Regrets

For the next half of National Poetry Month 2017, 

Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.

Another unifying topic in Malvina Reynolds' songs is the environment. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.

Today's poem is a Golden Shovel. The last word in each of my lines reads down, like an acrostic, and is a line from today's song by Malvina Reynolds, "Let it Be." Last month, I buried the story of the loss of two beautiful and magical places inside a book review, and when I set out to write today's poem, it became a lament of the most recent replacement of magic with convenience. Clearly, I'm not over that yet.

Regrets

You do the best you can until you

can do no more. You think

about the choices that

you made and you

wonder if your love

could ever have been enough for her

survival. You planted and

weeded and you

hoped someone else would want

to become caretaker to

this magical place where kids could discover

the workings of nature -- how

intricately she's

designed -- made

with milkweed, for example, expressly so

there can be monarchs. Because you

loved that plot, you take

it personally that they leveled her

and undid all your work; took apart

a piece of what made this world good and

right, wild and free. Your regrets threaten to break

 your belief in yourself, but her

 beauty remains whole in your heart.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Sing It, Malvina!

April 1 -- Working for Change
April 2 -- A Lifetime Filled With Change
April 3 -- Red
April 4 -- Little Red Hen
April 5 -- Childhood Dreams
April 6 -- Lonely Child
April 7 -- Quiet

April 8 -- Storyteller
April 9 -- Troublemaker
April 10 -- Girl Power
April 11 -- Choices
April 12 -- My Gal, Mother Nature
April 13 -- Not a Joke
April 14 -- I Don't Mind Failing

April 15 -- What is Feminism?

April 16 -- Holes

April 17 -- They Can Have Their Cake and Eat it, Too

April 18 -- We Won't Be Nice

April 19 -- Grass is Persistent

April 20 -- Ticky Tacky

April 21 -- Regrets

Tabatha has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at The Opposite of Indifference.

Ticky Tacky

For the next half of National Poetry Month 2017, 

Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.

One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.

Ticky Tacky
(to the tune of "Little Boxes")

It’s the sameness, lack-of-change-ness
It’s the absence of diversity
Economic inequality
Absolute conformity

It’s a boilermaker
Never varying
So redundant
Truly tedious

It’s the absence of diversity
And it all looks just the same.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Grass Is Persistent

For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017, 

Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.

One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.

Grass Is

People want to tame me or
Eradicate me. They underestimate my
Root
Structure and my
Indomitable
Spirit. I am
Tenacious. I
Exist
Not to please, but to break concrete and spread
Truth.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

We Won't Be Nice

For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017, 

Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.

One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.

We Won’t Be Nice

Cause a disruption
Form an obstruction
March and rally and chant.

Shake up the status quo
Make a line and block the flow
March and rally and chant.

Rebel with civility
Abstain from docility
March and rally and chant.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

They Can Have Their Cake, and Eat it, Too

For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017, 

Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.

One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.

Let Them Eat Cake was recorded live in concert, November 1972.




They Can Have Their Cake, and Eat it, Too

They sugar coat the truth for us,
fake the daily news,
make us look the other way.
What could they possibly lose?

They divert to keep the facts at bay,
disguise false validations,
sweeten fibs with taradiddles,
no need for vindication.

“What could we possibly lose?” they ask,
on the brink of a nuclear war.
They’re blind to even the simplest truths,
and deaf to our uproar.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Holes

For the second half of National Poetry Month 2017, 

Malvina will Sing It, and I'll write a poem in response.

One of the strongest unifying topics in Malvina Reynolds' songs is politics and protest. The next few days will feature songs written in the 1960's and 1970's, but which are fresh and topical today.

The World in Their Pocket was recorded live in concert by KQED in 1967.

Holes

They say the world is richer,
With jobs and giant bankrolls.
But their logic’s got a hole.

They say we’ll build the pipeline,
Bother with leaks and spills later.
But their logic’s got a crater.

They say the world is safe,
In their constant Twitter spasms.
But their logic’s got a chasm.

When crater, hole and chasm
Become a vast abyss,
They’ll say, “Oops, we were remiss…”

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

What is Feminism?

What is Feminism?

Some women
have the luxury of
joining a cause.
Fighting for equal rights
and equal pay.
Finding their voices,
expressing their true identities.

Other women
have the necessity of
work.
Finding the work
and doing the work.
Keeping their families fed,
running the businesses.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017





"My mother came from a long line of women who worked outside the home. Her grandmother ran a deli while her husband read Torah. Her own mother and father ran a naval tailor shop. When I was in the fifth grade, my mother’s father died, and she and my father and grandmother ran the shop together."

