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New Poem "AND WAIT"
Category: Writing and Poetry
AND WAIT
religion
what is thy name
judaism, buddhism, hinduism, islam
angelican, pentecostal, orthodox, christian
in fiery rage what shall we call thee
we believers and non-believers
agnostic and atheist
scientologist and diasporic
who wait on the dying
alone and in groups
separated, segregated
in restricted rooms
for the prayers of last prayers
the hopers of hopelessness
the giver uppers on believing
faith
where shall we find thee
in cardiac waiting rooms
bounded by loneliness
engrained in not knowing
advocates and skeptics
surrounded alone
on deaths favorite floor
holding our breath
focused on a phone
whispering a wish
surveying deaths door
waiting on the dying
to live
"after telling your loved one good-bye
you will go to the cardiac care waiting room
and wait, and wait, and wait,
and wait…….."
©2008Shirley
Last week my husband had a heart attack and had to have surgery.
I wrote this while sitting long hours alone in the Cardiac Care Waiting Room
observing the other families who were also
….. waiting.
Thank you for all your kind thoughts and well wishes
He is home and adjusting.
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Currently
reading
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Dying While Black
By
Vernellia, R Randall
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10:06 AM
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33 Comments - 64 Kudos
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August 16, 2008 - Saturday
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Poem "ADULTERY"
Category: Writing and Poetry
ADULTERY
Where were we meant to be
In the yesterdays of our lives?
Is fate so fragile that time alone
Has changed our course?
In love we came together,
Open hearts and anxious minds.
In inert reprisal we grew apart,
Open hearts and anxious minds.
Nostalgia now surrounds us
In this subtle place and time.
Whilst waves of fury entrenched within
Are eating our souls alive.
Does life offer no more than rampage?
Does fate protect the enraged heart?
Must our lives belong to someone else?
Are we void dignity, void pride?
Where were we meant to be
In the yesterdays of our lives?
In love you blindly took my hand
I held your heart in mine.
From
"ONE DAY
Life, Love and Controversy in Middle America"
By
Shirley Howard Hall
Order on AmazonMarketplace
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0979853885?ie=UTF8&seller=A6N8EYVB9EY8I&sn=SM%20Group%20Publishing.
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Currently
reading
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One Day
By
Shirley Hall
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8:14 PM
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60 Comments - 98 Kudos
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August 10, 2008 - Sunday
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New Poem "THANATOS"
Category: Writing and Poetry
THANATOS
I shall not live this life of death
huffing and wheezing through rotted lungs
flourishing on drugs dispensed through tubes
beaming through eyes that no longer behold
paraded upon this sterile bed
my bodily sewage laid out to rest
sweat and piss soaked head to foot
clear of head lost in spirit
I'm dying
No longer landlord to bodily fluids
sole owner of this excruciating pain
lost alone in this harrowing existence
proprietor and title-holder of this frame
dare treat me as a child at play
whispering my destiny into selfish hearts
calcified bones fetid and rancid
this decision is mine
I'm dying
I will not live this life of death
shitting and pissing in basins and tubes
laid out on display half naked and rank
pull the tubes pull the plugs
I'm dying
My petals don't open to the forenoon sun
they no longer absorb early morning's dew
my limbs hang wearily my branches hang bear
euthanasia is mine
I'm dying
©2008Shirley
THANATOS : from Greek Mythology:
(or Thanatus) was the god or daimon of non-violent death.
Medical definition: "Death Instinct"
postulated by Sigmund Freud as coexisting with and opposing the life instinct. Also called Thanatos. (coined by Sigmund Freud)
The term euthanasia comes from the Greek words "eu"-meaning good and "thanatos"-meaning death, which combined means "well-death" or "dying well".
Eu-tha-na-sia
Also called mercy killing. the act of putting to death painlessly or allowing to die, as by withholding extreme medical measures, a person or animal suffering from an incurable, esp. a painful, disease or condition
The term euthanasia comes from the Greek words "eu"-meaning good and "thanatos"-meaning death, which combined means "well-death" or "dying well".
