Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Weapon

    “I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones” — Albert Einstein

                                       

SOURCE

“People often ask me how I feel about my invention being used to kill people every day and the AK being a common weapon of ethnic conflicts. I want to make it clear that I created my assault rifle to protect my country. You can blame politicians for its spreading out of control on a global scale.”— Mikhail Kalashnikov

Midweek Motif ~ Weapon

This journey of weaponry from knapping stones into desired shape - to - this age of RDS-220 hydrogen bomb has been unique. The aim is either defense or offence. It’s interesting to know that Crossbow was once considered so barbarous that it was prohibited as a weapon hateful to God and unfit for Christians. Sigh. We’ve traveled a long way from there.

Our Motif today is Weapon. To quote Malala Yousafzai in this context, “Let us pick up our books and pens, I said. They are our most powerful weapons. One child, one teacher, one book and one pen can change the world.”

Weapons are varied; in fact anything can be turned into a weapon if the user wills. One can Find one or Be one. Now, what do you say?

The Furious Gun

by Thomas Wyatt

The furious gun in his raging ire,
When that the bowl is rammed in too sore
And that the flame cannot part from the fire,
Cracketh in sunder, and in the air doth roar
The shivered pieces; right so doth my desire,
Whose flame increaseth from more to more,
Which to let out I dare not look or speak;
So now hard force my heart doth all to break. 

Dream Deferred

by Langston Hughes

What happens to a dream deferred?
Does it dry up
Like a raisin in the sun?
Or fester like a sore--
And then run?
Does it stink like rotten meat?
Or crust and sugar over--
like a syrupy sweet?
Maybe it just sags
like a heavy load.
Or does it explode? 

Incident

by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember. 

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others in the spirit of the community—

                (Next week Susan’s Midweek Motif will be ~ Moon)

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Bullying

Bars & Melody

“Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that 
will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility, 
or indifference, or sheer helplessness.” 
― Honoré de Balzac, Père Goriot

"To me, that's what bullying is, showing off. It's saying, I'm better than you, 
I can take you down. Not just physically, but emotionally.” 
― Whoopi Goldberg, Is It Just Me?: Or is it nuts out there?

Midweek Motif ~ Bullying

What would it take to stop bullying? To keep it from escalating to destruction? To endure and survive it if it cannot be changed?  

Your challenge: In a new poem, put yourself in the position of bullied, bully, ally or observer.  Bring awareness to the nature of bullying and/or the solution.

The Moral Bully 

by Oliver Wendell Holmes

YON whey-faced brother, who delights to wear

A weedy flux of ill-conditioned hair,

Seems of the sort that in a crowded place

One elbows freely into smallest space;

A timid creature, lax of knee and hip,

Whom small disturbance whitens round the lip;

One of those harmless spectacled machines,

. . . . 

(Read the rest HERE at PoemHunter.com)

Incident

by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,
Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,
And he was no whit bigger,
And so I smiled, but he poked out
His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of Baltimore
From May until December;
Of all the things that happened there
That's all that I remember.

I SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN THIS LONG AGO IN HOPES YOU MIGHT HAVE SEEN IT AND STILL BE HERE

By Tim Schaefer

when I was comin' up

it was up close

and personal

and in your face

(not Facebook)

one thing it does

when you're on the receiving end

is helps to build character

so develop a hard shell

kids

like that giant tortoise at the zoo

(and shine it with turtle wax)

and have some empathy

for your tormentors

for they are hurting

the same as you

and

consider the source

can't tell you how many times

that has seen me through

never once validated

or took their words

to heart

that's called knowing who you are

never knew anyone

of my generation

(them damn hippies!)

who checked out over it

cuz

there is a place

deep inside

at your very core

where no one can hurt you

find it

it is your strength

and your reserve

and one day

it will lead you

triumphant

into the sun

(Posted with the poet's permission.  

This poem was featured last week at I Wish I'd Written This)

***

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and visit others 
in the spirit of the community.

                       

 (Next week Susan's Midweek Motif will be - Picnic)

***

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ A Date "that will live in infamy," or a Bomb of a Day

“As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found 
himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.” 
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis

“After a cruel childhood, one must reinvent oneself. 
Then reimagine the world.” 
― Mary Oliver

General view of Pearl Harbor during
the Japanese air strikes on 7 December 1941,  
U.S. Navy National Museum of Naval Aviation
photo No. 1996.488.029.034.

     In response to the destruction of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, the USA declared war on Japan and officially joined the Ally struggle in WW2. This was the occasion of  USA President FDR's famous Infamy Speech, the source of "date that will live in infamy." 

Midweek Motif ~ 

A Date "that will live in infamy" 

or 

a Bomb of a Day

Some days are so bad that 

they force new decisions and directions.

Your Challenge: Write about a turning-point event in history or in your life.

Here are two poems to inspire:

Pearl Harbor 

By Robinson Jeffers

I.

Here are the fireworks. The men who conspired and labored

To embroil this republic in the wreck of Europe have got their bargain--

And a bushel more. As for me, what can I do but

fly the national flag from the top of the tower?