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

I Don't Mind Failing

Language alert: if watching the video with children, be prepared to hit the mute button at :33-:38 and 4:15-4:20. Also, apologies (and gratitude) to William Carlos Williams.

This is Just to Say 

I have failed
the test
that measures
my worth

and which
you were probably
planning to use
to pigeonhole me

Forgive me
I refuse your labels
I am deliciously
worthy and capable


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017





Sing It, Malvina!

April 1 -- Working for Change
April 2 -- A Lifetime Filled With Change
April 3 -- Red
April 4 -- Little Red Hen
April 5 -- Childhood Dreams
April 6 -- Lonely Child
April 7 -- Quiet

April 8 -- Storyteller

April 9 -- Troublemaker

April 10 -- Girl Power

April 11 -- Choices

April 12 -- My Gal, Mother Nature

April 13 -- Not a Joke

April 14 -- I Don't Mind Failing

Dori has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Dori Reads.

Not a Joke

Not a Joke

Isn’t it funny
(not a joke
no humor
no puns)
Isn’t it funny
how war creates a necessity
that strips away all the labels
previously preventing a person’s
life work?

Isn’t it funny
(not a joke
no humor
no puns)
Isn’t it funny
how the devastation of war
creates industries
and builds an economy out of
destruction?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017




“My mother was writing her dissertation when I was little and got her Ph.D. in 1939. But it was the middle of the Depression; she was Jewish, a socialist, and a woman; and she couldn’t get a job teaching. But when the Second World War broke out, she got a job on an assembly line in a bomb factory, and Bud went to work as a carpenter in a shipyard.”

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

My Gal, Mother Nature

“...it was while doing graduate work in English there (University of California Berkeley) that she did some student teaching. She used pop songs to teach her high school students about rhyme scheme and meter, as they were not poetry readers."

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

Malvina Reynolds would have been at Berkeley in the 1920's, and "Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue" was a popular song then. Perhaps it was one she used to teach about rhyme scheme and meter.

Five Foot Two, Eyes of Blue
Words: Sam M. Lewis and Joseph Widow Young; Music: Ray Henderson (1925)

Five foot two, eyes of blue,
but oh, what those five foot could do:
has anybody seen my gal?

Turned-up nose, turned-down hose
Flapper? Yes sir, one of those
Has anybody seen my gal?

Now, if you run into
a five-foot-two
covered with fur,
Diamond rings,
and all those things,
Bet your life it isn't her

But could she love, could she woo!
Could she, could she, could she coo!
Has anybody seen my gal?




My Gal, Mother Nature

Birds and bees, rocks and trees
Oh the breeze and green green leaves
Has anybody seen my gal?

Skies of blue, rivers too
Nature? Yes we need her hues
Has anybody seen my gal?

Now if the skies are hazed
Parks are paved
Trash everywhere,
Species dead
Sewage spread
Bet your life there’s no clean air

The temps are high, could she die?
Could she, could she, could she die?
Has anybody seen my gal?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Choices

Choices

Even the right man
Must wait for the right time
Because mother is right
That “career first” is the right path.

But when you're on the left path
Your heart keeps looking for the right man
You left behind
For all the right reasons


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017






“It was while she was in high school that Malvina first met William “Bud” Reynolds, at a socialist dance. He was a merchant seaman, seven years older, handsome, and even more shy than she. He was self-educated, having left school after the eighth grade. They read poetry to each other in Golden Gate Park, but when he proposed, she refused. Encouraged by her mother, she had her sights set on college and a career.

She married someone else, and so did Bud. He ran for governor of Michigan on the Socialist ticket, with the slogan, “You provide the evictions, we’ll provide the riots!” They found each other again after she was divorced, and this time she said yes.”

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

Girl Power

GIRL POWER

Gentle and meek are things of the past.
I am
Ready to take on the world. To
Lead,
Persist, and
Open doors
With my own talents, my own skills, and my own
Expertise. World, are you
Ready for me?

©Mary Lee Hahn

Troublemaker

Troublemaker
(Ever so slightly to the tune of "Little Boxes")

When we want
What they’ve got
And we ask for it
In the right ways
And the logic’s there
And the signatures
And they still tell us NO

Then we don’t stop
And we’re not quiet
And we make them
Pay attention now
To the voices
Of the people
Who pursue what they’re due.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

"I had first come to the attention of the principal’s office with a premature women’s liberation movement on the school grounds. At noon, the boys could leave the grounds to play around on the streets and to get hot dogs, hamburgers, coffee, and pop at the little store across the street. I circulated a petition that the girls be allowed out of the yard at noon also. The answer was no. It wasn’t proper for girls to be on the street. [The girls then asked that the boys be restricted, and were told] if the school tried to restrict the boys they’d just climb the fence. Probably in the same situation now, the girls would climb the fence. Then, nothing happened except that quiet, shy me was fingered as a troublemaker."

