Best Parkland Poems
Inscribe you silvered crescent moon,your downward flowing pall
On village, parkland, swamp or cove, does silence hear its fall.?
Across the bluff's in muted form, that undulate like frozen sea
Where whispering waves of sound; make play this night,
Before daylight; will by his presence drown.."
© joe maverick 2010
Let me be clear from the beginning
any honest discussion of peace
begins by staring into the face of evil
Not the cartoon mask of villains
but the slow systematic evil
Evil that traffics children like cargo
it teaches hatred until it feels like normalcy
until neighbors become executioners
Ordinary hands commit extraordinary horrors
Indifference calcifies to stone
and thought itself
collapses.
Marcus’s story does not end in triumph
At seventeen he was shot outside his high school
not because he joined a gang
but because he refused to
His funeral was filled with teenagers
They understood that sometimes peace
is a luxury they cannot afford
One in four women beaten
One hundred million displaced
Philadelphia streets— my streets
where children fear to play
rival war zones
in their statistics
And then the litany of mass shootings
Columbine. Sandy Hook. Pulse. Las Vegas.
Parkland. Buffalo. Uvalde. Grand Blanc.
Not distant tragedies
but the lived reality of families I serve
The young who ask me
“Why should I plan for a future
when someone can decide to kill me
while I buy groceries?”
Children conscripted as soldiers
Women sold like cattle
Populations vanished by decree
Young men with weapons of war
end dozens of lives
in minutes
Viktor Frankl, survivor of the camps:
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing:
the last of human freedoms—
to choose one’s attitude
in any given circumstance.”
I see the aftermath
I sit with the grief
I listen
to the questions
that have
no answers
Every abolitionist knew this mathematics
Every civil rights worker knew this equation
Every protector standing between trafficker and child
They fought forces with more money
more weapons
more power
than they could ever possess
They fought anyway
Not because victory was guaranteed
but because surrender
was unthinkable.
Autumn...
Hues of dry leaves
Falling in blissful sway;
Rustled parkland frenzied-cold breeze
Winter
Alberta, is a province in Canada. It encompasses mountains, boreal forests,
six hundred lakes, foothills, grassland, parkland, and the Rocky Mountains.
A vast province full of picturesque scenery, fabulous cities, a tourist attraction
with so much to offer, until Covid-19 struck, that is ....
Covid -19, First detected Approximately in March 2020
Stats as of today but ever changing by the hour
Current Hospitalizations - 357 in Alberta
Current ICU cases - 68
Total deaths - 3,275 and growing
Active Cases - 4,182 and growing
Total Covid 19 Vaccinations administered - 7,147,330 and changing
One dose only of the Vaccine -89.2%
Population totally vaccinated -84.8%
State of Public Health Emergency
Masking Mandate
Handwashing
Don't touch face
Physical Distancing
Isolating
No travelling effects tourism
Loss of tourist income
School shutdowns
People lose jobs
Some people working from home
Stay at home orders
Covid - 19 Passports required
Residents and staff in nursing homes dying
Military called in to help
And in every province of Canada it is the same story. And a story we share
with the United States, for example ....
Florida, USA Covid hit in March 2020 also
It was the tenth state to confirm Covid-19 cases
Confirmed cases of residents
Confirmed cases of non-residents
Hospitalizations
Deaths - thousands and thousands
Texas, USA Covid-19 hit in March 2020
Total population 29.2 M
Deaths- thousands and thousands
And we could compare every province and every state and every country
as this is a story and a matter of worldwide emergency ..
_______________________
December 14, 2021
Poetry/List/Alberta, Canada- ATF
Copyright Protected, ID 12-1412-968-14
All Rights Reserved, 2021, Constance La France
Written for the Standard contest, Alberta, Florida, Texas
sponsor, Joe Maverick, Judged 02/28/2022
Third Place
She’s a keen lady, well she’s my poodle
One who ‘d roll only in the guestroom,
With quirky manners of caboodle
And whistles proudly , so out of tune:
Once we dashed to her classy stylist
For a new trim fashioned as a mop!
I was quite shocked ; a clownish t w i s t
Yet for dear doggie… that was hip-hop.
Then I saw the bill, how expensive
Made clean locks JUMP in wiry curls--
Feeling a little hypertensive
She clung to me in fondled twirls.
While walking Bubs 'round the parkland
My legs and thin purse hurt badly…
Aghast, she romped as if on demand
With unkempt canines, prancing MADLY!
Broken Wings' Any July 2018 Poem Contest
--------------
Quirky Things That Confound and Confuse Me
Caren Krutsinger 7/14/2018
Entered 8/9/2018
Common sit down you're not cool, quit being a fool.
