American politics.

Abraham Lincoln is neatly

stacked next to Teddy Roosevelt

at our local bookstore

With award-winning volumes

of FDR and Washington

sitting comfortably nearby.

With another somewhat dusty

book standing far to the right

On a shelf in the non-fiction

biography section titled

"Donald Trump: America’s

Failing President."

Sitting next to a few dull

panned volumes excoriating

Richard Nixon.

My son is a passionate

progressive Democrat.

He, like the rest of us,

is wondering how a racist,

With money as his God,

occupies the White House

in America?

As billionaires get tax

cuts, beggared sick lay

ill in their beds

Those in government spew

anti-Muslim venom, gay pride

flags are burned, the NRA

controls Congress.

Did our commander in chief

really just tweet that a US

Senator is a whore?

Did he really say that Rocket Man

will be met with fire and fury like

the world has never seen before?

I want to set off the world's

loudest alarm. I want to bang

a hammer on the world's

noisiest can.

Looking for a Christmas present

for my son. Not an easy gift

choice to make. Perhaps FDR,

but he seems so far way.

My son wants to be a politician.

I can't imagine why.

© Gil Hoy

All the times Donald Trump has been called the worst president: a list

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

I Had A Nightmare Last Night

I had a nightmare last night,

A nightmare deeply rooted

in an American nightmare.

Where churches and schools,

theaters and city streets

were dying.

Where military weapons

were firing into unsuspecting

innocent crowds

Tentwentythirtyfortyfifty

pigeons intheblinkofaneye.

I awoke in a terrified sweat

as bleeding children wailed

and cried and screamed.

While those to protect us tasked

slept soundly in their beds.

A nightmare deeply rooted

in an American nightmare,

I had a nightmare last night.

© Gil Hoy

House passes concealed carry gun bill in win for GOP and NRA

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, Poetry24, Social Justice Poetry, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

Sound and Silence

He was unwantedly

   

   relentless

in his impetuous prolix

pronouncements

Could bend even

  the most patient

  sturdy ear to

the breaking point

with his crooked

                     rivers of words.

Did the President really just tweet

    That the FBI’s reputation is

In tatters,

That the FBI’s reputation

   is the worst in history?

As they close in on him.

I wish, instead,

That he’d strode confidently

  into a garden

                           of roses

Winked on top of a dry

        wry smile,

Opened his mouth, and said

   nothing at all---like a stone---

As inquisitive listening flies gathered

      in his suddenly silent mouth

   While fluttering flocking pigeons

flitted

on suddenly scarecrow arms.

As squirrels around the man’s

     stone cold feet

squirreled away

  just enough acorns

for a suddenly warmer winter

While the felicitous sun

     rose and set every day

After day

After day

After day.

And the man never spoke again.

© Gil Hoy

FBI chief Chris Wray defends bureau after Trump says its reputation is 'in tatters'

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, Poetry24, Social Justice Poetry, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

Ship-Wrecked Scrappers

All those

American citizens

With no food

No water,

On an island

Surrounded by

Big water

Ocean water,

Are getting

rowdy and unruly.

Let the wild winds howl,

Let the flooding rains run.

© Gil Hoy

Puerto Rico's Death Toll May Be 1,052, New York Times Analysis Finds

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, Poetry24, Social Justice Poetry, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.

Memories

Their homes, cone-shaped wooden

poles covered with buffalo hides.

Set up to break down quickly

to move to a safer place.

She sits inside of one of them,
adorning her dresses, her family’s

shirts, with beads and quills.

Watches over her children, skins

cuts and cooks the buffalo meat, pounds

clothes clean with smooth wet river rocks.

When she sees the blue cavalry coming,

she starts to run again.

Is that what made America great,

back then?

African families working hard

on hot cotton farms. Sunrise to sunset,

six days a week. Monotony broken only

by their daily beatings, by their singing

of sad soulful songs. Like factories in fields,

dependent solely upon the demands

of cotton and cloth.

You could buy a man for a song, back then.

Is that what made America great,

once again?

There are swastikas in our schools today,

gay pride flags being burned. Whitelash.

While those in government spew anti-Muslim

venom, rant of white power.

As the old new man at the top

solemnly swears, he’ll make America

great again.

They say the full moon was bigger and brighter

last year than it’s been in 69 years.

Than it’s been since Jackie Robinson

played his first big league baseball game.

© Gil Hoy

Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban

Gil Hoy is a Boston poet and trial lawyer who is studying poetry at Boston University through its Evergreen program. Hoy received a B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, an M.A. in Government from Georgetown University, and a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy’s poetry has appeared, most recently, in Ariel Chart, The Penmen Review, Right Hand Pointing/One Sentence Poems, The New Verse News and Clark Street Review.