Today's News . . . Today's Poem
The New Verse News
presents politically progressive poetry on current events and topical issues.
Guidelines
Submission Guidelines: Send unpublished poems in the body of an email (NO ATTACHMENTS) to nvneditor[at]gmail.com. No simultaneous submissions. Use "Verse News Submission" as the subject line. Send a brief bio. No payment. Authors retain all rights after 1st-time appearance here. Scroll down the right sidebar for the fine print.
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
ROE V. WADE—THE PREQUEL, 1972
Monday, May 23, 2022
COWS WHO DIDN'T JUMP OVER THE MOON
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Jason Grostic's cows are tame and relaxed on his small Michigan farm. But after repeatedly testing his farm for PFAS chemicals in biosolids applied to his fields, state officials stopped Grostic from selling any meat or cattle from his farm. Feed grown on his farm is contaminated as well, and he's having to buy feed for the herd he can no longer sell. (DTN photo by Chris Clayton) —Progressive Farmer, May 9, 2022 |
Sunday, May 22, 2022
PRAYERS OF WAR
UKRAINE HAIKU
LET PEACE BE THE MOTHER OF EVERYTHING
Saturday, May 21, 2022
HEART OF THE GALAXY
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The mystery at the heart of the Milky Way has finally been solved. This morning, at simultaneous press conferences around the world, the astronomers of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) revealed the first image of Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. It’s not the first picture of a black hole this collaboration has given us—that was the iconic image of M87*, which they revealed on April 10, 2019. But it’s the one they wanted most. Sagittarius A* is our own private supermassive black hole, the still point around which our galaxy revolves. —Scientific American, May 12, 2022. |
Friday, May 20, 2022
I AM THINKING ABOUT AMERICA TODAY
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A counselor attends to a grieving woman outside Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Woods, Calif., site of a "politically-motivated hate incident" shooting which left a prominent doctor dead and another five people injured, on May 15. (Leonard Ortiz/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register/Getty Images) Photo illustrating “A weekend of violence punctuates generations of hate.” —The Washington Post, May 18, 2022 |
Thursday, May 19, 2022
JUST AS THE BIRDS, DISTRACTED
Most nights this week, there will be more birds in the air abovethis country than people in beds down below.” —Josh Sokol
WHAT WE LEARN FROM BIRDS
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
PRAYING FOR YOU, GOV
VILLANELLE FOR A POST ROE WORLD
by Mary K O’Melveny
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Cyndi Lauper and Laura Dern |
Women have no rights required to be respected
say five jurists whose words hurl us back to ancient time.
What actions are required to see this travesty corrected?
This outcome—undesired by most—was not unexpected.
Women have been told for centuries that men’s role is prime,
that women have no rights required to be respected.
Some say our decisions must be made by men, elected
but clueless, whose laws transform our choices into crime.
What actions shall we take to see such travesty corrected?
Once a woman’s bodily autonomy has been rejected
by folks who’ve no idea the mountains we must climb,
how can we ensure that anyone’s liberty will be respected?
Diminishments of human rights are always quite connected.
Misogyny, like slavery, depends on whose lives we define
as worth the actions needed to see such travesties corrected.
Look in the mirror—do you see the person you expected?
No matter age or circumstance, the time has come for rage sublime.
If women have no rights required to be respected,
revolution is what we need to see this travesty corrected.
Mary K O'Melveny is a recently retired labor rights attorney who lives in Washington DC and Woodstock NY. Her work has appeared in various print and on-line journals. Her most recent poetry collection is Dispatches From the Memory Care Museum, just out from Kelsay Books. Her first poetry chapbook A Woman of a Certain Age is available from Finishing Line Press. Mary’s poetry collection Merging Star Hypotheses was published by Finishing Line Press in January, 2020.
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
BUFFALO HAIKU
LE GRANDE REPLACEMENT
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Image credit: Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images |
Blood moon rises over the horizon,
over Minneapolis, Auckland, Buffalo,
over blood spilled in schools and supermarkets,
hot orb, hatred splayed on the pavement.
