Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets, but this week we’re featuring talent from the Golden State: James Morehead, poet laureate of Dublin, California.
Morehead is the author of canvas: poems, his debut poetry collection and is the host of The Viewless Wings Poetry Podcast.
James' poem "tethered" was transformed into an award-winning, hand-drawn short film. His poem "gallery" was set to music for baritone and piano. His poems have appeared in Wingless Dreamer, Prometheus Dreaming and Prompt Press.
“These are poems to be savored, re-read, kept handy for those times when only poetry will do,” said W. J. T. Mitchell, senior editor of Critical Inquiry and Gaylord Donnelley Distinguished Service Professor, English and Art History at the University of Chicago.
Today he shares is poem “Searching, still, for the ERA.”
Section 1
"Equality of rights"
stated decades ago
"under the law"
as passed by Congress(men) and
Senators alike
"shall not be denied"
until three States demurred?
deferred?
no they denied,
“or abridged by the United States
or by any state on account of sex"
and left it unsigned.
Section 2
"The Congress shall have
the power to enforce,"
35 States agree
but denied by 3
“by appropriate legislation,
the provisions of this article."
as was written in 1972
from Alice Paul of 1923.
Because equality creeps
we let freedom ring—hollow without a clapper.
Section 3
"This amendment shall take effect
two years after the date of ..."
And so we march
as decades pass
searching still for
" ...ratification"
- Yvonne Boose is a current corps member for Report for America, an initiative of the GroundTruth Project. It's a national service program that places talented journalists in local newsrooms like WNIJ. You can learn more about Report for America at wnij.org.