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

Storyteller

Storyteller

Storyteller, storyteller
come on out.
Tell us a story.
What’s it about?
Pirates or dragons,
a farm or a zoo?
Zebras? Lions?
Kangaroo?

Storyteller, storyteller
spin us a yarn.
Make it a good one,
one that will charm.
One full of laughter,
or one full of fear--
no matter what you tell
all of us will cheer!

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

"The times I have been happiest were the rare times when I was one of a gang….I had a kind of gang when we lived on Buchanan Street [in San Francisco]. I must have been seven or eight. We would sit in the light of the street lamp in the evening on the high wooden flight of stairs, a dozen of us, and while the bigger boys played “One Foot Off the Gutter,” I would make up long stories to tell the others. I don’t remember what the stories were about, but they must have been interesting; I can remember the young voices in the evening, calling me to come out."

http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

Progressive Poem -- Line #8

Go ahead. Skip to the bottom of the post. Read my line. I know you want to. :-)

Short introduction for the uninitiated: Progressive poem, written one line at a time, one day at a time for the month of April. Tradition started by Irene Latham. Check the sidebar to follow along as the poem grows.

*  *  *

Didn't Heidi get us started off with a line full of pure possibility? She introduced our character.

I’m fidget, friction, ragged edges—

Then Tabatha gave us some show-not-tell action to help us get to know our character better. We've got a storyteller here (or at least, a story sprouter...hmm...a magical plant?).

I sprout stories that frazzle-dazzle,

Along comes Dori, who takes the word stories and cracks it open just a bit for us.

stories of castles, of fires that crackle,

Michelle linked the words fire and stories in a surprising way. Is our character a dragon?

with dragonwords that smoke and sizzle.

Diane established stanzas of four lines and a bit of conflict...

But edges sometimes need sandpaper,

...and Kat elaborated. (No, Kat, we won't change your Aussie spelling of vapour!)

like swords need stone and clouds need vapour.

Yesterday, Irene got our character ready for action...but without armour (don't you love how she gave Kat that wink?!)

So I shimmy out of my spurs and armour

And now I'm left to decide the action our character might take. Or would take if this were my own poem and not this big, messy, fun, collaborative, surprising thing it is every year  (this is our SEVENTH!!).

Our character might be a girl. That happens a lot in stories. So our character might be a boy. A boy who does atypical things. A boy who is searching for his true identity, who is willing to lose the frazzle-dazzle storytelling and the costume he's wearing, in order to try living honestly in his own skin. Yeah. I like that. For right now, in this small moment of Line Eight, that's who this poem is about for me. So what gift can I give to this child, what gift for all children who are in that tricky spot of growing up, when they have to take off the princess dress or the super hero cape and find out who they really are? 

(There are a lot of F words early on, and a lot of S words in the past 5 lines. Did you notice that? And we don't seem to be keeping to any syllable count or regular rhyme scheme...Can you tell I'm writing this line in my head as I write this post?)

facing the day as my fickle, freckled self.

Yes! I love it! And yes, I did go read Pied Beauty by Gerard Manley Hopkins before I chose my words because it occurred to me that this character could be part of what Hopkins was praising -- so I borrowed "fickle, freckled" from him. I don't think he'd mind! And lookie there -- I used F sounds and S sounds in my line!! (A peek at the final edits: The line was originally "ready to face the day as my fickle, freckled self." Our character was going to FACE the day, but I went to the thesaurus and decided on BRAVE as a synonym that packs just a bit more punch, even though I'd have to lose an F sound. Then I read through the whole poem, including my line, and the rhythm seemed off, plus, I really really loved that F sound. So I went back to FACE the day. Then I had to consider the necessity of the word and...keep? lose? keep? lose? We already have a but and a so in this stanza...I'm going for the verb, folks! Fidget, friction, fickle, freckled...say that five times fast!)

Go forth, brave character! Whether or not you turn out to be seeking your true identity, or if other amazing adventures await you in this poem, we've launched you out the door. Have fun, Linda! Give us hints as to what THE DAY will hold for our character, whoever he or she or he/she might be!



I’m fidget, friction, ragged edges—
I sprout stories that frazzle-dazzle,
stories of castles, of fires that crackle,
with dragonwords that smoke and sizzle.


But edges sometimes need sandpaper,
like swords need stone and clouds need vapour.
So I shimmy out of my spurs and armour

facing the day as my fickle, freckled self.

