Happy Poetry Friday!
I’ve been thinking about folks living inside these Tents as they’ve been appearing around Chicago…
RIGHT UNDER YOUR NOSE…
As cold creeps in
I’ve thought more and more
about folks in my
neighborhood Tent Park.
They popped up this summer,
and when temps were still tolerable
I’d see folks milling around.
As fall moved on
growing numbers of worn-colored
small wind-waving walls
became surrounded by
cold-air emptiness, and
by November’s end
barely a soul traipsed in sight…
I read our cities getting involved—
One cold November night
most residence were van-loaded
and delivered to our local armory,
for what? Form-filling first,
and maybe in 2-4 weeks
pandemic-induced housing…
But it’s cold out there
and these folks are cold…
I wonder would Tent Parks
have crept up if our
Pandemic hadn’t happened.
Regardless, how did we allow
so many folks to become homeless.
My local park is one of thirty-five
“homeless encampments” in Chicago
and there are more across our country.
Funds are earmarked for homeless,
but how can we get them into warm homes
PDQ, aren’t homes another inalienable right?
We all need warm homes…
Draft, © 2021 Michelle Kogan
From poking around in research about Tent Cities I found this report from 2014, it’s quite long but I thought I’d share it: The Rise of Tent Cities in the United States. Unfortunately in the U.S. I’m sure you’ll also find articles on local Tent Parks not far from you.
On a slightly lighter note…
Look what surprised me overnight…
amaryllis
showers respite on
december’s bleak day…
© 2021 Michelle Kogan
Cathy Mere is our host for this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog Merely Day By Day,
thanks for hosting Cathy!
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
Beautiful, Michelle. Like all good poetry, your poem makes us stop, pause, wonder, think. Thank you!
Dear Michelle, yay for amaryllis brightening the bleak. I recently read this Tent City article put out by NPS. https://www.nps.gov/semo/learn/historyculture/tent-city-story.htm Thanks for your poem. xo
Michelle, thank you for that informative article on tent cities, reviewing, among other things the constitutional rights of individuals to shelter. Thanks for your poem and the bright amaryllis. I don’t have one this year, so I loved that you shared yours.
Yes, I was out with the family the other night & saw a new tent group that had popped up, Michelle. They are here in Denver, too. Thank you for writing about those in need. And, my amaryllis has bloomed, too, a light for us this holiday!
Michelle, this poem brings pause. I cannot begin to imagine living in a tent in Chicago’s cold. You’ve shined a light on a problem that could use more attention. It was interesting that the reference was from 2014 – and, yet, here we are.
I am adding this poem to my collection of mentors. It’s the perfect poem to remind students (and ourselves) that poetry can be about something important that is happening in our world.
(And congrats on your amaryllis. Beautiful!)
I love these lines in your first poem:
“aren’t homes another inalienable right?
We all need warm homes…”
and your amaryllis and your haiku are a reminder that even as we humans struggle to figure out how to live together in equality and fairness, it is important to fill our souls with the moments of beauty life gives us.
What a gorgeous amaryllis — just the shot of seasonal color we need!
Thanks for your insightful, thoughtful poem about tent parks. There’s a homeless shelter not too far from our house (haven’t seen any tent parks yet) — very disheartening. It shouldn’t happen in “the richest country in the world.”
It’s so sad to think of people outside in the cold of Chicago! It’s bad enough when it happens here where it’s warm! Your amaryllis is beautiful. Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
Thanks for sharing. I agree, everyone deserves a warm safe home. In a world that needs great ideas to solve great problems, let’s not waste a single person to cold, hopeless, homelessness. We need everyone to solve our big problems.
Tent parks were prevalent in Tucson when we lived there (I’m sure more now post-pandemic or should I say, mid-pandemic?), but the weather is more bearable there in the winter. Incomprehensible that we as a society allow people to fall through the cracks. Thanks for the amaryllis pick me up at the end. 🙂
Two poems of contrast..the houseless with tents popping up and the respite of red in a flower blooming.
I don’t know how we fix this problem. If you google Portland, you will see we are a sea of tents. Everywhere…along the freeway ramps. (someone was killed Saturday night because of a car)
These tent cities are heartbreaking. Hubby and I do what we can, volunteering twice a week with our local resource center, which provides food bank support, as well as help with shelter. If everyone does a little perhaps we can make it add up to a lot.
When my daughter lived in Chicago, she worked with getting housing for mentally ill homeless people. Such worthy work, but hard, as hard as a Chicago winter. It is such a complicated problem.
Michelle, here in Northern Virginia, we are noticing that the homeless stand outside outdoor malls with signs hoping for money. They are veterans. It is so sad to see that people who served our country live such a hard life. I am not sure where these vets fo at the end of the day. Thank you for taking up the cause, writing another call-to-action poem and another poem on your beautiful amarlylis.