The Democrat party doesn't give a care bout Black Lives Matter, like you, they support Klanned Parenthood where black unborn children are being ripped apart and having their lives Shattered
These children for gun control are overrated, just like in the 1930s German youth they're being indoctrinated.
People who lost loved ones in Parkland who support Trump didn't get to speak, the far-left only knows how to suppress free speech that is so weak.
On Emma Gonzalez's jacket, she wears a Cuban flag of a communist country where the people are treated so badly, She can't even wear the American flag of the land of free and the home of the brave this is very sad.
Are Boss Hog ruts §?g trying to give a clue like the Riddler, He gave a salute like he's little Hitler
Yes Common God is Great, but he doesn't support your Hate.
This was poem made bout March For Our Lives. Common talking bout Trump's hate,
The resist solute by Hogg, the jacket of Emma
Absorbed by happenstance, left flailing in the pouring rain,
As it dripped from the hanging trees,
The branches wept, stripped bare again,
Riddled with winter’s disease.
How scythes cut nerves when I saw no return
When I reached the perimeter fence,
Holding the wire, tears that burn
Jewels of ice so intense.
The parkland turned to arenas of mud,
And the bandstand of concrete visually crumbled,
Run, I would have, yet the chilling of my blood
Caused my mind to trip on thoughts that stumbled.
Distracted by leaves, you didn’t see me by the side of the road,
You declined and you turned a blind eye,
The motorcars jammed as some new highway code
Commanded the engines to die.
Caught in the crossfire and bound to reflect,
As you surfed past the rush hour flow
On paths that once crossed, no more intersect,
Just traffic with no place to go.
The windows turned to mosaics of frost,
When the glass and its patterns slowly imploded,
I could not reach you from days that I lost,
Just stood by as my future exploded.
ONGOING ELEGY
The words you’re about to read are part of an ongoing elegy that began in 1999
after 12 students and one teacher were killed in the halls of Columbine.
We immediately looked to our leaders for a beacon of hope…a sign…
that they would try to keep us safe…after Columbine
We hoped they would do something….perhaps put a law upon the books…
We knew they wouldn’t let this continue…
then came Sandy Hook.
And again we looked to our leaders…
they wouldn’t sit back and watch more people die…
Surely this time they would do something…
then came Parkland and Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High…
They should have offered us more than their prayers and hopes and thoughts…
but after Columbine,
after Sandy Hook…
after Parkland…
they did not
And so we add more names to this elegy…after another senseless shooting spree…
more children and adults gunned down…in a school in Tennessee
We like to think we are not a heartless people …although we often act as if we are
but at what point do we as a nation say…this has gone too far?
Yes, we thought they’d come up with a policy, a strategy…some kind of design…
but here we are still waiting…24 years after Columbine.
24 years still waiting for our leaders to address a problem
whose solutions are plain to see….
for until they do,
with sorrow in my heart,
I’ll keep adding to this elegy.
18 As Of Today
18 School shootings as of today
In Parkland 17 precious souls blown away
When will there be another kill?
Or another or another?
Where was this horror conceived?
Things happened we never thought we’d believe
Our children not safe in the day
A sick shooting gallery now on display
It’s children’s play getting guns today
Dad has a gun hidden
He thinks you don’t know
You bought a rifle
It was all cleared
Locked up for safety
But not this time
It’s Quite a secret
It’s Quite a thrill
To plan your revenge
How many people to kill
It seems too many guns are in play
The criminals always find an illegal way
Registered gun owners shudder and get blamed
The lawmakers quip and quote
“Things have got to change!”
I hope we don’t get jaded by this travesty
Or get less sensitive and hardened someway
Every time another tragedy happens
When Someone / somewhere goes astray
We need to have the right words to say
As a country we need to stand up and pray
Who knows when it will come again?
How close will it be to you?
What school is the next to pay?
19 is too much a risk to take
Pat LeDuc
February 15, 2018
Pray for Parkland FL
Parkland, Fla.
