By: M. L. Hopson
State: Iowa
Country: USA
O PEERLESS WOMAN
O daughter of gloom, still
Lay open this mask of dishonor,
A black hole awaiting in the sawgrass,
At its edge, spiny needles, probing,
As you lie naked in the grip, captured,
To bear so much and so much.
Hands hidden once clutched unseen hooks
When bands of masters touted
Your vigor upon the block,
Trading essence, throbbing
With love stripped from your womb,
To witness it tossed like so much stock
Trafficking in an open market
To snatch so much and so much.
Time was, O daughter of the future land,
When you gazed upon the brow
Of a tiny whitened face
Who suckled at your breast
While small ebony fingers groped
With innocence what was theirs,
To share so much and so much.
O daughter born on the African Savannah,
Your limbs held the pulley
Towing so much for so many. . .
All the time risking
All the time trailing
Waiting! Waiting! Waiting to seize,
So much and so much,
And so little.
The Pinder Poet: Cherishing This Heritage
All Rights Reserved
Copyright © M. L. Hopson 1999
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Comments: As we move into the 21st century, how much has really changed for some on this earth ....
we should be compelled to remember and learn, and your poem is compelling.
Name: phattkat
EMail: phattkat@excite.com
Comments: M.L. you touch the concience...you lay bare the shame of a nation...and you do it with such style and grace and feeling.
I am, as ever, in awe of your talent.
Name: Ed Allen
Comments: Suberb work and powerfully spoken. ml Doug Poole
Comments: Dear Phattkat:
There are many who still suffer the lashes of slavery, and as a poet I am compelled to write about it and to evoke feelings.
Thanks so much for your response/comments to this poem. The pain still exists for myself and many, and I was compelled to write and to share.
Name: M.L.V.S. Hopson
EMail: ZORA279513@aol.com
Comments: The truth is that society has two classes, the users and the used. This is a constant in human history.
The play goes on and the players are all of humanity, most of the used bound in their roles by poverty and lack of hope,
while the users are usually confirmed in their roles by an accident of birth. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, and misery is alive and well in the modern world.
Once in a great while, someone will manage to break loose from their beginnings, or be torn loose by the vagaries of fate.
Otherwise, most of the human race lives and dies trapped in their various segmented roles from birth to death with no hope of improvement at all.
Our jobs in the coming millenium will be to attempt to improve the quality of life for the downtrodden dispossessed who constitute the vast majority of humanity.
Hopefully, racism and all the other hatreds fostered by people of "bad will" may dissolve and be swept away forever in the coming years.
Poets have traditionally been in the forefront of social change, and it is to be hoped that this will continue. Good job on this poem.
Name: RhymeMaster
EMail: rhymer01@thewritersnook.com
Comments: Sorrow is what we will to each other whenever we teach the past but memories are the only things which keep our lives structured in the present.
You never fail to move me with your poetry...and I guess that's what it's all about. Thanks for the journeys.
Name: Ed Allen
EMail: eallen553@aol.com
Comments:
To my fellow poets, Ed, Phattkat, Rhymemaster and Doug, and others,
thanks so much for taking the time to read my poetry, and to share your comments.
My sincere appreciation as well to the publisher, David Barnes for providing an opportunity for the poets
to have their work published to reach a wider audience, everywhere.
Always in loving kindness, and love.
Name: M. L. V. S. Hopson
EMail: ZORA279513@aol.com
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