34 Comments
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Catherine Elcik's avatar

I need this book to be illustrated and turned into a picture book for adults a la Go the Fuck To Sleep!

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Catherine Elcik's avatar

And by illustrated, I mean with stick figures. Because that's the only illustration that will work. Minimalist stick figures. So terrible they're funny stick figures. I know a girl if you need one. That girl is me. Talentless stick figure queen, me.

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Jane Roper's avatar

Ooooh, I'm liking this idea...

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Randy Susan Meyers's avatar

I need a rhyme

to make this time

quickly align

from slime

to sublime

when politics allows freedom

to chime

xx to you Jane

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Alisha Goldblatt's avatar

Erika Dreifus shared your post and hey, you are a poet after all. I wrote the following poem after Trump was elected the first time. Still totally applicable this time around. Hoping the last few lines offer some grace?

Post-Election Poem for the People

Come, let’s not harness the hyperbole,

advance more blame into this new day

where ego blots out reason.

We name our murderers

with a stark, passive regularity.

In the face of our fear,

That old past is reborn in all

its disgusting glory, every insult

shredding our mother

tongue, the dialects of difference

bleeding into the gutters.

This is a delicate effacement of ourselves,

like a slow, stupid fog.

Our country needs a pair of linguistic crutches,

now that every intonation is a challenge.

How can the words rebirth us?

Let us find some courage to keep parsing the phrases,

Let’s layer the world with language,

incanting against the inanity that we all live in.

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Margaret Ann Silver's avatar

Amazing and gorgeous. You have the poem.

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Stephen D Harrington's avatar

When I was in the throes of depression in college, I read Shelley's 'The Revolt of Islam' and was struck by the following passage. I memorized it and have referred to it often over the last 50-odd years. It offers me comfort and strength. Hopefully, it can provide a bit to others.

So without shame I spake:--'I will be wise,

And just, and free, and mild, if in me lies

Such power, for I grow weary to behold

The selfish and the strong still tyrannize

Without reproach or check.' I then controlled

My tears, my heart grew calm, and I was meek and bold.

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CarolineLeavittville's avatar

This is the greatest poem ever. I love you, Jane.

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Jane Roper's avatar

I love you too!!

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ccaldw1's avatar

Amen amen amen.

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Alix Klingenberg's avatar

#secretpoet 😘😘😘

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Erika Dreifus's avatar

This is most definitely not nothing.

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Dana Starr's avatar

I’m still in the freaking the fuck out stage but your wonderful “poem” helped me to smile a little bit today. Thank you.

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Beth Barany's avatar

I need one too.

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Jane Roper's avatar

Let me know if you find one!

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Tyler Sage's avatar

I like Ellen Bass’s “Relax” in moments like these (although there have been no moments like this in my life).

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Jane Roper's avatar

I'll look it up - thank you

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Jon Down's avatar

What a difference a week makes! And how different the world feels going from the ridiculously nuts prospect of Trump being our next president to all the amazing support Kamala is getting! We need a new poem!

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Jane Roper's avatar

YES!! In fact, I’ve been thinking of writing one…

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How to Love the World's avatar

damn fine line breaks too.

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Jane Roper's avatar

Thank you! One or two were made in jest…

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How to Love the World's avatar

even better. :)

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Wendy Mastronardi's avatar

Thank you for that/ yes that was most definitely a poem.

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Audrey Ritter's avatar

From Ogden Nash:

The trouble with a kitten's that

Eventually it becomes a cat.

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