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An Awful History of a Land of Avarice
Founded by a ragbag motley crew of
English, Irish, French, Dutch and the rest,
absent landlords, plundering slavers, religious rebels
clutching bibles to their righteous bellies.
Independent thanks to ministers of incompetence
in London and a moron German king of England
whose puny plans to quash colonial insolence
were foiled by treacherous French hypocrisy.
Expanding next from coast to glistening coast
by wanton greed and wholesale native slaughter,
aggressive landgrabs and rule of frontier bullets,
printing dollars on the fruits of negroes' labour.
O proud America in your ante bellum days
what a charming picture must you have shown:
thriving money-grabbing cities to the north
and slave-supported elegance to the sweaty south.
But now the time of reckoning's here indeed;
a bloody self-inflicted war to ascertain
which gang of greedy men would win the crock of gold;
four years of hell whose wounds have never healed.
Old Europe battled in the mud of Flanders fields
while prosperous Yankees looked on in financial glee
until the realization dawned that, to share the spoils
you had to make a token gesture near the bloodshed's end.
Roaring twenties and depressing dustbowl thirties,
bible-fed prohibition, Al Capone's rule by guns and crime,
Wall Street crash as greed got the better of itself:
O brave Hollywood world of rampant capitalism.
Then pursuant to a brave US tradition of wait and watch
the great republic cashed in for two full years
whilst gallant Albion fought the Nazi terror by itself
until Pearl Harbor's debacle dragged her in despite herself.
More modern outrage from the superpower now the cold war's gone:
financial swindles, crooked politicians buying power;
the money men send hoodwinked soldiers to their grisly fates
in Korea and Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Look back at your awful history, a country to be proud of:
insurrection, blood and greed, avarice and crime;
and look forward to a time when, gas guzzled and replete,
your arid deserts watch sad results of denied climate change.
Style / type:
Structured: Western
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Region & Country
London, Culture Capital of the World
Favorite Poets
Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen, Rupert Brooke, Chaucer, Shakespeare to name but a few. And VERY IMPORTANTLY: Erich Fried, a leftwing Austrian of Jewish ancestry who fled the Nazis and became a British citizen in 1949., And, other writers (non-poets mainly): Raymond Chandler, Irvine Welsh, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, Charles Bukowski, John le Carré, Anthony Horowitz, Mick Herron, Margaret Attwood, Edna O'Brian, Maeve Binchy., Writers who I find vastly over-rated: TS Eliot, Virgina Woolf, Sylvia Plath, Phil Larkin, E.A. Poe, A. Ginsburg, Longfellow, Gerald Manley Hopkins (actually I LOATHE Hopkins more than damson-dappled words can say).
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Comments
Edna Sweetlove
Tue, 2020-02-18 11:03
Oh dear...
...my audience seems to be gobsmacked into silence.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentEumolpus
Tue, 2020-02-18 12:20
last thought
My honest opinion- this is an essay, history lesson, a speech. It's telling me everything.
I just finished a 15 year project by the great poetess Annie Finch," A Poet's Craft." It is the best ever on the subject.
Objective, progressive, a great personal work on the craft -700 pages of amazing quotes and examples. It took me two months to read. It weighs 10 pounds.
It has made me think so much about appraising my work, which is urgent and so very hard. And in commenting, the best help for a writer is to consider the comments from honest and serious peers. She suggests you don't have to agree, or change anything, but it is a wake up call to consider some readers might see the poem a certain way.
Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings
Edna Sweetlove
Tue, 2020-02-18 19:32
I'm uncertain...
...if your comment is a compliment or an irrelevant observation. I'd be interested to know which.
PS It's not an essay.
.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGeezer
Wed, 2020-02-19 08:19
I have nothing...
to offer in the way of critique. However, as to the theme and the silence, there are those of us who wonder where your predilection for chastising America comes from? Granted, your GB, Britain, England has also been the target of your mean mouth, but I wonder if there are any other places that might benefit from your browbeating? IMHO, give it a rest! Test your skills with writing about some of the good things here and in your own country! Or if you can't think of any, try somewhere else. ~ Geezer.
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There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.
Edna Sweetlove
Thu, 2020-02-20 11:58
I have to say...
..that I object slightly to your use of the words "predilection" and "mean mouth" and your corny advice to "give it a rest" is hardly the best way to open any sort of discussion. A bit like your hideous president's advice to American women of colour to "go home". And what is the point of spouting sycophantic praise about either your country or mine, especially when there are so many things each nation should be ashamed of. Or maybe you think 30,000 shot dead every year is something to be proud of? I suppose I could write a nice poem praising the US Army's behaviour at Wounded Knee? Or Mai Lai? Or maybe the atom bombs on Japan? Or maybe a sonnet to applaud the fact that the USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world (the USA has 4.5% of the world's population but 22% of the world's prisoners and concentrates on imprisoning black people).
Or that either of us should be delighted to have a gang of prize arseholes as politcal leaders? I woild have hoped for better from you, Geezer, old bean.
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xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGeezer
Wed, 2020-02-19 18:22
Objection, Your Honor...
