Daughter of My People

By Sandy Hartman            

Who are you?  asks Creation

What is your fate among your people?

What is the mark of all your kind?

To this eternal question I answer

I am the daughter of a willful people

Of a nation that struggles always

To find its better side

It dreams that all its citizens are equal

All must be free      

Worthy of its knowledge

Worthy of opportunity  

Protected by its laws

Deserving

Under laws equal to all

  

On this, I have considered well

In my world I stand my ground

I am free to come and go

Free to learn and judge with wisdom

I draw my circle close                       

The choices made are mine

I turn chin high to claim my truth

I walk my way in pride

I am a World Child

Daughter of this rare and wondrous age

A time that comes to some

But not to everyone       no, not to everyone

The good and the right

The wrong and the strife from every ancestor

Sing to me and make me bold

The dark strength of Earth 

Courses my veins and builds my bones

I breathe the dreams of sunshine and sky

The dust and the rain and winds that blow

Divinity echoes within my Soul

Yet in my heart are chains that still abide

I hear the cry of sisters lost in histories gone

Restless ghosts that never will be known

Innocent Souls forgotten, their stories never told

Their dreams enslaved, their freedoms bound

Trapped in fortune’s chance

Necessity and unforgiving circumstance

Dignity denied

Mistreated, abused, injured, raped

Heaped in unjust shame, given no escape

Helpless, hidden, bargained away       

Used for profit, sold

Betrayed, enslaved

Forsaken

Even now too many women smother

In heritage that leaves them mute

Denied the learning of their people

Denied justice

Their freedom shackled

Hopes shattered

Living without honor

Half of All Creation’s children

Robbed of half the sky

I am the daughter of a willful age

A precious breath of freedom  

That shines for me, but not for everyone  

No, not for everyone

What people can be proud 

Of women pressed against their will?

Kept captive by their custom

Forced to struggle all alone

What savage fists dare clinch in pride

Before the face of The Divine

What wayward power’s protection

Will defend the vicious tongues 

Of shameful stiff-necked fools

Who excuse their brutish acts as Heaven’s Holy Rule

Who choose to shrug their shoulders in indifference

As they say  

“We simply follow custom.  This is what we do”

What woman’s words will speak for them

Who come before Creation in the certainty of Judgment

If they dare defend their ruthless slights

And self-promoting righteous might

As they did in life

When they stood against their fellow Souls

And chose to judge them less than worthy

Fools who dared to set the knots and twist the ties

That ensnared those precious lives

Lives beloved of Creation

Other Souls

Who were half of Divinity’s infinite design.

Copyright   5/13 

Sandy Hartman

This poem along with a full set of photos and several slide shows and my audio appear on Sandy Hartman’s site, www.eonwriter.com

"We poets can help in the global struggles so many face."

A Poor Boy’s Love Song

 
What does it mean to me
All the fine talk
Of tender lotus buds simmering gently
Or of steamed chili peppers
Opened to find their hidden seeds

When my garden lies fallow
In the drought’s sweltering heat
When my land is lost to power and to greed
When there are cesspools
At the end of my street

What to me are honey drenched dates
That drip in sweetness
From sugared moments
When my hope is choked in terror
Buried in the drifts of dust and sand
And the olive trees die

In the rage of war and hate

What to me
Is the taste of ripened pears
Laid bare by hungering shank
When the smug of self satisfaction
Wreaks in the hallowed halls of banks
And destroys the honesty of leaders
Who only use their power
For privilege and for rank

All my journeys end in alley ways
Scribbled corners
Graffitied walls
And the ruins of concrete

But come here anyway
Tell me that you love me
Tell me that you dream of me
Each night you fall asleep
Make this one moment’s lie
Sweet
Somehow make me want to be

c  5/21/13
Sandy Hartman

 So much turmoil in the world today.  It is time to write of one of the toughest issues that exists globally....unemployment and the lack of futures for so many young men. These youth will never reach their potential and we well never benefit from the loss of their talent and their work in our world. They hold our futures.  We will share their loss, no matter how indirectly.  What better calling for writers then to write of the great global issues that we as a people face.

If you wish to view the photos and slide shows as well as listen to the audio clip of this poem, you are invited to my web site at

www.eonwriter.com

Sandy Hartman

Sandy Hartman is a poet and blogger.
Member of www.NLAPW.org, Jacksonville chapter

Save the Children

Much is being bandied about nowadays during the run up to the presidential election, along with its accompanying state and local elections, regarding the hotly contested issue of reproductive rights, family values, rights to life, and the right to choose.  The diligent campaign watcher can barely catch a breath between traded political zingers and accusations, and the confessions of outrage and piety regarding this seemingly all consuming issue.  But somewhere in the heat of rhetoric, I feel a very important element is missing - the children themselves who must live the realities of the lifetimes we have brought them to for better or worse.  For many millions of them, it has not been easy. . .for many, even cruel.
     It is in their honor that I have posted the poem Save the Children along with its audio reading and photographs on my web site  www.eonwriter.com
I wish to thank  www.flickr.com    for its inexhaustible cache of wonderful photos from around the world and for making those photos available for all of us to share.  If you enjoy the site, please post it or pass it on to others since there are no ads,links, blogs or comments on the site itself.
Sandy Hartman

                               Save the Children

        Within every child lies the heart of the universe

        And the wish to be so

        Each child filled with bright eyed curiosity

        Each child filled with need

        The need to care and be cared for

        The need to be proud before their kind

        What has happened to us, their protectors

        What has happened to our hearts

       That we have created so many children

       That we cannot care for them

        So many that we must let them grow up hungry

        Hungry in mind, hungry in body

        Hungry in spirit

       By what right do we claim Heaven

       When so many innocent hearts are betrayed

       Lost and left to struggle

       Alone

      

       c 9/08/09

Sandy Hartman
www.Eonwriter.com
Member of NLAPW , Jacksonville branch