6:45 AM
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71 Comments - 141 Kudos
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August 3, 2008 - Sunday
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New Poem "ABSTENTION"
Category: Writing and Poetry
ABSTENTION
I tire so of
disheveled crooners
on disk and vinyl
sermonizing while advocating
a gratifying lovemaking
sordid hellholes
emotional feces
celibate bedrooms
impaired libidos
poignant confrontations
desecrating borders
pillaging seams
ravaging stitches
perpetuating the evil
decomposing the good
of what was
and what could be
what's lost
and what should be
In my most passionate moments
I hate you!
your oversized house
your oversized car
my oversized ignorance
your oversized pride
lost in the ugliness
that replaces touching
inside the cordialness
that replaces foreplay
staying
void love
void passion
void understanding
subjected to the spitefulness
alone in the repulsiveness
wondering midst the viciousness
What kind of fool am I?
©2008Shirley
Just a reminder to my new readers. I write in first person, however my poetry is not about me.
4:22 PM
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67 Comments - 134 Kudos
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July 27, 2008 - Sunday
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New Poem "RIGHT?"
Category: Writing and Poetry
RIGHT?
we're categorized clichés
victimized stereotypes
typecast puppets
not all drop-outs
not all violent
not all poor
we're conventionalized stigmas
of categorized hatred and
mainstreamed falsehoods
not all drug dealers
not all illiterate
not all thieves
we're enslaved by the media
in generalized loathing
an ignorance of trickery
not all destitute
not all savage
not all drunks
living truisms
battling negatives
fighting lies
not all serial killers
not all racists
not all rich
but you knew that
right?
©2007Shirley
This piece contains sterotypes of four specific groups of people
Can you name them?
Sterotyping is unfair and it hurts.
But you knew that
Right?
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Currently
watching
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OUCH! That Stereotype Hurts
Release date: 2007-07-11
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12:58 PM
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66 Comments - 125 Kudos
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July 20, 2008 - Sunday
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New Poem "MUSEUM"
Category: Writing and Poetry
THE MUSEUM
bodies beguiled and hung on darkened vintage
death epitomized in hand carved wooden frames
models of planes contrived for powerful killing
chronicled weapons laid out on display
visions of Auschwitz flaunt Stuthof and Dresden
discerning history's genocidal flares
inferring history's blatant incarnations
killing machine descendents feign ensnared
tyrants evince pride through social bondage
labor intensive servitudes inflame
governments endue a sullied freedom
slavery hovels death's surmised disdain
archeologists tell our gruesome story
photographers expose our flagrant wars
Africa, Europe, North and South America
museums collect the ugliness of it all
curators brandish genocide's repugnance
patrons lexical genocidal pains
artist flaunt the history of our lineage
a chattel sold, an economical gain
lessons learned abstain from social justice
no captured joy amidst the archived pain
atrocities now pictures hung for viewing
museums foretell our lessons learned in vain
©2008Shirley
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Currently
reading
:
The Official Guide to the Smithsonian
By
Smithsonian
Release date: 2002-04-01
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6:04 PM
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84 Comments - 165 Kudos
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July 13, 2008 - Sunday
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New Poem "ONE DROP"
Category: Writing and Poetry
ONE DROP
Behold
I am the one drop rule
I reign over regions
forestalling diversity
honoring the tenets
of an antiquated idiom
multi-racial, bi-racial,
mulatto or mixed
Be it told
I am the one drop rule
I wage war on
peace and togetherness
integration and assimilation
I holdup truths
of separatism and division
I protect the historical holiness
of purity of race
Let it be known
I am the one drop rule
I storm the American shores
where claimants perpetrate racial fraud
where black North Africans
are decreed to be white
where racial hierarchy astounds
Hear yé
I am the one drop rule
I reign the shores of inequality
by popular demand
I'm unconstitutional
however let it be known
if you are one drop black
you are non-white
and if one drop white
you are black
Behold
I am the one drop rule
disliked, unwanted
dark and crude
until the bowels of society
lift and flush racial stools
in my ugliness
I sovereign supreme!
