Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 19

If yesterday’s poem zoomed in on current events, and traced a through line in history, today’s piece by Daniel Olsson shows how that history, forgotten or ignored, seeps into today.

Blinded by Bitterness

 Shallow in the sands of shame,
 Meaner with memory of might,
 My nation danced with the songs of sin,
 My people were blinded by bitter sight…
 We killed the inclusive innocent,
 We froze children in the cold,
 We witnessed death by paralyzing police,
 We had no children left to hold…
 What does old master have to say?
 No award for fate of finishing the song,
 To worship a flag while crying at an anthem,
 Our conservative half could do no wrong….
 I cried for the people living in the past,
 Artificial muscles with disposable spines,
 This country was a true coloring book,
 They were too scared to draw within the lines…

©Daniel Olsson – 2021

*****

Daniel Olsson is a poet from Bloomington, Indiana who has been writing poetry for the past eight years. Daniel’s writing revolves around contemporary society, including the topics of economic inequality, environmental justice, social issues and international relations. He can be found on Instagram and Tumblr as @apoeticcookie

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 18

Poet Faizan Syed returns with a call to action. This powerful prose poem, full of protest and proclamation, is a rallying cry.

 
   Arrest the police. Arrest the police and arrest the white men who think they are invincible and arrest anyone who makes them invincible. Fuck Trump. To blame him alone, however, is to ignore the scope of this harsh, dystopian wasteland we find ourselves in. These crimes against humanity were forewarned. In Charlottesville. In the racist rallies. In the conspiratorial hatred. In the debates. This is the new Red Scare. This is blood. In a rotunda full of dicks, the police managed only to shoot & kill a woman? As if she was the most threatening? Sounds about right. Bros before hos, right? Fuck the bro-lice. Fuck their complacency. Fuck their blatant injustice. Fuck their ignorance. Fuck their guns.  Fuck their racist mercy. Fuck their Trump-loving asslicking leaders. Fuck their selective extremism. Fuck their fear.

   They should have to answer for their organized crime. These violent rioters have been vindicated. How dare the police protect them? How dare Trump validate their frustration? How dare Trump celebrate violence in his name? How dare he refuse to acknowledge the trauma that the legislators endured - lawmakers who blindly followed and protected him, only to be betrayed yet again? How dare he traumatize us all? The white man must be buoyed by a force field of narcissistic invulnerability. The white man who storms the Capitol and claims it for himself is declaring his own impotence. The white man wouldn’t dare to pull this shit if he knew what the black man knew. It’s clear now that lives are on the line. It’s clear now that Trump’s power has broken something in us, has released our own personal hellhounds & demons. It’s clear now that Trump would rather watch people die and cower in fear for his name, because in his delusional reality of pure denial and paranoid projection of unprecedented scale, he is fighting a war and he knows only one way to win. The way of the coward. The way of the white man. Threaten. Deny. Stoke hatred. Incite violence. Colonize. Praise God, or at least praise the Dark Lord, and justify everything with a barrage of lawsuits and finger-pointing. Justify the unjustifiable by claiming ownership of justice. 
 
   Silly white man. Everything you have was taken from someone else. Everything you claim is silly. You can’t own the people of a nation. You can’t own liberty, or citizenship, or the law. You can’t own reality, no matter how many idiots you rally. You can’t even claim responsibility for yourself. You put the baby in baby boomer. You are helpless. Yet your tantrums are dangerous. Your words carry the weight of guillotines. Your beliefs literally endanger lives. America, you have been threatened, you have been brought to your knees. Now you can’t claim that you were ever great. You can only claim that the white man would rather destroy the democracy he once held dear because he’s convinced he is the only one who owned it in the first place. You can only claim that the white man considers you his bitch. His slave. America, we are not the land of the free, we are not home to the brave. America you are homeless. America you are loved almost as much as you are hated.  

