Poets Salon: Let’s Vote

POETS SALON

Squirrel by Janet Olenik

– 02/12/20

Hosted by Kath Abela Wilson

election day
high in the pines a squirrel
drops cones on our heads
(Prune Juice, March, 2017)

huddled masses
lady of life and liberty
at the golden door
it takes Penelope to say
yes I will yes

~ Kath Abela

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I voted (Photo – Madison Premo)

Briony James

perforated ticket
like an old computer feed
black spots for a voice
grandmothers’ fingers ghost
in the voting booth

1920 we spilled from the kitchen
the sweatshop, the office, the laundry
voices aloud for the first time
2020 we rise
aspire and lead

As we reach for the future
Our grandmothers’ touch
Echos our dreams

trooping to odd places
church basements and gyms
community centers, libraries
where ink meets ballot
America’s voices

bright eyes search for my name
she was here
4 years ago
her smile follows me
into the voting booth

stamping the little push pen
like standardized test
but on the ballot
the black dot
looks back with my voice

my shoes squeak across the gym floor
and I imagine volleyball games
Election Day
is hushed except for murmurs
rustles of possibility

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I Voted (Photo – Sigrid Saradunn)

Sigrid Saradunn

misty morning
scuffing thru the fallen leaves
head to city hall
eight worker bees know the drill
ranked choice voting for first time

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I’m a Georgia Voter (Photo- Janice S. Garey)

Janice S, Garey

words no longer count
mathematical ballot
determines who governs
opportunity awaits
touch the world by casting votes

Ο Ο Ο

Voting is planting seeds,
Artwork by Alexis Rotella

Alexis Rotella

voting is planting seeds

Ο

Let’s Vote: Quotes and Credits

Briony James, poet, writer and artist, says: “I have never missed an election, mid-term or otherwise since I could vote in 1972. I have never forgotten how excited I was to cast my first presidential ballot.”

Sigrid Saradunn, an artist and poet, lives in Ellsworth, Maine. She says: “Maine was the first state to have ranked choice voting. I felt it was important to learn about the process and to vote in the 2018 election. This year, 2020, ranked choice voting will be used in the Presidential election for the first time. With ranked choice voting, when we cast our votes, we choose candidates in order of preference. If no candidate gets a majority of first-place votes, the last-place candidate is eliminated. Then the voters’ second choices are redistributed. This continues until the winner has more than 50 percent of the votes. Voting is a privilege that’s an important part of our rights as US citizens. I feel it is important to learn about how it works and everyone cast their votes in every election.”

Janice S. Garey says: “My son put stickers all over his door. Including Voting stickers. (He also had a used bandaid collection.) My dad never let me put anything on the walls so letting our son do this was latent rebellion on my part! I wish more citizens would be engaged with voting. I want everyone on all sides of the table to exercise their right to vote.”

Artist and poet Alexis Rotella is waiting for a new cycle, a return to human kindness, a blue wave, a tsunami of higher consciousness.

Kath Abela Wilson‘s tanka “huddled masses” is from her chapbook The Owl Still Asking, Tanka for Troubled Times, Locofo Chaps, Aria Press, 2017 (available from Lulu).

Drawing with Watercolor by Kath Abela Wilson

♣ Send your submissions by midnight Sunday, Pacific time, on each week’s theme: “First Hint of Spring“, “First Love” or suggest your own theme. Send short poems, haiku, senryu, tanka, cherita haibun, tanka prose, short prose poems, etc., or your own unique approach, to Kath Abela by Facebook message or click here to email her directly. We can feature your work again after five months. Multiple Submissions can be saved to appear later:

1. Send a short bio, comments on the theme.
2. Send photos or artwork by you, if possible.
3. No attachments except photos.

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