What else would you call it? How about predisposition?
Discussion? Since when, has it become a discussion?
I will admit that "mean mouth" was a bit of a dig,
but I see nothing in your "discussion" that persuades me
of anything else. It seems that you have nothing but contempt for
humanity in general; but America and Britain in particular.
As for the "statistic" of thirty thousand shot every year,
I agree, that it would be much better if there were none.
But, seeing as how we are a nation of 330 million,
I see that as a less than one percent share of the populace
and for a nation born and raised in a "gun culture"
a pretty decent statistic. Don't forget, that includes
suicides and accidental shootings of oneself and others.
Granted, we do have the biggest
proportion of prisoners in the world, but, considering the fact
that many other nations routinely execute people for offenses
that we incarcerate for, I will take that as a sign that we are
on the right track. Myself, I would execute people that are
"caught in the act" of murder, rape and violence against the weak
and infirm without a trial, thereby eliminating a goodly percentage
of the prison population and saving the average of sixty to eighty thousand dollars a year for the state.
I will concede that a disproportionate amount
of the prison population is African-American and Hispanic, but that should be remedied
fairly soon with the rising percentage of "Black" population, and the decline of
so-called "whites". Yes, believe it or not, "we" are reaping what we have sowed!
There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.
Edna Sweetlove
Wed, 2020-02-19 18:57
Ummm...umm...
... I am pleased you replied, at least that shows a willingness to discuss. We can agree to disagree, but civilly I hope.
Some brief points:
1, 30,000+ shot dead p.a. is not just a "statistic". It's a horrifying fact, a result of your lunatic 2nd Amendment, which allows violent idiots to own lethal weapons, with the excuse that they need them to slaughter animals, when what they really like doing is killing children, students, racial minorities and each other. The "gun culture" remark is irrelevant - just because cowboys and the US cavalry slaughtered 000s of Red Indians in the 19th century is no excuse.
2. Yes, I probably do have contempt for a large proportion of humanity - in particular the liars, the hypocrites, the killers, the criminals, the exploitative mega-rich, the climate deniers. Of all nationalities. As well as Brits and Americans, you can add in Israelis, Muslim fanatics and quite a few others.
3. The fact that "other nations" execute their citizens is no defence for the huge prison population of the USA, largely black people denied the opportunity to partake in society's benefits - unless of course you are suggesting that black people are just naturally inclined towards criminality.
4. Your wish to see more people killed by the state to save money is, not to mince words, hateful and abhorrent. All civilised nations have banned capital punishment. If capital punishment is so good, why not have it live on TV?
.
.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGeezer
Thu, 2020-02-20 00:55
Uh-huh...
The thirty thousand shot, are not just the "dead", they are also, accidental and non-lethal woundings. Yes,it is a horrifying fact. I stand by my remark that "gun culture" is an important part of American life. Not only has the "gun" procured meat for the table, but defended against enemies and predators. I do suppose that if the settlers of the "West" had fought back against the Indians with bows and arrows, the outcome would have been much different. Custer would have been most reluctant to charge into a village shooting Indians if he had been using swords and bows and arrows. [Unfortunately for him, he vastly underestimated the numbers of warriors] and so succumbed to his ego.
There is a popular idiom, here in America; "If guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns." How true, so very true! Do you really think that if you ask criminals to just give up their guns and use knives or bats to commit crimes, they are going to meekly comply? Yes, THEY are all for people giving up their guns! Makes it easier to rob someone if the victim only has a pocket knife to defend his property. As for the police taking care of the criminals, the average responding time to a domestic dispute is ten to fifteen minutes, from recieving the call to actually getting there, depending on where you live and if there is a unit close by, and that is a high priority call! And if you live in a rural area, someone could kill you and your whole family and/or steal everything worth anything and disappear before the police arrive.
Now, to the fact that Black men are more likely to be imprisoned, I'll grant that is true and I will also concede that there is a disparity in "sharing the wealth". An unfortunate fact. Shall we become Socialists, to satisfy that need? Shall we abandon the precept that good, honest hard work is the way to make your life as good as the person who worked hard for it? What about those minorities who start their own companies, work hard and earn their way? There are no heights that a man cannot attain if he works hard and makes his own way! We have had a black President! He didn't get there by having it given to him on a silver platter! Yes, he had some advantages, but guess who gave them to him? His parents! Unless I am mistaken, at least one of them was black! People use the old cliche; Society, [the man] keeps us down, in order to keep us subservient. Bullshit! Get out there and make something happen.
Capital punishment! If there were no doubt whatsoever, that the person is guilty, "caught in the act". Take them out back shoot them and dump their body in an unmarked grave and be done with it. Maybe having it on live TV would be a deterrent! This is what happens to a murderer!
There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.
Edna Sweetlove
Thu, 2020-02-20 11:56
To continue our debate civilly..
The 30,000+..