   We are the minorities and we are the oppressed. We are the truth-seekers and the truth-keepers. You need us now more than ever, America. You can’t survive without us. So let us in and let us be heard. Let us rebuild the tatters of your broken mind. Let us grieve the loss of your sanity, America. We can be the antidote, we can be the medicine you need, but you have to protect us too America. Protect us from yourself. Because the white man hasn’t gone anywhere. He got to go home. While our brothers and sisters still lay rotting in your prisons. We are crying out for justice, America. We are here and we know how to protest peacefully, even though we are still more likely to get killed in the process. We are here and we are your lifeblood. We will change you for the better, America. And some of us will literally die trying. Just like Malcolm X. Just like Martin Luther King Jr. Just like JFK. Just like George Floyd. We are not giving up in our fight against white supremacy. Your mask is slipping, America. You’re teetering on the borderline and you are staring down the brink of psychosis. Listen to the sound of our voice, America. Trust us. Come back to us, America. We got you.
  

©Faizan Syed – 2021

*****

Faizan Syed, MD is a writer, musician, and psychiatrist based in Queens, NY and is a member of the Queens Poetic Alchemy Collective. He was awarded the Folger Adams Jr. Prize for 1st place in Poetry and the Graduating Poet’s Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been featured on Humans of New York. Faizan’s work has appeared in Montage Literary Arts Journal, Newtown Literary, Cosmonauts Ave, & Empty Mirror. Poems he’s written in collaboration with Matthew DeMarco have been published in Jet Fuel Review, Dogbird Journal, and “They Said,” an anthology of collaborative writing from Black Lawrence Press. One can find him on Instagram @docfaizan or on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/docfaizan.

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 17

Spoken word artist Lloyd Garrison is back again, this time reminding us of something we often forget or deliberately ignore. Everyone is living a story, the full details of which aren’t always obvious. And everyone faces struggles and difficulties that we don’t, and can’t possibly know. Mr. Garrison gives at least one view of how we can overcome these things.

This Hill

I am standing
on this hill,
locking arms with millions of brave men and women
of all races and different faces
who have given me
the motivation, determination, and support
to continue pushing forward
even when I could have given up
a long time ago.

You have served as my reason for remaining focused
on my journey to prove
myself right
and the doubters like you
wrong. 

To this day, I still can’t understand why they left me for
HIM
HER
THEM,
I kept going despite some people 
saying “I wasn’t good enough" 
or "I was wasting my time." 

I am not ashamed to admit there were times 
where I felt alone with no 
where to go, 
but your presence allowed me to see light in dark

I have respect for the man or woman
who is not afraid to humble themselves and ask 
for what they lack…
not everyone has their shit together
not everyone can choose between living in the suburbs
or sleeping underneath a bridge. 

The meal that defined my youth:
Fish sticks, crinkle cut fries, and orange soda
now represents the hill I had to climb to arrive at my today. 

Universities don’t give out degrees for overcoming adversity, 
otherwise millions would have plaques on their walls. 

I may not be in the terminal yet…
but the plane I am flying now has a destination. 
All those nights I stayed up wondering

how

if

when
 
were only setting my rise. 

You can wipe the blood, sweat, and tears off my face,
I knew my journey was never promised to be easy.
But I am on this hill
so we can stand on the same level…
I’m not saying I am better than you
or anyone else…
I just want to officially introduce you to 
the person you doubted for all these years
the person you said would never finish school while taking care of 2 kids,
the person you said would never come back stronger after that horrific car crash almost took me out, 
the person you thought was done once my ex-left, 
the person you placed limitations on due to my gender, 
the person you assumed was no competition 
because you confused age with ability.

I am on this hill to make the picture clear 
to you 
to your face.
I am not afraid, 
I am not less fortunate, 
I am not less deserving, 
I am not less equipped,
I am not less willing to conquer whatever obstacles you place in front of me. 

I am happy. 
I am the new owner of a bright future, 
a successful present, 
and a past filled with smoke.
I am leaving it
where it belongs: 
in my rearview mirror.

