Sunday, April 17, 2016

IDEALISM AND AUTHENTICITY

by Gil Hoy



In buildings along the park, New York University students and workers pressed against windows to watch Senator Bernie Sanders and the vast crowd below on the chilly night. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times, April 13, 2016.


Idealism and authenticity
speak to river crowds.

Huddled hopeful men,
women, children,
Some old, mostly young,
mostly middle class;

They've come to gaze
into his eyes, to look through
Lens bridge and frame—
wanting to believe again;

To drink the speak
of a political revolution
Where everyone is worthy;

Listen to unfeigned songs from
the white-stranded consistent

Wrinkled doors of a skinny,
slight, only-man who dares to
Challenge the status quo;

The speaker's crescendo
voice rises, then falls, cracks from
Human fatigue, then rises again,
just before he exits the stage.


Gil Hoy is a Boston trial lawyer and is currently studying poetry at Boston University, through its Evergreen program, where he previously received a BA in Philosophy and Political Science. Hoy received an MA in Government from Georgetown University and a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. He served as a Brookline, Massachusetts Selectman for four terms. Hoy's poetry has appeared (or is scheduled for publication) most recently in Right Hand Pointing-One Sentence Poems, The Potomac, Clark Street ReviewTheNewVerse.News and The Penmen Review.