Welcome to Poetically Yours. Poetically Yours showcases poems by northern Illinois poets. This segment features a poem by Paula Coulahan.
Coulahan is a retired Language Arts teacher for Rockford Public Schools, but she plans to tutor part time this fall. She is a part of Moms Demand Action, Teachers for Social Justice and United Against Hate. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism from Northern Illinois University and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Aurora University. Coulahan and her husband, Mike, have been married for over 35 years. They have two adult sons. Here's her poem. "America Adrift.”
For the gifts my parents handed down, I am thankful- love, compassion, understanding, a sense of community, love for neighbors
Openly grateful for freedom and Democracy, they lived
Ancestors coming from Sweden, Ireland, England, clinging to dreams- building furniture, baking bread, farming, working in factories, collecting coal that passing trains dropped on the tracks to keep their families warm
One, freed by the sweat of Darrow’s brow, from charges of sedition
Darrow pacing on that wraparound porch, hands clasped behind his waistcoat, uttering words both beautiful and harsh, walking up and down on that porch, now disintegrated like freedom can disintegrate
Our divergent pasts melt separately and together
But for the displaced Native caretakers of the earth we all came from elsewhere to here, some not by choice, most on ships. In the end, all seeking stronger, seeking better because we can be better-we are better- better than hate, and division, and chaos
America is like an unfamiliar face to me now, all too clear but nameless- America adrift
To stare into the face of Hate and come up victorious is our burning task. We walk on the streets our ancestors saw “paved with gold”, paved with broken freedom, broken equality, and broken justice carried forward through generations like fragile heirlooms
Fragile, begging heirlooms. Fragile, begging streets paved with sweat, enslaved and free, paved with tears and potential
