Segregation

Angel, I will tell you more next time we talk, it's quite a long story and I am just home from work, brain dead and ready to pass out. The basics are that this was written for a former boss of mine who was indeed the Grand-daughter of a Nazi. The only reason she liked me is because I am part German on my mothers side. She takes the whole Aryan thing to the extreme. One Christmas week we needed more help and they sent a guy from another store to work with us. He was African American and she was so mad she hid in the back room all week and she never said a word to the guy the whole week. She would play old German music from the 1930s era that drove me crazy. She told me how she had her living room adorned with his German military uniforms and medals and lots of photos that would make for a PBS special on the horrors of Nazi Germany. And she acted like I was supposed to be in awe and drop to my knees in worship. If she weren't my boss, I would have handed this poem to her the day I wrote it. Alas, she left the company abruptly to marry our district manager and they moved to another state, so I never got to give it to her. After the guy from the other store went back to his store, she told me how she would never hire a black person (N-word deleted) to work for her. I have had other bosses say the same thing at other companies. It is one of the reasons why I say that racism is alive and well in America. There are things people tell me that I can never understand why they think it is ok to say. I know that give off an aura of trust, but that doesn't mean I want to hear about their hatred. Maybe that's by divine design, maybe I was meant to listen and learn, but it's not always easy to hear... And that was the short version!

flows beautiful and with such deep emotion, I love the way you write.

Thank you so much. I just happened across your poems through one of our common followers and made several comments on your work also. That's very funny as we were commenting on each others work at the same time. You are a most excellent writer and I look forward to reading more of your wrok. Just one more reasoon for 2 poems per 8 hours makes me crazy...

This site has become an addiction and I am frustrated to not be able to add more poems each day, I have never shared my writing before and it feels so good to be able to, but also to read from poets with such raw talent as yours.
keep them coming and any feedback from you would make me very happy.

Poems come when they come. It is best not to try to force them. Most forced poems are obvious, you just have to let your muse take control. Don't worry about having new poems to add every day. I happen to be in the fortunate position that there was no Internet for the first 20 years I was writing poetry and was able to pile up a mountain of poems that I filtered through to come up with a couple hundred pretty good poems. There will always be duds even when you feel inspired. I have so many I burned so no one would ever see them they were so bad. I have a couple dozen that I have saved in hopes of turning them into much better works and they have been sitting in a folder for years. The best of my works have been published in two volumes of poetry, Seeds And Weeds, and Passion & Pain.

 
I like what you have posted here so far, and as much as I would love to read more work from you, I would rather treasure a few than read uninspired poems written just to satisfy the foolish opinions of half-baked poets who say you should write everyday to get better. You can write everyday to develop your writing style, but just keep in mind that most of those will be more worthy of a fireplace than webspace. Sometimes I would write a poem with 30 lines and I might save 2 lines while the rest found a resting place in flames and ashes.


I do understand the addiction. I have joined several sites of the past 15 years or so. I usually find that I run out of enthusiasm after a year because it is frustrating to me to read poems by artists who post some really god awful poetry and I just can't bring myself to tell them, or to correct the grammar and spelling that sometimes is difficult to tell if it was on purpose or just a lack of education. I used to be a Teacher's Aide in high school English, may have mentioned that before, and because I had to correct so many papers that made me wonder how these kids could even speak English, let alone communicate with each other.


Well, I am rambling on and I can be very long winded when my ADD gets the best of me.

I will be posting more feedback soon. I work strange hours and have difficulty focusing on tasks when I am reading poems here or on other sites.

 

I do sometimes offer critique in private messages, as I don't want to post that type of comment out in the open. Some people are ok with it, but not usually where everyone in the world can read it. So if there is anything you want critique on in particular, just drop me a note. I am not the master of poetry or the all-knowing poetry teacher, but I will offer honest opinions.

 

When I like something, I say so because I want to encourage writers to keep writing and because I enjoy reading good poetry. But not everything I say is golden and I have been known to make mistakes from time to time, but don't tell anyone, I don't want anyone finding out I'm not a genius...

jj

"Now the only thing that needs to die
Is the hatred in your heart"

Those were the two lines that really spoke to me. I've seen that hatred and I cannot understand it. Truthfully, I will never understand it, and I don't want to.

Thank you for commenting Jessica! It has taken up a lot of time in my mind trying to understand it, not to be understanding of it, but to comprehend what creates hatred. The poem that best expresses my journey to that end is "3 Seeds" and took me many years to be able to write it. It has been 44 years since MLK was killed and I began that journey. What I have come to understand of it only saddens me all the more that those who fill their hearts with hatred seek reasons to rationalize their feelings. Fear, greed and pride are the 3 Seeds of hatred, and they are abundent in todays society as much as they were in 1943, 1863 and 33 AD... jj