Poetry Friday–July 4th

Happy Poetry Friday!
And Happy 4th of July!

Here’s a short diamante poem to contemplate on and celebrate the Fourth of July…
I thought of a diamante because of it’s diamond shape which reminds me of stars and fireworks, crackling in the sky.

FOURTH OF JULY
Independence
Exciting unnerving
Reverberating contemplating rebuilding
Compensation forethought renewal gratification
Protesting changing enacting
Exhausting exhilarating
Freedom!
© 2021 
M. Kogan

And a poem about America by Amanda Gorman.

IN THIS PLACE (AN AMERICAN LYRIC)
by Amanda Gorman

There’s a poem in this place—
in the footfalls in the halls
in the quiet beat of the seats.
It is here, at the curtain of day,
where America writes a lyric
you must whisper to say.

There’s a poem in this place—
in the heavy grace,
the lined face of this noble building,
collections burned and reborn twice.

There’s a poem in Boston’s Copley Square
where protest chants
tear through the air
like sheets of rain,
where love of the many
swallows hatred of the few.

There’s a poem in Charlottesville
where tiki torches string a ring of flame
tight round the wrist of night
where men so white they gleam blue—
seem like statues
where men heap that long wax burning
ever higher
where Heather Heyer
blooms forever in a meadow of resistance.

There’s a poem in the great sleeping giant
of Lake Michigan, defiantly raising
its big blue head to Milwaukee and Chicago—
a poem begun long ago, blazed into frozen soil,
strutting upward and aglow.

There’s a poem in Florida, in East Texas
where streets swell into a nexus
of rivers, cows afloat like mottled buoys in the brown,
where courage is now so common
that 23-year-old Jesus Contreras rescues people from floodwaters.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Sturgeonman by Chicago’s Lake Michigan, endangered species © 2015, Michelle Kogan, watercolor & watercolor pencil.

Laura Shovan at her blog Laura Shovan Author & Poet is our host for this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Laura! Laura is good at raising our conscience about important issues and individuals—and this week she is sharing a poem that sheds light on the artist Millicent Patrick, who created the half monster half man for the film “Creature from the Black Lagoon!” Be sure to stop by her blog for her poem and many more…

Sending thoughts for all Floridians and others affected by the building collapse last Thursday in Surfside, FL.