Maybe Robert Lee Brewer meant to give us prompts associated with the election of Donald Trump on Tuesday. But whether he did or not, I turned yesterday’s and today’s November 2016 Poem A Day challenge prompts into poems about the election results. I’m still in mourning. I’m still in shock. And I feel it’s a poet’s role to put our thoughts down on the page – especially at times like this.
As a poetry friend wrote me yesterday: ‘Regardless of how you feel about the election results, I think it is important to remember we need POETS now more than ever. That poetry is both power and peace. It is up to poets to build a citizen of something new.’
I was so hopeful when this photo was taken.
The prompts for November 9 and 10, respectively are:
Take the phrase Call Me (blank), replace the blank with a word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then write the poem. Possible titles include: Call Me Al, Call Me Crazy, Call Me Batman, Call Me at 3 O’clock in the Morning, etc.
Call Me Sad
There is no other way
to put the great feeling
of disbelief, puzzlement,
resentment, and antipathy
I feel today.
Hillary lost the election
to the racist misogynist
and narcissist Donald Trump.
I’m sad for myself, Hillary,
and all of my country.
I’m so sad it feels like mourning.
In the Jewish tradition
we sit Shiva after a loved one’s funeral.
I’m sitting Shiva for Hillary
and our country today.
We’ll see if I can move on tomorrow.
Write a tragic poem. Two courses of action here: Write a poem that is heavy, or write a poem that is light. Or write a poem that could be heavy or light. For instance, a tragedy could be Shakespeare’s Hamlet or a bad hair day.
Our Nation’s Tragedy
Our nation suffered a great tragedy on election day
November 8, 2016
We elected a man totally devoid
of the proper credentials
to serve as our president.
His itchy trigger finger will have control
of our nuclear weapons,
he’ll stop our work toward curing climate change,
he’ll leave millions of people
without health insurance,
and he’ll treat women like sex slaves.
He has no care for
equal pay and equal rights
and a woman’s right to choose.
Need I say more?
He called so many of the good things
the Obama administration did a disaster.
I call electing him worse than a disaster.
It’s a tragedy.
How will we all live through
four years of him?
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