Hello Justice Poetic followers, community, friends and quaranteam members,
It has seemed odd, surreal even, to contemplate a newsletter in the midst of a global pandemic. I have felt all kinds of things in these past few weeks, and I am sure most of you have too. This issue - this sense of fear, combined with worry, anxiety, combined with hope, combined with praying, combined with somehow attempting mindfulness, somehow attempting calm, has been an internal roller coaster that matches and is made more intense by the external roller coaster that is the news.
Every hour, something else, Every day, something else.
And we are also subjected to the reality that over and over and over again, on top of this illness, our leaders have failed us, via poor planning, via selfishness, via neoliberal policies that will always value the rich and the corporate over the rest of us. Watching the news around the world we can see what has worked to save lives. And we can see what has worked to cost lives, to make things worse, to prolong harm and illness. And we could make the right choice as a nation, but I fear it might be on us as people, as individual people who realize we live in a community, a society, on an earth, a planet, and that what we do can make a difference. And I hope this for all of us.
I hope you lovely poetry lovers are doing what it takes to value life - your own, and others, - that you are making smart choices, and will keep doing so despite what comes down from our national government, despite the rhetoric of some people are expendable, despite the panic that has been used to push policies that will harm and harm and harm well into the future. I believe, somehow, still that we will come out of this more aware, more awake. That we will come out of this perhaps with a better determination to be more prepared, to push policies that value life, people, communities, and the public good. And that we will come out of this with an understanding that we can do what we have done during this pandemic to solve major problems in creative and major ways - homelessness, inequality, poverty, and climate change need the same level of commitment and urgency in solving as this pandemic does.
And I believe we can do it!
I feel that my writing has been hijacked by this, my mind has. I feel that I have made attempts. And I will always make attempts. And I am happy to have your support.
And now, a bonus - the most recent “Pandemic” poems - a bunch of them, for you.
Thank you, stay well, and I appreciate you all so very much,
Sincerely
Jenny
and an essay, for these times, Traveling the World for Free, For Now
Thank you, and sincerely, and take care, and I appreciate you -