Sing Louder, Hope and Joy!

Our mind-crows squawking endlessly and mean,

their language sharp and rasping in the night.

Sing louder, hope and joy! And love between!

The journey’s for our hearts to hold the light.


“What did I see to be except myself?” 

One poet asking, answers with her pain.

Took their hate and put it on the shelf.

Celebrate her ‘Me’ today, again!


Lucille, so alive! Show us the way

to wear your wisdom, celebrate that hour

when peace and understanding frame our day!

We walk your bridge, and walk to feel your power.


What did she see to be? And you? And me?

The battles to become ourselves. You see?

© Kay Weeks

Inspiring Black Voters Is Key to Biden’s Prospects in Florida

Kay lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Retired from DOI, NPS (historic preservation) in 2005, she spends her time painting birds, writing poetry – and walking.

Least Favorite Things

Children in cages, while parents go looking,

Hopes into horrors, and little is cooking.

Walls between people, and nothing takes wings.

Here is our list of detestable things!


Dreamers are sullen, yet villains are pardoned.

Children in cages look pale and woolen.

Health care’s no given, and lovers are cordoned.

Just look at the list of detestable things!


(Refrain)

When the Trump bites,

When his words sting,

When we’re feeling mad!

We’ll line up to vote. So give him the gate!

And then we won’t feel so mad.

© Kay D. Weeks

4 Key Biden Moments at the Final Debate


Kay lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. Retired from DOI, NPS (historic preservation) in 2005, she spends her time painting birds, writing poetry – and walking.

Note: My poem and song with cadence. “My Favorite Things.” Credit: Oscar Hammerstein II, Richard Rodgers).

Split Screen

Ivanka: “Danke schön!” White teeth.
Smoke and Jared, wiping his forehead,
“Thanks for making America Great
Again,” with much hand clapping.
Split screen - black smoke emanating from Gaza,
rubber tires being tossed on a smoldering fire;
young men running with no leader no jobs,
burning rage. Trump blames Hamas, blames the kids.
Some in my country might be calling
the Gaza side an uprising – as usual.
Just a bunch of angry kids who weren’t invited
to celebrate the American Embassy’s
move to Jerusalem. And others might think
their rampage is totally inappropriate and focus
on the white teeth, white dress, white suit
and all those faces smiling at the cameras.

© Kay Weeks

A Grotesque Spectacle in Jerusalem

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.

Friday News

Flood waters in Bolivia,

Tens of thousands of animals at risk,

Won’t you help?

Trump denies,

Sends troops to defend the wall,

Dashes DACA; trade war with China.

I can’t help.

Help! I scour the morning news

for some small piece of humanity

to temper news aggression.

Last sip of coffee, find Spring Blooms

– an Orchid show in the Bronx –

and gingerly pick carnivorous flowers,

as my weekend escape to joy.

© Kay Weeks

Where Spring Is in Full Bloom

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.

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.

Paper Cuts

Small wounds that tip my fingers, dirt on snow,

while color ads for clothes this spring prevail.

My morning cuts, like flowers in a row,

scant outerwear for skin resembling kale!

Each year this happens and I’m not sure why

unless the paper that I use takes on new life:

Typing, photo, greeting cards--I’m shy

revealing cuts that make one think of strife.

Bandages go limp in dish-pans, showers.

Since I am loathe to re-apply them twice,

I go about my chores, while joy goes sour,

yet keeping spring in mind because it’s nice.

Buffer me from winter woes, not words,

then push me smartly south right now with birds.

© Kay Weeks

Limit on 401(k) Savings? It’s About Paying for Tax Cuts

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.

Las Vegas

Gun Controlled

“Gun control ?”

“I controlled it.”

Bought the legal rounds

Bought the bullets screaming loud

The voice of NRA screaming

“That’s what makes America proud”

“Gun controlled

I used it.”

The second amendment

The senators on the hill

The guy who shot to miss and killed

The domestic settled on a hand gun

A boy caught between the cross fire

And now the highest figure

Written in the clouds

Burning at hell’s door

Take away these fire arms

No more.

The Guns Controlled

YOU controlled it

© David Mellor

Las Vegas shooting: Trump dubs killer 'sick and demented'

David Mellor is from Liverpool, England. He found understanding and belief through words, and his work has been aired widely, at the BBC, The Tate, galleries and pubs and everything in between. Discover more about David on his Facebook Page YouTube Twitter: @olunikat

Aftermath  (Sonnet)

Heard shooter, down, and blood, then candle, spree.