©Lloyd Garrison – 2021

*****

Mr. Lloyd L. Garrison is the CEO of Hidden G.E.M.S. by LG. Lloyd received his Bachelor of Arts (2001) and Master of Arts (2005) degrees in English from Miami University in Oxford, Oh. LLoyd’s goal is to spread messages of hope, love, peace, and truth through the power of the spoken word.  

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 14

Over the weekend, it was reported that police in Rochester, NY pepper-sprayed a handcuffed nine-year-old girl–a girl shoved into the snow so she could be handcuffed. Of all the many, many things that need to be addressed by this new administration, at or near the top of the list should be monumental changes for the way we fund, train, manage, and hold accountable the police who should be protecting and serving us.

Common Contributors 
To the Breathing Problems 
Of the Average American

It is asthma.
It is emphysema.
It is COPD.
It is COPs.
It is the stench of GOP hypocrisy.
It is a high life of smoking.
It is an era of burning brush.
It is a lifetime of burning bridges
& smoking enemies.
It is the noxious haze of racism.
It is asbestos & ozone & mustard gas.
It is clouds of over-cooked coal
& toxic rivers of white fragility.
It is the fetid fog of the undrained swamp.
It is buses and trucks and traffic jams.
It is planes, trains, & autoerotic asphyxiation.
It is vehicular & respiratory congestion 
with congestion prices to pay.
It is oleoresin capsicum; it is mace & capsaicin.
It is the foul fumes of the rotting corpses of theirstory.
It is the brume of brutality, the corrupt cop pollution.
It is chlorobenzylidene malononitrile.
It is the smoke & smog of privilege.
It is the murk & must of injustice for just us.
It is the peasoup of oppression.

It is the noose.
It is the knee.
It is the nation.

© David Siller 2020

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 13

Let’s hope you’re still fired up. Poet and musician Faizan Syed returns to keep us motivated, keep us questioning and bettering who we are, and keep us focused on everything that needs to be unphucked in these next four years.

Dear Supposedly Existent Consciousness In Human Shell,

 The seeds of discontent have been sown. It’s time to harvest & cull
 that gnawing desire we mistook for pride eating us from within. 
 It’s time to erase every debt & forgive every student loan, it’s time
 to shut down the oil & the drones, to declare war on war until peace
 is the only way we accept & move on. If any of this is real after all. 
 If you’re not just a voice in a head. For now, we go on in our masks
 and wear another mask on top of that. For now we stand 
 six feet apart in solidarity. We can’t nourish anyone 
 with hatred. We can’t afford to finance & recreate
 the horrors. Of Vietnam, Iran, Afghanistan, 
 Syria, Yemen, Palestine, & countless others, of 
 crony colonialism shoved down protesting throats.
 Are you a protester or are you protested?                                           False.
 We are false for as long as we are blind to each other’s nakedness. 
 Now
 it’s time to defund the fucking war machines
 & the banks that roll them, the fat cats that control
 us, & the criminals in uniform, once and for all. 
 It’s time to repaint the White House 
 using every color under the sun 
 and infrared to boot. I had a dream 
 too. That for the first time in history,
 wealth itself would be redistributed equitably.
 It’s about time. Get greedy & you lose. 
 Them’s the new rules. Welcome to the era
 of equanimity. Can you see it too, friend? 
 A future, like mine? Or any future 
 at all? Or is my machine
 imploding again? Virtual,
 like Mr. Robot, I can’t stop. 
 I won’t drop this dream, Pops.
 I learned how to trust the hard way.
 So, take my word for it, we’ll adjust. 
 I know you must be real, friend.
 If you aren’t, then
 why would you
 even bother
 to read
 this
 to 
 see
 this
 through?
  
 Who 
 aren’t 
 you?

