Martin Luther King’s Birthday, a federal holiday observed on the third Monday in January, is a perfect time to reflect on his legacy of the civil rights struggle. Below are two poems published on NeverEnding Story to show personal commitments to continue this struggle for racial, socio-politic an economic justice.
A Tanka for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
I sleepwalk
on the way to Jericho
a man singing
Ain't gonna let nobody
turn me around
Sergio A. Ortiz
When the looting starts
the shooting starts. Thank you! The President ends his tweet just after midnight. Pop, pop, pop, .. piercing the morning sky tinged with shades of gray.
blindfolded Justice
holding her scales and sword
in the square
the banner, #BlackLivesMatter
stained with mud and blood
Alone on the edge of the square, an old man yells out, A riot is the language of the unheard. He begins to chant, Black Lives Matter ... In the corner of my mind, his husky voice mingles with that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: And what is it that America has failed to hear?
Chen-ou Liu
While Dr. King is primarily remembered as a civil rights leader, he also championed the cause of the poor and organized the Poor People’s Campaign to address issues of economic justice. Dr. King was also a fierce critic of U.S. foreign policy and the Vietnam War.
Listen to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in His Own Words (“Beyond Vietnam” Speech delivered at New York City’s Riverside Church on April 4, 1967, and his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,”given on April 3, 1968, the night before he was assassinated) -- excerpted from Democracy Now, Jan. 18
Sergio's tanka was published on January 19, 2015.
ReplyDeleteHere are two comments that can be accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2015/01/one-mans-maple-moon-freedom-song-tanka.html
The thematically effective pivotal line, "on the way to Jericho," becomes a meeting place of the past and the present, of the reality and the dream.
And the freedom song, "Ain't gonna let nobody/turn me around," adds emotional weight and historical depth to the poem.
Listen to the song here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPuBGcng6Tw
Note:
"Jericho" is a biblically significant and historically rich place/symbol, which was used several time in Kin's "25 March 1965 Address" at the Conclusion of the Selma to Montgomery March:"
There is nothing wrong with marching in this sense. (Yes, sir) The Bible tells us that the mighty men of Joshua merely walked about the walled city of Jericho (Yes) and the barriers to freedom came tumbling down. (Yes, sir) I like that old Negro spiritual, (Yes, sir) "Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho." In its simple, yet colorful, depiction (Yes, sir) of that great moment in biblical history, it tells us that:
Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, (Tell it)
Joshua fit the battle of Jericho, (Yes, sir)
And the walls come tumbling down. (Yes, sir. Tell it)
Up to the walls of Jericho they marched, spear in hand. (Yes, sir)
"Go blow them ramhorns," Joshua cried,
"‘Cause the battle am in my hand." (Yes, sir)
You can read its full text here, http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/documentsentry/doc_address_at_the_conclusion_of_selma_march/
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Below is excerpted from "Going Down Jericho Road:The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King's Last Campaign" by Michael K. Honey
The definitive history of the epic struggle for economic justice that became Martin Luther King Jr.'s last crusade.
Memphis in 1968 was ruled by a paternalistic "plantation mentality" embodied in its good-old-boy mayor, Henry Loeb. Wretched conditions, abusive white supervisors, poor education, and low wages locked most black workers into poverty. Then two sanitation workers were chewed up like garbage in the back of a faulty truck, igniting a public employee strike that brought to a boil long-simmering issues of racial injustice.
With novelistic drama and rich scholarly detail, Michael Honey brings to life the magnetic characters who clashed on the Memphis battlefield: stalwart black workers; fiery black ministers; volatile, young, black-power advocates; idealistic organizers and tough-talking unionists; the first black members of the Memphis city council; the white upper crust who sought to prevent change or conflagration; and, finally, the magisterial Martin Luther King Jr., undertaking a Poor People's Campaign at the crossroads of his life, vilified as a subversive, hounded by the FBI, and seeing in the working poor of Memphis his hopes for a better America.
Note on Chen-ou Liu's tanka prose, "When the looting stars:"
ReplyDeleteIn 1967,Miami police Chief Walter Headley used the phrase "when the looting starts, the shooting starts" during hearings about crime in the Florida city, invoking angry reactions from civil rights leaders, , according to a news report at the time. "He had a long history of bigotry against the black community," said professor Clarence Lusane of Howard University.
-- "The History Behind 'When The Looting Starts, The Shooting Starts,'" NPR Politics, May 29, accessed at https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864818368/the-history-behind-when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts