full snow moon
but still a grassy yard
climate change kills fun
Feb 10 2017
I said that I would share more random haiku with you, so here you go.
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Category Archives: Political Poems
I rarely write poems about politics, but here is what I have written.
Denim Day 2018
Photo from Peace Over Violence Facebook page.
Steubenville
he called her a whore
school official stood quiet
crime of silence
he could have stood up for her
instead he erased emails
I have already mentioned Denim Day in this past post, and I already shared a poem for Sexual Assault Awareness Month, but I wanted to share a poem on Denim Day 2018 as well. So here is a poem from a long time ago. I believe I wrote it the day the verdict was handed down. I hope you wore your jeans today.
PAD Challenge Day 14
photo curtesy of Poets.org
Twitter News
wanting a
lazy day
waking up
open phone
read the news
feel panic
boasting men
drag our boys
off to war
Today’s prompt was to write a report poem. My mind immediately went to today’s news. I planned to have a fun day. I woke up to find my seeing-eye glasses nearly broke, and Twitter Moments telling me that Trump launched bombs at Syria last night and no one mentioned it to me, or in my feeds. At least I got a decent night’s sleep. I must be getting old. Instead of insisting we launch bombs and shout down any and every injustice in the world, I was perfectly content to shore up our borders and just sit here quietly, as a country. I knew so many young men who went to Iraqi and Afghanistan and came back with deep scars. I don’t want to do this again, I just don’t.
It’s not cowardice, it’s weariness. I tire of broken men and crying mothers. I tire of the loud noise of anger. I am tired of smelling violence and seeing the shudders of fear. Because war affects us all. And folks, I’m so tired of it all.
Tanka Tuesday – Social Work
Social Work
if I am killed by
an addict or someone
unstable at least
I died while helping others
you can say “at least she tried”
What will be, will be. In case I have a hard time getting my poem for today posted, I wanted to continue with Tanka Tuesday. I did something unusual with this poem, I usually like my line breaks to be clean, but these lines wrap around to the next line. Leave me some comments, I love getting feedback and knowing how my poem affected you.
PAD Challenge Day 3
Teaching My Mouth
Stop
stop
I say
it twice to
the mirror because
men never hear you the first time.
4-3-2018
This is the poem for Day 3 of the PAD Challenge 2018, is in the Fibonacci form. Since April is also Sexual Assault Awareness Month I wrote this poem with that in mind. Here is another post of mine where you can read about my feelings on sexual assault and abuse.
I participate in the PAD Challenge to celebrate National Poetry Month. Here is the information for National Poetry Month from the Poets.org Website. Please visit it and follow the links to see the other events and ways to celebrate National Poetry Month.
photo courtesy of Poets.org
National Poetry Month each April is the largest literary celebration in the world, with tens of millions of readers, students, K-12 teachers, librarians, booksellers, literary events curators, publishers, bloggers, and, of course, poets marking poetry’s important place in our culture and our lives.
While we celebrate poets and poetry year-round, the Academy of American Poets was inspired by the successful celebrations of Black History Month (February) and Women’s History Month (March), and founded National Poetry Month in April 1996 with an aim to:
- highlight the extraordinary legacy and ongoing achievement of American poets,
- encourage the reading of poems,
- assist teachers in bringing poetry into their classrooms,
- increase the attention paid to poetry by national and local media,
- encourage increased publication and distribution of poetry books, and
- encourage support for poets and poetry.
Day 16 NaHaiWriMo 2018
food pantry
free food for those in need
bird feeder half full
Today’s prompt was “chickadee”. So I wrote about when I usually see birds, which is when my mom’s bird feeders have feed in them. Haiku is supposed to represent a moment in time when you see nature and human nature collide.
You can follow me on Instagram and Twitter and Facebook. If you like haiku and want to learn more, then go to my What is Haiku? page. Also, stop by the Facebook page where most of us poets meet to get a prompt and share our work.
Day 2 Nat’l Haiku Writing Month
the road that tied
America together
defunct railroad tracks
Today’s prompt is railroad ties. Share your haiku poem in the comments.
If you have any questions about how this month is celebrated, ask in the comments!
You can follow me on Bloglovin’ and Twitter and Facebook and Instagram. You can also follow me by RSS or by email, by scrolling all the way to the bottom of this post and clicking the correct link.
Haiku in a Vase
he breaks the flower’s back
puts it in the vase he wants it in
dying beauty on display
7-14-15
This is a political poem about domestic violence. October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month so I thought now would be an appropriate time to share it. I know it’s longer than a haiku should be but I liked it and didn’t want to trash it. Tell me your thoughts on this poem below in the comments.
Heavy Haiku
a day so heavy
not even old glory stirs
heat from the orange sun
7-23-2017
I said I wanted to write more political poetry a couple of years ago. I think I’ve written 3 since then. By the way, this looks like a cloudy day, but it was very sunny and hot.
Why I Bother
The below article was written by me for our church members last year. I have noticed a lack of passion in the women in our churches lately and thought I would share in case I might inspire some of my readers. There has been a noticeable decrease in attendance across all churches of all sizes and this saddens me. Please consider this post the sign or battle cry that you have been looking for.
