It’s been quite a harried week in the U.S.of A. and around our small world. The events of Charlottesville haven’t left my mind–I’ve taken to my words and drawing to express my anguish at this atrocity, and my need for continued action to somehow right our path in this turmoil. But the anger is deep and righting these wrongs won’t happen overnight. This week this is my small contribution towards getting a word out for justice and against racism. I’m borrowing Poetry Friday for my bully pulpit, thanks for your ear.
HEATHER HEYER
Heavy hearts fill the world with your loss, but
Each Just choice you chose will multiply:
Always caring for others,
Taking action when faced with danger,
Holding high principles that benefit all,
Engage individuals holding contrasting views–
Righteous causes called you
Heather Heyer, we’ll hold your values high, and follow your
Example of choosing compassion over revenge,
Your refusing to accept racism, in
Every ugly mask it parades in, and we’ll forever favor your
RIGHTEOUS ACTIONS!
©2017 Michelle Kogan
A Poem also seeking Freedom and Justice by Edna St. Vincent Millay. I picked up this copy of There Are No Islands, Any More, last year while at the Newberry Library’s book sale. Read the rest of her poem here- The New York Times
I think more poetry is in order this week, so be sure to stop by Kay McGriff’s blog A Journey through the Pages, for the Poetry Friday Roundup, where she’s also focused on the tragedy in Charlottesville. Thanks for hosting this week Kay! She has also offered us: A Five-Step Toolkit for Dealing with White Supremacists in the Age of Trump.
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
Bravo, Michelle….for the art and the poetry and the connection to Edna St.Vincent Millay. I love it…despite being stressed out over how we are living in a world that has so much wrong with it. Keep shining your light. I love the lines, “Your refusing to accept racism, in
Every ugly mask it parades in,” …. against “matters from without intrude”.
Thanks Linda–lot of work at hand.
What a moving tribute to Heather Heyer. Her mother was right when she said that even though the Nazis and white supremacists tried to silence her with their violence, her death magnified her voice. And that Millay poem. She could have written it today–so apt. And thanks for sharing the toolkit! I hope it spreads far and wide. I believe many people want to speak out but don’t always know how.
Thanks Kay, I feel like I should be doing more. I’m glad you’re okay with my sharing the toolkit, there’s wonderful guidance there!
Your heart is showing. This drawing and poem honors Heather like no one else can. Thanks.
Thanks Margaret, my heart is torn and yearns to work for justice!
Beautiful, Michelle. And yes, more poetry is definitely in order this week. Amazing how it has the power to console, fire up, challenge, calm, and a whole range of other magical powers.
Thanks Christie, yes definitely a place of solace for these trying times.
Ah Millay, what a biting wit she had! I remember being shocked as a history student to see the ways in which time seemed to go less in a straight line, but all in a tangle, as events seemed to repeat themselves again and again!
Heather was a year younger than me, which makes her death seem all that more shocking to me – she was one of my peers, in this modern age, killed for standing up against hate. Its like a scene from the 1960s, all over again, all these years later! Hopefully the knowledge that she died a hero will give her family some small sliver of comfort.
That’s a wake up call when we loose one that is either close to our age or younger–I hope more will see it this way and want to get involved with supporting justice!
Thanks for using your bully pulpit, Michelle–your words and art help! Love the Edna St. Vincent Millay one too–we cannot be islands.
Thanks Buffy!
Thanks for this rich post of art, tribute, and poetry. What a fabulous poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay. It is so appropriate for our times, especially that recurring line “there are no islands anymore.” If not in 1940, how much more not now, with the internet breaking down practically all borders.
Thanks Violet–yes that’s a deeply moving poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and unfortunately very timely too!
Such a sad week. Thank you. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Thanks Ruth!
Thanks to all that is Good for Poetry! It will keep us from becoming islands. Your poem for Heather is lovely. That seems shallow, so LOVEly. We will remember her and all she stood and fought and died for.
And this bit from ESt.VM:
“Oh, God, let not the lovely brow
Of Freedom in the trampled mud
Grow cold! Have we no brains, no blood,
No enterprise-no any thing
Of which we proudly talk and sing,
Which we like men can bring to bear
For Freedom, and against Despair?”
Thanks Mary Lee, yes it’s hard to find words for all the good that Heather Heyer was working towards.
Beautiful tribute, Michelle. Thank you for sharing. (& thanks in advance for a certain package waiting for me to open at home! :0) )
Thanks Robyn.
“Each just choice you choose will multiply.” Appreciations for your portrait, the name poem & these wonderful worlds Michelle. Potent.
Thanks Jan, and more needs to be carried on in this area.
Michelle, the pulpit needs more action so it must feel good to have spoken out. “Compassion over revenge” – YES. I also was struck by the enormity of this thought: her death magnified her voice. There is sadness in life these days and you did a marvelous job of trying to let your artist hand and your own voice magnify Heather’s.
Thanks Carol, words can’t replace this young woman’s life–I hope our actions will help!
Edna is so right to have picked up on that Island reference. The president’s supporters and detractors are connected to each other. We are all in the soup together. Great poem honoring Heather Heyer.
Reading about Millay this week, and this quote kept popping up about her writings in the lead up to WWII “Millay has caught more flak from the literary critics for supporting democracy than Ezra Pound did for championing fascism.”
Pound’s better than his politics, and there are other reasons for Millay falling out of fashion with the 20th Century critics, but there’s a lot to admire in her now as there was then.
Regarding Heyer and Charlottesville, with my band, we tweaked a version of Bob Dylan’s “Slow Train Coming” the next time we got to play:
There was this woman down in Virginia
She was a backwoods girl, but she sure was realistic,
She said, “without a doubt, have to quit your mess and straighten out,
You could die down here, be just another accident statistic.”
There’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend.
That man’s ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don’t apply no more,
You can’t rely no more to be standin’ around waitin’
In the home of the brave, Jefferson turnin’ over in his grave,
Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan
And there’s a slow, slow train comin’ up around the bend.
Didn’t have to change it much to comment on Charlottesville…
Thanks for stopping by Frank, and keep your tunes and words coming!