In Minnesota you know you’re dead to the world
if you see your obituary in the Star Tribune a week before you die.
The loons’ eerie tremolos and yodels call to you—
outsider, peculiar threat, excised one, unwelcome.
Strange bugs come calling each spring.
They crawl up your walls in curious unison,
fleeing, seeking escape.
You find them on the kitchen floor,
dead in the window wells,
silent and withered.
Monday, May 16, 2022
IN SEARCH OF DEMOCRACY
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The Sri Lankan state is descending into a full blown political and economic crisis, as more people contend with starvation, death and severe disruptions. Now they are also facing the brutal violence of the state. The BBC reports at least nine people died and more than 200 were injured as vehicles and houses were set alight during fighting between government supporters and critics this week. The island is facing its worst economic crisis since independence, and the responses of the state indicate it is incapable of protecting its citizens. The deployment of military force, however, is unlikely to quell unrest. The anger and frustration displayed by the public, aggravated by pro-government protesters, is only likely to grow – fuelling further distrust in the ruling government. —The Conversation, May 12, 2022 |
Sunday, May 15, 2022
SHIREEN ABU AKLEH (IN MEMORIAM)
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The Palestinian Authority on Thursday declined a request to let Israeli officials examine the bullet that killed Shireen Abu Akleh, a prominent reporter for Al Jazeera who was killed in the occupied West Bank during an Israeli raid. Palestinian officials and witnesses accused Israeli soldiers of killing Ms. Abu Akleh, dismissing Israeli claims that the journalist may have been hit by Palestinian fire during a shootout in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank. —The New York Times, May 12, 2022. Photo: The day after she was killed, Palestinian artists were already at work painting a mural of Shireen Abu Akleh in Jenin, a city in the northern West Bank. Credit: Mohammed Saber/EPA, via Shutterstock via The New York Times) |
Saturday, May 14, 2022
WHAT MONEY CAN BUY
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US billionaires' demand for 'golden passport' schemes that sell citizenships to 'safe' countries for up to $6.5m including New Zealand and Portugal rockets by 337% in three years as fears of civil unrest spike. —Mail Online, May 7, 2022 |
PRIME REAL ESTATE
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Sphecius speciosus, often simply referred to as the cicada killer or the cicada hawk, is a large digger wasp species. —iNaturalist |
Friday, May 13, 2022
COLOSSAL LOSSES
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The Soviet monument symbolising historic ties between ex-Soviet Ukraine and Russia being dismantled in Kyiv on April 26, 2022. |
Thursday, May 12, 2022
BRISEIS
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Apulian Red-Figure Amphora by the Painter of the Berlin Dancing Girl ca. 430-410 BCE depicting Achilles and Briseis. Via Wikimedia Commons. |
Wednesday, May 11, 2022
GHOULS
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
UNMASKING
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Illustration by The New York Times to accompany “America, Unmasked” by Pamela Paul, May 8, 2022. Photograph by George Marks/Getty Images. |
Monday, May 09, 2022
THE ART OF THE HANGER
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Abortion rights supporters protest outside the Supreme Court on Tuesday. Credit: Valerie Plesch for NBC News. |
HANGERS
“Let’s be clear about this: Roe wasn’t the beginning of women getting abortions. It was the end of women dying from unsafe abortions.” —No Dem Left Behind PAC |
Sunday, May 08, 2022
FAR FROM THE WAR
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Cover of the May 6, 1944 issue of The New Yorker. |
Saturday, May 07, 2022
WHAT IS THERE TO DO
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Valeria Hlodan, her baby daughter Kira, and Valeria’s mother Liudmila died in the missile strike on 23 April. (Picture: @myroslavapetsa; Rex via Metro.) |
Friday, May 06, 2022
HIS ABORTION POEM
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Source: “Abortion” by John Bartlow Martin from the May 20, 1961, issue of the Saturday Evening Post. |