Today’s compelling sweetness makes it worse;

Our seeming lean to darkness baffles me:

These acts horrific, repetition's hearse!

Let's sheathe our swords, and listen to small birds;

Note vultures sulking, high on gnarled trees.

Their beaks are how they eat, and never words

That poke and prod like bullets - Pray release!

The challenge now is writing how I feel

While dragging every word with rusted chains

That snarl, beg, delay, repeat – I yield:

Just give us nests with birds, a cleansing rain.

The writer wants to slumber with a dove,

to feel soft wings, no words, consider love.

© Kay Weeks

Nothing Will Change After the Las Vegas Shooting

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.

A Dreamer’s Questions

Did we have a right to dream these dreams

about living in this dreamed-up musical line,

“Home of the free…and land of the brave?”

Frankly, I think DACA is a harsh acronym,

But the word “Dreamers” says it all, and gently.

So now, gracious extension, perhaps 6 months

to stew in the chemical and bacterial Harvey waters

before we get the boot? What good is that?

More: What good is it to dream if there is no dream?

And when we wake up, the dream was simply an illusion,

Jeff Sessions—that you could take away?

Your purity is showing, Oh! And so beholden

to brutal Daddy Trump, and yes, I’ve read about the Hessians;

just want to say that all of these acronym promises are tainted,

and yet I want to stay—awake—and be free.

© Kay Weeks

Trump Seriously Considering Ending DACA, With 6-Month Delay

Kay Weeks, retired from DOI, NPS (national historic preservation) lives in Ellicott City, Maryland. She writes and paints and loves the ocean, rivers, and yesterday’s sunrise.

Sunday 'Shorts'

Letter to My Cousins

Dear Munchkins, just to keep you posted.

I wore #Target, #Walmart, and #Payless today.

I went on a shopping spree at Acme, got there

in our ten-year-old Chevy with “Keep Ohio Lovely”

and smiling emoji stickers on the rear bumper.

Spent $21.15 on Cheerios, skim milk and two-for-one

packs of chicken parts and ground beef.

In the check-out line ahead of me, a platinum blonde

bragged to her iPhone how she’d been cast

as a African princess. Aw shucks the scene got cut.

Hey, we spent two glorious weeks in August

traveling from Canton to Little Rock

in our new reconditioned RV. Love, Loretta Sue

© Nancy Scott

Louise Linton: What to know about Steve Mnuchin's wife

Nancy is author of nine books of poetry. Many of her poems deal with social justice issues.
She resides in New Jersey, USA, www.nancyscott.net


So Donald Said to Harvey…

“Well, you have may limited rotating concentric powers—so sad—

but, please get this, Mr. Rabbit, I am King through election,

and that gives me the sole power to forgive a man

who wasn’t guilty in the first place because we need to get

rid of those people who aren’t white and with us…

to enhance my standing with others who love me, and make them happy!”

© Kay Weeks

Hurricane Harvey Makes Landfall Near Corpus Christi, Tex.

Trump Pardons Joe Arpaio, Who Became Face of Crackdown on Illegal Immigration

Kay Weeks is a retired historic preservation professional who lives in Oella, Ellicott City, Maryland— she paints and writes and shares.


even more fun if

even more fun if, in the future, these abused youngsters
send old Tory money grubbers down t' pit with only a candle for light and a plastic hat to keep em from harm should the scraping o' the shit shovel bring th' whole cavern crashing
upon em . . .

© Philip Johnson

Tory peer says Brexit is good because young people will be able to work longer hours

Philip's work includes hard copy published by: Poetry Now, Anchor Poets, North West Disabled Writers Group, Das Alchemy, The Ugly Tree; Poetry Scotland, Mid Cheshire Writers Group, Cheshire Carers Centre Newsletter, National Assc for Colitis & Crohn's Disease newsletters, local, regional and a national newspaper.


Electronic Formats: Write Away, Caught In The Net, The Red Pencil, and The Writer's Hood, Transparent Words; Caught In The Net

Eating Invasives

Have you ever thought
of helping the planet
by eating the enemy--
and savoring each bite?

Now, this is not an ought,
and you may not think it right,
whatever, but an honest
indictment of our eating our friends!
I, for one, agree.

Bend your mind,
and slip that snail in head first,
then move to wild boar,
(No stink bugs on the menu!),
and disregard the idea
of the prickly spears that
guard the lion fish from predators—
the white meat tastes like
“Oh! Please don’t say chicken!”

