"How do we fashion the future?"
Oh, what a week.
Of History and Hope
by Miller Williams
We have memorized America,
how it was born and who we have been and where.
In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.
We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.
The great and all the anonymous dead are there.
We know the sound of all the sounds we brought.
The rich taste of it is on our tongues.
But where are we going to be, and why, and who?
The disenfranchised dead want to know.
We mean to be the people we meant to be,
My week has shone with the joy and hope of Easter, but it has also held despair and anger over a madman at the helm of what, at least for now, we still call our country. This poem by Miller Williams seemed fitting today. We hold so much responsibility in our hands. I vented on FB a couple of days ago:
Nothing says “America in 2026” like calling my reps today, being put on hold, and hearing “Yankee Doodle Dandy” blare in my ear while waiting to register my objections to war crimes.
Call your reps. Even when you want to scream.
It seems useless, futile, maddening. Especially when I later hear my rep double down and defend threats to wipe out an entire civilization. How do you address that? I don't know. I guess we keep turning to both history and hope?
Of History and Hope
by Miller Williams
We have memorized America,
how it was born and who we have been and where.
In ceremonies and silence we say the words,
telling the stories, singing the old songs.
We like the places they take us. Mostly we do.
The great and all the anonymous dead are there.
We know the sound of all the sounds we brought.
The rich taste of it is on our tongues.
But where are we going to be, and why, and who?
The disenfranchised dead want to know.
We mean to be the people we meant to be,
to keep on going where we meant to go.
But how do we fashion the future? Who can say how
....
(Read the rest here, at The Poetry Foundation.)
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jone Rush MacCulloch has the Poetry Friday round-up this week.
And be sure to check out the 2026 Progressive Poem. Nine poets have contributed thus far. Margaret Simon has today's line, as well as the rest of the work-in-progess. I'll be contributing a line on April 22, and Margaret has the whole schedule at this link.
Photo courtesy of Eliens at Pixabay.
18 comments:
So fitting, Karen: “...how do we fashion the future?”
Tracey, yes, it’s such a good poem, and an evergreen question.
Who were many people coming together
cannot become one people falling apart.
This powerful poem makes me sad. I don't recognize America anymore. It all comes down to money, and people willing to support a convicted felon and pedo who instigated an insurrection rather than vote for a female President, let alone one who's a person of color.
Sigh. Thank you Karen. These are desperate days, home and abroad … war within and war without … We weave a better tomorrow one strand of hope at a time, placed with love, and faith … and always, always, carry the Light 🕊️🙏🏽💫
"Who were many people coming together/cannot become one people falling apart." Yes, yes, yes. A great poem for today, Karen, and a good reminder to read more Miller Williams. Thank you.
I agree on all counts, Jama — it's powerful, it makes me sad, and I don't recognize this country. I can't believe that he was EVER supported, much less that there are people STILL supporting him. It's beyond my comprehension.
elli, "always, always carry the Light" is good advice. ❤️
Susan, I would say, "My pleasure," but of course it isn't really a pleasure to have to discuss the state of the country, is it? It is, however, a good, good thing that we have poets like Miller Williams. ❤️
What a great ending question in that poem. I concur with all of this. I am thankful that my reps are fighting the good battle and not defending the mad man.
I'm so glad yours are, Jone! I can't believe some of the things that come out of my reps' mouths.
Wow, that poem "Of History and Hope" such a powerful title. And The children. The children. Yes. My representative has proven worthless too. I try to call and write as often as I can, even when I want to scream. Thank you, Karen.
Dear Karen,
Appreciations for your good actions, for your great poem selection, here, in which I feel promise, with gratitude, with this near the closing:
"All this in the hands of children, eyes already set
on a land we never can visit—it isn’t there yet—"
With the imperfection of The Human Condition, we can hope that each generation will bring forward enough kind, sane, hardworking "Mr. Rogers" type voters & their elected leaders to make things better. Currently I look at areas where those with the best ideals seem to be taking back pol. representation from those with the least or no high ideas.
[ nota about the poet's word choice: Our maps show North, Central & South America in this Hemisphere. This little, perhaps nerdy, sticking point has been of interest to me ever since I studied in Costa Rica for 3 months & my host family asked me why the US got to be "America" when they grew up being Central AMERICA... etc. ]
Karen, thank you for this powerful poem. This line, "How do we fashion the future?”, is one that has been a question for years but now there is more chaos than ever. You have a right to rant and so do many others that are upset about the outrageous acts of egomaniacs.
Denise, we're screaming compatriots. Let's keep it up. xo
Jan, it's a not-nerdy-but-worth-bringing-up point! Thanks for bringing that up!
Carol, yes indeed!
Over and over I see the poets and the songwriters and the artists capturing this moment of "not there yet" despair and yet somehow our moment seems to be the worst, over and over again day by day. I feel like the right people are not reading Miller Williams's poem, or Muriel Rukeyser's, or Langston Hughes's (you know the one, I'm sure). Thank you for calling your reps!
I agree, Heidi. And the people who could stop the madness aren’t doing anything. It would take only a handful to do the right thing, to act, to eject a madman. It’s not hard math. But those people are too busy trying to please a sociopath.
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