©Faizan Syed– 2021

*****

Faizan Syed, MD is a writer, musician, and psychiatrist based in Queens, NY and is a member of the Queens Poetic Alchemy Collective. He was awarded the Folger Adams Jr. Prize for 1st place in Poetry and the Graduating Poet’s Award from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has been featured on Humans of New York. Faizan’s work has appeared in Montage Literary Arts Journal, Newtown Literary, Cosmonauts Ave, & Empty Mirror. Poems he’s written in collaboration with Matthew DeMarco have been published in Jet Fuel Review, Dogbird Journal, and “They Said,” an anthology of collaborative writing from Black Lawrence Press. One can find him on Instagram @docfaizan or on SoundCloud at https://soundcloud.com/docfaizan.

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 12

Performance Poet Dee Allen makes a timely return. The US Government, through the National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin, declares that we must be alert and vigilant to the movements and machinations of the domestic antigovernment terrorists. Dee Allen makes sure we pay attention to what they’re saying, what they have been saying, lest we be caught unawares.

Rolling Out


“DUE TO THE ELECTION
VICTORY OF OPPONENT
JOE BIDEN, OUR PRESIDENT’S
STAND-BY ORDER HAS BEEN RESCINDED.

WE’RE ROLLING OUT.”

Rolling out
To save Western Civilisation—
They love to blow
On that dog whistle

Rolling out
To prevent White genocide—
They obviously
Don’t read statistics

Rolling out
For the Whites who built Western society alone—
They've obviously
Forsaken the slaves who raised wood, mortar & stone

Rolling out
To give multi-cultural populace
Their own racial reckoning
For the loss of a “fearless leader”

Rolling out
To keep America great—
On the streets, like no other—
Maybe Hitler’s Brownshirts* and Nazi skinhead gangs

Rolling out
With American flags in their horde—
Proud to sow intimidation, reap domestic terror
Quasi-military boys so proud to be so damn wrong—
 
W: Thankstaking 2020

*Das Sturmabteilung [ SA - “Storm Unit” ].

©Dee Allen – 2021

*****

Dee Allen is an African-Italian performance poet based in Oakland, California. Active on the creative writing & Spoken Word tips since the early 1990s. With 35 anthology appearances [including Your Golden Sun Still Shines, Rise, Extreme, The Land Lives Forever, Civil Liberties United, Trees In A Garden Of Ashes, Colossus: Home and new from Chicago-based MuseWrite Press, Impact] under his figurative belt so far, he is also the author of five books, which can be found via the links below.

BONEYARD [ 2010 ] >  Dee Allen (poormag.info)[Book is currently out of print.]
UNWRITTEN LAW [ 2012 & 2020 ] >  Dee Allen (poormag.info)   [2012 edition is out of print.]  and   UNWRITTEN LAW: POEMS [ 1994–2011 ] | poorpressprensapobre[2020 edition.]
STORMWATER  [2017] >  Storm Water | poorpressprensapobre and   Stormwater – Poetry by Dee Allen | flapperpress
SKELETAL BLACK [2019] >  Skeletal Black | poorpressprensapobre and  Skeletal Black – Poetry by Dee Allen | flapperpress
ELOHI UNITSI [2020] >  Elohi Unitsi: Poems [2013 – 2018] (conviction2change.com)


*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 11

Spoken word artist Lloyd Garrison returns with another piece, looking for sense in the case, looking for comfort in a topsy-turvy world. How do you cope? What do you turn to when the answers seem elusive? Where do you look when the questions are relentless?

Karma

KARMA

I will be the first one to admit…

if KARMA wanted to…it could wear red lipstick and 9-inch heels just to gain the attention that comes with being an undercover celebrity…but it chooses to ride clean with low profile tires and hide in the shadows. All KARMA needs is space and time to send a direct facebook IM to the world that reads: “men lie…women lie, but the eye in the sky always tells the truth.” 

I know what you’re thinking…if Karma is so real…why are some people able to get away with a crime and serve no jail time? But I can’t even ride around the block without being stopped by a cop for having a busted headlight. How does that make sense? 