February 14, 2018
One more senseless mass homicide
twas the sole arbitrary aim
as a former student nonchalantly
sauntered empty hallways
seconds preceding blame
brazenly intent to maximize total killed
matter of factly telling police
(his incomprehensible)
(ill) logic he did explain
when cornered, he willingly,
unflinchingly, reticently admitted guilt
Nikolas Cruz rocketed
to instantaneous infamous fame
pulling a fire alarm
("FAKE") emergency,
then going leisurely ambling
along his killing spree
total of seventeen slain (comprising 3 faculty
and 14 students)
mercilessly gunned down
as if they were wild game
when handcuffed, an innocuous
19 year old did readily admit
emptying one firearm after another
at a fairly rapid clip
then at some predestined
or spurious moment didst dip
and dive out amidst
the chaotic madding crowd
before reality flopped then did flip
as lower teeth he nervously bit upper lip
made feeble getaway
at a nearby eatery casually flirted
with cashier and made no move to flit
upon his seizure as cornered prey
subsequently large tract
massively cordoned off
strong arm of the law
slightly halting in speech
detailed his gambit
deliberately staking
a stance to maximize hit
and once again afflicted parents lit
up with rancor and rage pit
toughly battling sorrow
which will not quit
til death doth bring peaceful rest
sans, those grieving family visit.
daddy long legs spinning its' web from the ceiling
8 legs of terror, to 8 years of life as a kid.
monster under the bed hurry,
big terrible eyes, gleaming at me from the dark unknown corner.
go wake your mother from her slumber, Dad must rest.
modern fear is 17
dead in parkland at the hands of
a madman, yet mental illness should not be the
cause of FEAR.
Fear, fear, fear,
what do I - a young girl have to fear?
sexual assault, being told I
lack authority because I am a female.
Do not! shrink the power of my gender identity, I do not fear the tall white men who believe their distress
must stay hidden beneath their black engulfing suits
whispering degrading slurs about our temples-our bodies
because fear is weakness, and what is weakness if not a delicate flower ripped from its deep roots in the soil?
weakness is not the white man!
the all-consuming, terror-inducing mastermind
behind fear is you.
Only you allow yourself to be afraid
when we find enough strength in love and hope,
nothing will hold us back
-Katherine Beth
verdant shades
dappled shadows… woodland ways
dancing flower flies
~
woodland... a garden
an arboretum… parkland
fill one's mind with green
~
artists… bemused...
which green to fill their brush…
gardens inspire
Memory still anoints them,
glowing in the ashes
of childhood. The cypress trees
in the parkland at the end
of the street. Tall, knotted
ladders to the heavens
where a child’s outstretched hand
could almost scratch the underbelly
of passing clouds.
You could swing
on the uppermost branches
as if riding a clippers mast
bending in the wind,
sailing imaginary swells
to places whose golden domes
shone through the darkest
days.
And in the cool shadows,
the old stable, its doorway
an entrance to worlds
not known to other mortals.
The dark interior lipped
on the edge of a cave
to the very interior of earth,
holding hells and lava
lapped islands populated
by exotic beasts.
Such things as trees
and tumbled down stables
were not weighted
with the burdens of this world
but were bridges, magical
doorways to an elsewhere
that existed in between,
a special place
with its contours bending
to shapes made in the mind.
I write
to do the same thing.
It was 20 years ago…the year was 1999
and we thought the world would change….after Columbine
We hoped something would be done
after children were gunned down with their books
We thought the world would change…
and then came Sandy Hook
And we hoped something would be done
we can’t sit back and watch our children die…
and we thought the world would change
then came Marjorie Stoneman Douglass High…
But nothing has been done…
Today these mass murders persist
as we sadly add El Paso and Dayton to the list.
We should have learned our lesson
that was in that first mass shooting taught…
but after Columbine,
after Sandy Hook…
after Parkland…
we did not.
We like to think we are not a heartless people
although we act just like we are.
At what point do we as a nation say
this has gone too far?
So once again I pray we find a solution…?once again I pray we’re ready draw the line…
so we don’t have to wait another 20 years
after Columbine.
Students came out by the hundreds of thousands to march for their lives
gathered together as brothers and sisters, their voice clear; enough is enough!
No longer silent, they spoke for dead friends and all victims of gun violence,
the NRA and their political hacks have been warned; they intend to VOTE!
For years blood flowed through the halls of their schools; nothing got done!
Even after the Columbine and Sandy Hook massacre, nothing got done!
And Florida's Parkland school shooting, students shout, enough is enough!
This time, through the power of their vote, something will get done!
Change is inevitable, and these victims, these students, will lead the way!
Anyone can legally buy guns; no mental checks are required; thank you, NRA!
And not just shotguns, but multiple semi-automatic rifles with magazines
capable of showering a room with deadly bullets, with a lethal effect!
Fueled by tears, a river of humanity flowed through the streets of Washington
as a cacophony of sounds sent a unified message across the nation.
We will not sit by and watch our friends murdered, their blood dripping
from the hands of politicians bought and paid for by the NRA.
I felt the love flowing through the massive crowds, beating as of one heart,
and I felt the tactile strength of their resolve ripple up the spine of a nation.
Unlike any before them, this generation's ready to tackle the impossible,
with shared determination, the internet, and optimism, they are the future.
(Free Verse)
3/26/2018