I’m lickin’ my chops over
this menu of soft shell crabs
(unless the water is polluted),
then leaping, like a frog,
into the “legs,” and
lying down after that meal,
and feeling both full
and sanctimonious!

Considering Vegetarianism--
but after Thanksgiving.

© Kay Weeks

Extreme Meat: 5 Invasive Species You Can Eat

Sunday Supplement

Noel Loftus started our week with a small and delicate poem prompted by the search for missing 5 year old April Jones in west Wales, Always A Baby.
 
Anthony Baverstock continues to educate and enthral with unusual poetry forms. This week he treated us to a qasida, a pre-Arabic narrative form, allowing us to 'feel the age-old rhythms stir desert sand' as the Warrior Poet recounts his tale of love and loss and deeds to be remembered.

We had a shorter... but not so sweet poem from Philip Challinor on the defacing of art in Posthumous Collaboration but regular contributor Vala Hafstad's verse was on collaborations of a different kind: Vala continues to keep up us up to date on the wackier side of the news, this week with horny bovines texting their booty calls for a Hot Date
 
The UK's political conference season has not inspired many to wax poetic, so we were happy to welcome new contributor Philipos who had a few words to say in How Down at the Hyatt? about 'triumphal borismus / a portly olympostatic one'.

We're so short of submissions at the moment I even snuck in one of my own: Out of my depth - it was that or the test card. So do, please, keep your poems coming in or it will be nail-biting times here at Poetry24... which brings me to a poem from Kay Weeks on that very subject, below.

Have a good week

Clare (& Martin)


Nail Biting

I’m biting nails—thought it was OK--
Pathology has named it, Aw, Gee whiz!
Down to quick, and OCD, dismay;
It’s just another kind of “not their biz!”

© Kay Weeks

Nail Biting: Mental Disorder Or Just A Bad Habit?

Shut Down: Republican Convention in Tampa, Florida

I woke up in my nightgown,
saw that Waxing Gibbous moon,
and wanted to hold it
to my mother's breast!

Then this, Dear Lord--
You, or That or Some Entity
I now capitalize, but often reject
as invented! Sir Isaac...

Isaac, Sir, or otherwise,
a Tropical Storm of
some consequence,
you are now rolling into Tampa,
with circulation fierce:

You shut it down on Sunday,
and, I for one, believe it true that
there are no accidents. And you?

Republican men, hear this prayer:
Whoever is in charge!
Pierce those cold hearts
with love or fear--or both--
and help them take
all women into their fold
with equity and grace--or drown.

©  Kay Weeks

Republicans Postpone Start of Convention Because of Severe Weather

Kay Weeks. Ellicott City, MD. Worked in national historic preservation for 30 years, Dep’t of Interior, National Park Service, in the policy-setting Wash. DC home office.

Waiting in Line (Sonnet)

How many hours do we spend in line?
It seems unfair, or fair, I can’t tell which
But, certainly, it uses, wastes our time
Or, does it really? I just felt a twitch.

We waste the hours on cell and internet,
With sharing, posing, hiding, all the same—
When feet can do the walking, yes, and yet
We need some affirmation in the “game.”

These managers took care of attitudes:
Ranged from gripes, to grouchy, read them all,
Concluding that the wait created moods
So sent them packing to another stall.

Now, they get their luggage far away;
Negativity goodbye—so “Hey!”

© Kay Weeks

Why Waiting Is Torture

Kay Weeks. Ellicott City, MD. Worked in national historic preservation for 30 years, Dep’t of Interior, National Park Service, in the policy-setting Wash. DC home office.

Bringing in the Hooved Pros

Topic is eliminating invasive weeds,
but what a totally cool headline,
making me think--and perhaps also you--
of other hooved pros, such as the
devil in its many guises, that troll keeping
us from crossing the bridge, and so on...

The name of this specific invasive weed (Staten Island, NYC)
makes it sound as if it's wearing a flowing
toga,  and indeed, the park's department is
going to war with those mighty "phragmites,"
and here's the news feature twist:
They're brining in 20 Anglo-Nubians--goats

With names like Mozart, Hadyn, and choke, Van Goat,
with "floppy ears and plaintive bleats," and described
as "not fearsome," as they go "munching inexorably
through the long plate leaves in this first phrase of a
wetland restoration at what will soon be Freshkills Park."
This exciting experiment that prefaces...herbicide.

You know how we go inside our heads about some news article
written with a poetic touch (and this is one) that makes
us want to go and see what we're reading and maybe pet
the sweet goats as if they are our beloved cats,
but, staying within the confines of the article--Read on!
This is slated to be "the largest park...in NYC...in more than a century."