Why do all the best jobs go to the most unqualified people? But there are millions of qualified people who are unemployed and hungry in the midst of  global pandemic. How does that make sense? 

Why are some people able to storm the capital and live to tell their story? But others would have been gunned down for the same 15 minutes of fame. How does that make sense? 

Please tell me I’m crazy…because life is just so confusing to me at times. All I can tell you is you aren’t crazy…life, never promised, serves us lemons and lemonade depending on the day…but a fair shake was never part of the agreement. But the great thing is…life is worth living when you live it the right way….by treating others  with the same level of respect you expect and deserve from them…or you can wait for Karma to come knocking on your door one day. It may not arrive today…or it may arrive tomorrow…but unlike UPS…it still remembers your address….and Karma always delivers on time. 

You may not understand what I am about to say to you…but I am going to say it anyway because you need to hear this…KARMA is that bitch you don’t want to fuck with…the one that slashes your tires in the middle of the night while you are sleeping. Don’t take my word for it…everyone is entitled to their own opinion....and I respect how you feel….but some people still feel what happens in the dark should stay in the dark…but do me a favor: tell all those people who feel they can sweep all their dirt underneath the rug….to keep having birthdays…one day someone will blow out all of their candles from an undisclosed location…tell all those people who operate from a position of arrogance instead of humility to keep taking the people they claim to love for granted…one day someone they love may refuse to love them back…tell all those people to keep ignoring the law…one day someone may help them close on their new home…a 6 by 7 cell next to a drunk. 

Somewhere along your timeline there was a time, a place, a face, a name, and a game you began playing when you thought Karma was a joke. But you forgot you never know who is watching you. KARMA can show up on anyone’s doorstep at any time, any place, anywhere without a search warrant. All Karma needs is a reason to pay you a visit. 

I heard you when you said that part-time job you had at Taco Bell fired you for no reason, but did you really think you could get away with your drawer coming up short every week?

I heard you when you said you were just keeping that rumor alive about your co-worker…but it had nothing to do with them trying to commit suicide twice in one calendar year…but at least now you know you never know what someone is going through. 

I heard you when you said checking out those Instagram models during your downtime is harmless…but you got a WHOLE WIFE and kids at home who love you more than life itself…maybe that’s why you get the cold shoulder every time you roll over and try to “get some.”

I am not here to judge you…what you do behind closed doors is your business…I’m just saying…whatever you do...just be careful…
KARMA has a license to carry in all 50 states. 
KARMA may not get you now….but when it comes for you….it shoots to kill….and it leaves no bullets in the chamber…
Karma is and always will be the real deal….
whether you choose to believe it or not.

©Lloyd Garrison – 2021

*****

Mr. Lloyd L. Garrison is the CEO of Hidden G.E.M.S. by LG. Lloyd received his Bachelor of Arts (2001) and Master of Arts (2005) degrees in English from Miami University in Oxford, Oh. LLoyd’s goal is to spread messages of hope, love, peace, and truth through the power of the spoken word.  

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 10

As the great Allen Ginsberg once said, I’m sticking ‘my queer shoulder to the wheel.’ So should we all. It’s time. Are you up to the task?

after it all implodes

and the debris litters the psyche & the sight
and the shitstains have stained skin & scarred skull
and disclosed truth, fog-dense, weighs the air inbetween
and the inside thoughts outed shout too clearly
  across rooftops & rest stops, pastures & plots
and lumps form from swung fists that had connected too solidly with nose tips
and the stench of burned flags & standards
  & burned bridges & tunnels
  permeates the garbs & the getups & the guise
  of each & every one

grab a rag and broom and dustpan
grab soap and gauze and bandages
get paint and spackle, get hammer and nail

roll up sleeves, protect your face, glove your hands
the sun’s coming up
  and there is backbreaking work to be done
  vexing vital overdue work

©David Siller – 2021

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 8

Take the only Western industrialized uber-wealthy democracy to not have Universal Health Care. Toss in a global pandemic. Stir. Poet Daniel Olsson shows us why we must be mindful of this lack in our society, and that we must address it before it’s too late.