Quiet

Quiet

Sometimes
it takes a lot of loud
to be noticed.
Roar your truth
in a pride of lions.
Demand change
with signs and signatures.
Surge with the chanting crowd
and be heard.

However
you don’t need loud
to be strong.
Sing your truth
as confidently as a single wren.
Gently nudge change
to the tune of genuine smiles.
Harmonize in a chorus
of allies.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Sing It, Malvina! 

April 1 -- Working for Change
April 2 -- A Lifetime Filled With Change
April 3 -- Red
April 4 -- Little Red Hen
April 5 -- Childhood Dreams
April 6 -- Lonely Child
April 7 -- Quiet


Irene has the Poetry Friday Roundup (and the next line of the Progressive Poem) today at Live Your Poem. Come back here tomorrow for the 8th line of the Progressive Poem!

Lonely Child

Lonely Child

I’m quiet
She’s loud
I like alone
She likes a crowd

I’m shy
She’s bold
She likes to tell
I like to be told

I’m a cloud
She’s a storm
Hard to believe
Someday I’ll perform

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017





"I was a lonely child; I can’t remember any friends in grade school except Esther. Why she picked quiet, shy me for a friend, I don’t know. She was bold, laughing, quick. She would sit back of me in school and slowly pull one hair out of my braid. Miss Geary would say, “Hit her! With your ruler!” I never would. I liked Miss Geary. I intended to be a teacher, and would be like her—a good sport….I am still shy with people. I can easily face and talk with and sing to a hundred or a thousand. But at a party, next to a stranger, I haven’t much to say."


http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

Childhood Dreams

Childhood Dreams

Dream, child, dream.
Your bed is a boat
on the wide sea

of possibility.

Close your eyes.
Fling your arms wide.
Dance in the light
on the stage.

You’re a movie star today,
tomorrow a dancer,
maybe a teacher.
Dream, child, dream.

©Mary Lee Hahn




“My mother, Malvina Reynolds, once told me that when she was young, she would lie in bed and imagine that she was onstage, dancing, with a spotlight following her. She wanted to be a movie star, but she assumed that that would never happen, so she decided she’d be a teacher instead and work a smaller stage.”


http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/biographies/malvina-reynolds/

Little Red Hen

Little Red Hen

Red is the color of socialists,
and what do socialists believe?
Everyone works, everyone helps,
together, everyone achieves.

Hen asked for help planting wheat.
The other animals said no.
Hen did all the work without any help,

from seed to plant, flour, and dough.

Little Red Hen is a socialist

and what do socialists believe?
Everyone works, everyone helps,

together, everyone achieves.

Work is a part of the process:
no help with the work means no bread,
no help with the work makes you lazy,
when the lazy don’t help they aren’t fed.

Little Red Hen is a socialist,
and what do socialists believe?
Everyone works, everyone helps,
together, everyone achieves.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Red

Red

Malvina Reynolds’ parents were Russian Jewish immigrants
escaping discrimination and persecution
opposing World War I
subscribing to socialism
believing in common ownership of resources
wanting democratic control of decisions
hosting spirited conversations
filling the house with working class political activists
influencing Malvina’s young mind
coloring the way she would see the world.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

A Lifetime Filled With Change

A Lifetime Filled With Change

Malvina Reynolds was born
at the turn of the 20th century.
1899 turned to 1900.

She lived a lifetime filled with change.

Telephones were new but becoming widely used,
cities were being electrified.

First vacuum cleaner -- 1902.
First flight by the Wright brothers,
First World Series,
First crayons -- 1903.

Women were given the right to vote -- 1920.
Television was invented -- 1927.

Segregation and racial oppression escalated.
The Civil Rights movement
stood up and sat down
until
(and after)
the Civil Rights Act in 1964.

Vietnam, Nixon, Apple Computers, Sony Walkmans.
Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Malvina Reynolds lived a lifetime filled with change.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017

Working for Change

Working For Change

“Anyone
who puts his or her talent and effort
toward changes for the better
has tremendous
muscle.

(Much more than the negative people,
the destructive people.)

Because they have history
on their side
and they have the desires of the people
on their side
so they really can be very powerful
without all that much effort.

If you want to change
you can’t be desperate
even if the situation is difficult.
The fact that it’s good for the cause,
it’s good for you.
Because you become part of a community
that’s working to change
and that’s a very healthy thing.

You’re not just
grousing
and
complaining
but you’re working.

That will take away your blues.”

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017


This is a found poem, a direct quote from Malvina Reynolds, taken from “Love it Like a Fool: A Film About Malvina Reynolds” at 25:35.

https://archive.org/details/loveitlikeafoolafilmaboutmalvinareynolds