©2007Shirley
Sources and Inspiration
Barack Obama and the One-Drop Rule
Posted Apr 13th 2008 9:32PM by Dinesh D'Souza
http://news.aol.com/newsbloggers/2008/04/13/barack-obama-and-the-one-drop-rule/
From Wikipedia
…………The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States that holds that a person with any trace of African ancestry cannot be considered white. And so, unless the person has an alternative non-white ancestry that he or she can claim, such as Native American, Asian, Arab, Australian aboriginal, the person must be considered black ……………the rule is unique in that it is found only in the United States and not in any other nation in the world.
……….Hawaii did not originally have a one drop rule. The native Hawaiians and whites mixed frequently. Their multiracial descendants were considered multiracial and were expected to be accepted as part of either race. Only in 1980, when the US national Census took its poll, was the one drop rule introduced. The 1980 US Census assumed dis-jointness of its racial categories, preventing the identification with more than one race.
…..in the case in 1997 of Detroit businessman Mostafa Hefny, a black-looking immigrant actually from Africa (Egypt), are denied benefits because North Africans are considered to be white.
Legislation
LOVING ET UX. v. VIRGINIA,388 U.S. 1
Trial Judge 1959: "Almighty God created the races white, black, yellow, malay and red, and he placed them on separate continents. And but for the interference with his arrangement there would be no cause for such marriages. The fact that he separated the races shows that he did not intend for the races to mix."
Supreme Court of the United States June 12, 1967, takes the case and found the "One drop rule" to be illegal.
MR. JUSTICE STEWART, concurring: "I have previously expressed the belief that "it is simply not possible for a state law to be valid under our Constitution which makes the criminality of an act depend upon the race of the actor." Because I adhere to that belief, I concur in the judgment of the Court. "
Yet the "One Drop Rule" remains on the books of various states nation wide.
Other Sources:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/mixed/onedrop.html
3:38 PM
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81 Comments - 158 Kudos
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July 6, 2008 - Sunday
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Poem "THE PLEDGE"
Category: Writing and Poetry
THE PLEDGE
I pledge allegiance to the nation that was
To my forefather's plan for a democratic ride
To "We the People", to "Fourscore and Seven"
To the liberty bell's underground
And to the violent republic for which we stood
(the one that took innocent lives)
To Viet Nam,.Afghanistan,.Iraq, the Sudan
(we are told it's for freedom they die)
One nation under g(G)od has changed a bit
The umbrella's tilted south
Instead of interring the blacks and the reds
We're attacking the bronze and the brown
Indivisible with liberty we stand our ground
Inequality and separatism abide
Our blue collar heroes die wrongful deaths
While our white collar leaders survive
And justice for all is a thing of the past
No more room for the tired and the poor
Lady Liberty's light shines dimmer now
Humbled masses seek alternate shores
In spite of the path we aimlessly tread
We are still one man one vote
It still reads, "We the people"
It still says "In God We Trust"
So I pledge allegiance to liberty and justice
And "to the republic for which it stands"(¹)
To "one nation under g(G)od indivisible" (¹)
Every child, every woman, every man
I pledge to stand up for the red, white and blue
To prove that our banner yet waves
To endlessly fight for freedom and peace
In this land we call free, we call brave
(¹)"Pledge of Allegiance"
From my book
"ONE DAY
Life, Love and Controversy
in Middle America"
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Currently
reading
:
One Day
By
Shirley Hall
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11:05 PM
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64 Comments - 119 Kudos
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June 29, 2008 - Sunday
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New Poem "RENGURE"
Category: Writing and Poetry
RENGURÈ
My maniacal mogul
in rapid combustion
ignites my extremities
in oxidized fission
damned and charred
he sets fire to the living
again
and again
and again
shrapnel lodges
a blood drenched shirt
inside my bra
onward my chest
smoldering hairs between two legs
boiling the blood betwixt two breast
inside a navel
abutting lungs
blistering, scorching, singeing, melting
eyes, ears, nose, tears of fuel
liquefying human skin
Fragmented explosives
"I burn for my people"
deifying my screams
he shatters my neck
dead to my country in lost indignation
sectarian violence
alive and well
©2007Shirley
Rengure: origin Bantu/Shona
- leader, ruler
Inspiration for this piece
4:54 PM
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63 Comments - 124 Kudos
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