 
 

Nation of Sickness

  
 There was once a sickening
 at the site of the healthy undone…
 Sick were broke but not broken
 or bested by the givers of health bills…
 A mother takes the child to the clinic,
 The mother cares for sickness within,
 Only for a second can the care last
 as the nurse carries forward the check
 of monumental burden…
 Stay away from the doctor,
 Turn away from the medicine,
 Money won what should have
 always been undone by the intellectuals
 who govern the halls of our human rights…
 We were scared termites eating away
 at a house ready to fall down upon us,
 Believing the theft of true health was
 not sacred enough to be cared for,
 Warnings ignored by mothers of old to be
 true to the lungs,
 Be soft upon the heart,
 Carry love for the marrow in the bones…
 We calcified a cancer in our mind so
 few could climb the mountain of greed
 and ignore the dead bodies entrenched
 in the streets of their ascent...
 And for what the dying doctor spoke,
 The parents I serve have grown tired in the day,
 The children I love grow sickly in the night,
 My nation has fallen to its knees where the business
 venture stands tall…
 A country of experiments in wealth,
 And no conscious for health,
 So much freedom we were told,
 Unless freedom of body, mind and soul
 Never count in the view of our leaders…

©Daniel Olsson – 2021

*****


Daniel Olsson is a poet from Bloomington, Indiana who has been writing poetry for the past eight years. Daniel’s writing revolves around contemporary society, including the topics of economic inequality, environmental justice, social issues and international relations. He can be found on Instagram and Tumblr as @apoeticcookie .

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021.

Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !

Posted on by waxyandpoetic

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? Day 7

Today’s piece by Lauren Miller reminds us of the work that has been done, and of the labors still to come. May we all strive for this, and be inspired by this.

LEGACY

with homage to Dr. King


And I know that myself is positive
And I know that myself has hope

And I know that I am capable, of all that I am called to do…
of all whom I am called to love

I shall not set my beams to high
Bright, in retaliation
Bent, to mutual destruction, from too much light in the road


I will search for sense on this highway


A bicentennial ago, a dirt path--une expérience
                                               ...evolved...
Destiny, manifested as the snarl of traffic at a toll booth 

How shall my legacy be written?
Where shall my children stand, or my children’s children?

And I will stand on the side of light
And I will walk in Love

©Lauren Miller – 2021

*****
Perpetually on the lookout for the sacred in the ordinary, Lauren Miller is a student of politics, education, and French. TX>AZ>IL>TX. A nature lover and mom of four, she and her husband celebrated 28 years together in 2020. On IG @laurenebmiller, where she sometimes posts pictures from her backyard.

*****

For the first 100 days of the Biden administration, this website will feature a new poem of What’s Next!? These pieces can be calls to action, calls to attention, or calls to anger. They will light the way and guide the fight. They will get us moving and keep our momentum. They will be filled with hope, with anger, with sorrow. They will get us into good trouble and point out the trouble we need to stop. They will be polished gems, or rough-cut drafts of rage, or in-process pieces searching for peace. They may be haiku or tanka, limericks or lyrics, verses free or fettered.

#100Days100Poems of What’s Next!? wants your poems, your prose, your visual art (photos, drawings, sculptures), your music, your short films and animations. Interpret the theme as broadly as you’d like.

If you would like to submit to this endeavor, please send an email, with your visual art (as .jpg or .pdf) or your poem saved as a word document (.docx) to waxyandpoetic AT gmail DOT com. Include a short bio (2-3 sentences) and social media/website information. All rights remain with the author. Please address any formatting preferences in your email. Waxyandpoetic.com will post submissions time permitting, with at least one per day beginning 20 January 2021. Read, follow, share, submit, live, love, spread light! Don’t forget to use #100Days100Poems !