Summing it up, Eloise L. Hirsh, park administrator says
about the situation: "The sanitation department mows us once a year,
but this is 2,200 acres. We need help."  Bring on the goats
to be used in "vegetation management." And, oh my god!
In this new spiritually-coated age, the goat mowing, a "laboratory
for green practices" is hoped to turn degradation into "ecological redemption."

© Kay Weeks

To Tackle an Invasive Weed, Bringing In the Hooved Pros

Kay Weeks. Ellicott City, MD. Worked in national historic preservation for 30 years, Dep’t of Interior, National Park Service, in the policy-setting Wash. DC home office.

Joe Biden on LOVE

How many times have I said just that?
Forget I said this; disregard; delete!

You know, trying to squirm and squiggle
out of my (what?) last mask and pose

When what I would love to do
is touch your nose...no...that's not it...

When Joe Biden said we should
be living with the one we love...

and I literally sucked in my breath
because I'm not but said, JOE, you are right
to the evening news, alone with cats,
not to get into the political marriage issue...

So, here it is, straight from my semi-crooked
mouth:

It scares me to ask you to marry me

when you are Jewish and years younger
and already living with someone...

So, driving home from Rehoboth,
I thought I'd pose it this way and
just laughed and laughed out loud
for miles...what a fool...

The script was this:

OK! We'll have a pre-nup:
No sex, no salt
and no f___king profanity!

Of course, I probably won't tell you
because you'll laugh that laugh
that draws me in to such an extent

that I have to shut the door on feeling
and just stroke my cat.

© Kay Weeks

Biden on Gay Marriage: ‘Who Do You Love?’

Kay Weeks. Ellicott City, MD. Worked in national historic preservation for 30 years, Dep’t of Interior, National Park Service, in the policy-setting Wash. DC home office.

Wal Mart, Organic?

I felt a certain panic to read that
Wal Mart was going organic!
Not because they won’t do it
and profit,
--and many will get off on it--
but because I buy khaki padded envelopes,
red trikes, a t.v., one small lamp shade
and, although they are mostly well-made,
(yet employees are denied benefits and raises)
the idea of organic down the widened aisles
just screams a kind of cultural decay
and upscale begging,
profiteering by means of
applying a revered kind of name (organic)
to eggs, lettuce, apples, carrots, spinach,
strawberries, and the like,
and offering in sleazy packaged form
all that foodie, trendy stuff that beguiles.

© Kay Weeks


Is Walmart Really Going Organic and Local?


Kay Weeks. Ellicott City, MD. Worked in national historic preservation for 30 years, Dep’t of Interior, National Park Service, in the policy-setting Wash. DC home office.

Paula Deen Ain’t no Lean Machine

Not witnessed, not tragic, but perhaps
some magic in relating this story
because it made me smile and
even laugh when I looked at that
white hair, wide, smiling face photograph:
Paula Deen! Paula, Paula Deen!

No surprise that she has Type 2 Diabetes,
had it for three years, what with all
that sugar and fat she eats and teaches
plus that engaging laugh, "Y'all!"--
adding “I’ve always preached moderation,”
and “I don’t blame myself.”
Golden Mean! Paula Deen!

Oh No! Will not change her cooking style;
she's put on a new layer, teamed up
with a Danish pharmaceutical company
to spread the Company’s catchy slogan:
“Diabetes in a New Light” which advocates
the drug Victoria, and eating lighter foods…
perhaps, and maybe exercising...perhaps...

Son Bobby (no Diabetes yet) has his
own show: “Not My Mama’s Meals,”
and isn’t it just a family affair, what
with the business, food, transformation
and above all, the money money money!
Nothing like family sticking together
like macaroni you forgot to rinse!

New York’s marketing head says,
“There’s no question that she was the face
of a certain kind of egregious indulgence…”
Well, she says she won’t stop eating the way she does!
thousands of supportive tweets...and she
will continue to cook, to eat...teach kids
how to end up with Diabetes 2.
"Cause, honey," Ain't we all in this together
in our cute little stew like button mushrooms
swimming in butter and gasping for air?

As for Paula? She’s smiling wide
with her new family story,
meanwhile promoting the drug:
"Victoria." Y'all come to dinner soon now, ya hear?
We'll chow down and pop that pill and won't it be sweet?
Hail to the Queen! Paula Deen.

© Kay Weeks

Chef Has Diabetes, and Some Say ‘I Told You So’

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Kay 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.