Written July 31, 2016
Last week I saw an article that National WMU had shared on their Facebook page. I got so excited, thinking that this is the article that I have been waiting for! It was entitled _Why Bother?_ The tagline asked “So, why bother? Why not spend those precious moments and dollars on ourselves and our families?” I read the article, it was less than a page long, and I was disappointed. The author simply stated that during an interaction with some younger people she remembered being called by God to spread the gospel, and that is why she keeps going to WMU meetings and events. I was surprised that she stopped there when I could have shared so many other things. I shared the article on our Women On Mission Diamond page because it is a little helpful if you have already been answering that call, but it was definitely not the battle cry I was expecting.
Double Rainbow
And it does need to be a battle cry. We get asked to do so many things every week, and they are good things. We get asked to birthday parties and Pampered Chef Parties, to meetings at school and conventions at work, we get asked to volunteer at the multiple shelters near our town. To say “Yes” to one is to say “No” to at least one of the others. I have quickly accepted women’s responses when they tell me no, they can’t make it to Women On Mission meetings. Sometimes their reasons are good! So, I have examined myself and the way I direct my church’s Women On Mission. I have thought about moving the meeting day to a day other than Sunday. But the truth is there is always somewhere else we could be, rather than church. And no matter what time I set the meeting, 4:30 pm, 5:00 pm, 7:30 pm, the ladies will always have to find a sitter for their kids, and they will have to make dinner for their family before or after the meeting.
half of a moon
all of an hour
meeting night
I have discussed this with one of my officers at length, several times, and the conclusion we have come to every time is: that it is a sacrifice you have to decide you are willing to make. Families sacrifice having dinner at a normal time when they drive to Springfield to see a ball game. Women sacrifice time with their kids and money that they worked hard for when they go to a Thirty-One party and buy totes (or whichever party is popular this month). It really does come down to: are you willing to sacrifice one more hour a week, one more interruption in your schedule, so that others may know Christ? If you can find someone to watch your kids while you are at a party, or if you can travel for miles to see a ball game that you have no stake in, why can’t you travel back to church after lunch to make sure that the gospel is spread to people in your community? (And please don’t say it’s up to the Preacher, he can’t reach the 30,000 unsaved people all by himself.)
The word “Missions” seems to be scaring women. Maybe I need to explain what we do a little better. We do not stand on the street corner trying to get passersby to take Bible tracts. We do not go on Missions trips overseas, or out of state. We don’t literally walk up to people and start preaching the gospel to them and ask them if they have accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as their savior. We use the holidays that our church celebrates to introduce people to the church, and let them see what it’s like to be surrounded by the love of God.
For instance: we collect, stuff, and hide eggs on Easter. The missions part is that we have the kids listen to a story about Jesus before they can hunt the eggs. And if their parents are paying attention, then they get a lesson on Jesus as well. We make all of our events free so that any parents struggling with being able to provide for their child can bring their kid to FBC Diamond and get some snacks and/or gifts for free, while hanging out with other kids, in an environment that is safe and loving. Sometimes we have events specifically for adults, or sometimes we just do small projects where we try to show people love in small ways.
our church
our kitchen our buses
everyone’s God
The statistics say that a person has to hear the gospel over 7 times before they accept Jesus as their Savoir. WOM tries to take the gospel to our community several times a year so that the people in our community can come closer and closer to knowing Christ. There are several unsaved people in your area, and it is your job as a Christian to take the story of Jesus dying on the cross to them. You can find a map that shows the stats for every county in the State of Missouri and it shows there are over 10,000 unsaved people in every county. I am willing to bet that you might even have an unsaved family member.
Maybe you’ve tried to talk to your unsaved family member about God and coming to church, or maybe you were too afraid. A family member is the hardest person to witness to. Very often we are dismissed by them. But if I witness to your brother, and you witness to mine, we can witness to all of our family over time. And, I will not be personally hurt or offended when someone who I don’t know shrugs me off and doesn’t respond to the gospel. With a family member or friend, it is hard to go back to them after they have rejected your efforts. You fear causing a rift with your loved one. But when we work as a group to show our community the love of Christ, it’s possible to see people learn who Jesus really is.
I can’t promise you that you will see a person fall to their knees and yell “I repent.” and then become a model Christian. In 5 years I’ve never seen anything close to that, although I had hoped to at first. Now I realize, this group of women does not host these events, and pray for people, hoping that they will see people dramatically come to Christ. They make meals, they make trips to supply stores, and glue things together, hoping that at least one person this weekend felt loved by God. This is a great reason to partner with someone, and that is why I bother.
Paradoxical Poem
WWI museum
man with a German accent
takes our tickets
5-28-2014
Day 28 NaHaiWriMo 2017
we say the flowers
are budding out too early
mother nature sighs
Today’s prompt was “nature” again. So I tried to write a haiku that was a comment on how climate change is making spring come sooner. What we call “too early” may be the new normal because of global warming.
Anyhow, this is my last poem for National Haiku Writing Month 2017. Be sure to check out the others and leave me a comment on your favorite haiku.
Symanntha Renn
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