America has neither race nor religion nor its own language: nation or nothing.

Stare, little tower, 
Confidently across the Pacific, the flag on your

head. . . . 

          

          (Read the rest HERE at The Los Angeles Times.)

Incident

by Countee Cullen

Once riding in old Baltimore,

Heart-filled, head-filled with glee,
I saw a Baltimorean
Keep looking straight at me.

Now I was eight and very small,

And he was no whit bigger,

And so I smiled, but he poked out

His tongue, and called me, 'Nigger.'

I saw the whole of Baltimore

From May until December;

Of all the things that happened there

That's all that I remember. 

For those who are new to Poets United:  

1. Post your new BOMB poem on your site, and then link it here.
2. If you use a picture include its link.  
3. Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 
4. Leave a comment here.
5. Visit and comment on our poems.

(Next week's Midweek Motif is human rights.)

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Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Best Friend

“One loyal friend is worth 10 thousand relatives” 

― Euripides

Famous best friends in literature and media:

Hamlet and Horatio

Celia and Rosalind

Romeo and Mercutio
Elizabeth and Charlotte

Tom and Huck
Butch and Sundance

Calvin and Hobbes

Charlotte and Wilbur

Frodo and Sam

Peter Pan and Tinkerbell

Dorothy and Toto

Pooh and Piglet

Sherlock Homes and Doc Watson

C3PO and R2D2

Thelma and Louise

Mary and Rhoda

Laverne and Shirley

Buffy and Willow

Savannah, Gloria, Bernadine and Robin

Abilene and Minny

I know you can add more names to this list, and hope you let me know who in your comments below.  But your poem?  

Midweek Motif ~ Best Friend

• Let your poem take you in a direction that doesn't name drop but is rich in experience. 
• Dare I limit you to 80 words or less?  I won't insist, but try.  When I think of the role of a best friend's presence or absence in my life, in my father's life or in teams and military service, a lot of words come.

And when I listen to this sentimental song, I feel all mushy inside.

Here are three inspiring poems:

The Arrow and the Song

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW  (88 words)

I shot an arrow into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For, so swiftly it flew, the sight
Could not follow it in its flight.

I breathed a song into the air,
It fell to earth, I knew not where;
For who has sight so keen and strong,
That it can follow the flight of song?

Long, long afterward, in an oak
I found the arrow, still unbroke;
And the song, from beginning to end,

             I found again in the heart of a friend.

"Perhaps this verse would please you better—Sue—(2)"

BY COLETTE LABOUFF ATKINSON  (148 words)

Before boys, Susan drove me to work, for teriyaki takeout on Manchester past Lincoln Boulevard. Inseparable, we planned winter and Easter vacations. In the stairwell, I tried to talk. She cut me off. Her echo was loud ....

(Read the rest of this prose poem HERE.) 

Tableau by Countee Cullen  (71 words)

Locked arm in arm they cross the way

The black boy and the white,

The golden splendor of the day

The sable pride of night.

From lowered blinds the dark folk stare

And here the fair folk talk,

Indignant that these two should dare

In unison to walk.

Oblivious to look and word

They pass, and see no wonder

That lightning brilliant as a sword

Should blaze the path of thunder. 

Please:  

1.      Post your poem with it best friend motif  on your site, and then link it here.

2.      Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 

3.      Leave a comment here.

4.      Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.

(Next week's Midweek Motif is Public Protest.)

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Poets United Mid-Week Motif ~ Equality

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. 
Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that.”

Martin Luther King, Jr.,  Memorial National Memorial

A MOTIF is an important and usually repeating idea or theme in a work of art, a feature 
in a decoration or design <a flower motif in wallpaper>, and similar ideas in music and science.

Today’s Motif:  Equality

Write a narrative poem relating an experience that illustrates equality or inequality.  Some of us will show an event ruled by hatred and/or racial oppression ~ a story we have been reluctant to tell.  It may be as "small" as wishing we said a joke "isn't funny" to as large as turning a country around. Others may recall or imagine an event ruled by such equality that it is almost invisible. Feel free to take an historical subject if you wish. 

Today, January 15th, is the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  Like Nelson Mandela in South Africa, MLK worked in the USA for a non-violent solution to the isolation and oppression of Black citizens.  His goal was huge: to heal the racial divide in the USA by guaranteeing to all citizens equal rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

In the comments below, please say what inspires you when you think about equal rights ~ a song, poem, story, artwork, event or person?  Here's one of my inspirations, a poem by Countee Cullen:

Tableau 

Locked arm in arm they cross the way
The black boy and the white,
The golden splendor of the day
The sable pride of night.

From lowered blinds the dark folk stare
And here the fair folk talk,
Indignant that these two should dare
In unison to walk.

Oblivious to look and word
They pass, and see no wonder
That lightning brilliant as a sword
Should blaze the path of thunder. 

And another, the first song about equal rights I ever heard:

Please:

1.     Post your narrative poem on your site and then link it here.

2.     Share only original and new work written for this challenge. 

3.     Honor our community by visiting and commenting on others' poems.

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