I do not deny this figure includes accidental shootings and suicides. However the 30K figure refers to DEATHS. There are roughly 70-75,000 injuries p.a. if you include woundings. Your claim that "gun culture" is an important part of American life is, to a European, horrific and no excuse - a bit like saying anti-semitism is a part of life. Yes it's true, but that doesn't make it acceptable. Yes, guns have procured meat for the table, but then so do slaughterhouses - you aren't suggesting opening up slaughterhouses to dispose of your enemies. I hope.
You talk of the settlers of the Wild West "fighting back" against the native Indians. Umm, there was I thinking it was the other way round: the Indians fighting back against the whites who came to steal their ancestral lands.
You quote what you claim is a "popular American idiom,": if guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have guns. What total illogical silliness - in Europe (a part of the world no stranger to violence in two horrific world wars) we have (in most nations) very strict gun laws. The result is NOT more gun crime by "outlaws" - the result is that criminals find it harder to get guns and know that if caught committing a crime involving guns, the punishment will be seriously more severe. So the vast majority shun lethal weapons for their own protection. Look at the statistics: the only country in Western Europe with a gundeath ratio over 3 per 100,000 is Finland (where gun laws are least strict); the UK's rate is 0.2%; the USA's is over 12% and the rate for Canada (just over the border with a not dissimilar pioneer past) is only 2%. So the USA's gundeath rate is 6 times that of Canada and 60 times that of the UK. QED. As for the police being negligent in responding time to a violent dispute, whose fault is that? It is the state's obligation to provide protection for its citizens and it needs to raise taxes to do so. If the state fails, then it needs to be reformed.
I am constantly amazed at so many Americans' horror and fear of "Socialism"? What is socialism? It's a politico-economic system which advocates that the means of production, distribution, and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole for the benefit of the community in order to protect the rights of workers and to avoid the exploitation by unscrupulous minorities. In practice, nowadays in the West is it best described as social democracy or democratic socialism, in which extensive state regulation, with limited state ownership, is used by democratically elected governments to produce a fairer distribution of income. Think the Nordic nations, whichb regularly score highest in terms of happiness ratings. What is there to be frightened of? Democratic socialism does not deny what you call "the precept that good, honest hard work is the way to make your life as good as the person who worked hard for it." and the fact that you had one black president in well over 200 years is a total red herring - he was a privileged black person and his skin colour was almost irrelevant (except to the racist bigots who support Trump and his cronies). How many Jewish presidents have you had? How many Hispanic or Native Americans? Zero. And how many Catholics? One, I believe.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGeezer
Thu, 2020-02-20 12:33
Yes...
I have looked at the facts; and I accept them. I was so looking forward to your response to my assertion that indeed, we should have public executions! Sorry, if I seem uncivilized, but I do believe that in order to make the world a safer place, we should delete the troublesome perpetrators. The fact that you mention the Indians were only protecting their lands and possessions, just shows the nature of humans. We will use any means necessary to protect what is ours. Does it matter if it is a bow and arrow or a spear or a gun? Do we go back to the "Stone Age" to lay blame? If "Man" had never picked up that first rock... What was he doing with that rock? Very likely; he was protecting his patch of foraging and hunting grounds. Oh wait; we are civilized now! Do we lay down our rocks and turn the other cheek?
~ Geezer.
.
There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.
Edna Sweetlove
Thu, 2020-02-20 13:19
There's a world of difference...
..between laying down our rocks and stringing people up or frying them alive or pumping them full of poison.
Countries which I feel you would decry as uncivilised and barbaric kill their citizens as a matter of course: China, Iran, Saudi, Iraq, Egypt, Pakistan and North Korea spring to mind. Is that the sort of group of nations to which the USA aspires to be part of? Apart from the USA, the only developed nations to practice capital punishment are Japan and Singapore. 31 US states retain the death penalty (+ the federal government and the army).
Is the death penalty a deterrent? It would seem not: most 3rd world countries and in particular those in Africa and Central America have skyrocket-high murder rates. take the USA: over twice that of Canada and over 5 times that of the UK. the sad fact is that, if you are a gun-toting criminal, you know you can only be hanged/shot/electrocuted once, so why not go for broke if in a corner?
And mistakes happen - innocent people are killed by the state. And to imagine that "civilised" executions are somehow painless is total bollocks. There is NO nice and clean way of killing people. Take your pick, Geezer, take your pick:
Hanging - usually this means death by severed vertebrae but lynching meant strangulation
Hanging, drawing and quartering - an olde English speciality reserved as a treat for traitors
Shooting - by firing squad or a bullet to the back of the head, extra fun for the shooters
Lethal injection - c.5% of these in the USA are officially "botched"!
Electrocution - a US speciality and still legal in some states if the victim prefers it to lethal injection
Gas inhalation - ditto (oh yes and also popular in Auschwitz)
Beheading -including the guillotine (a medical study showed that the brain knew it was dead for 7-8 seconds afterwards). Now used only in Saudi Arabia with a sword.
Stoning - an Arab method
Garotting - a Spanish peccadillo
Burning at the stake - popular way of disposing of witches in England and New England in the 1600s
Crucifixion - not so popular these days: best known victims Spartacus & Jesus (not 100% successful in that latter case).
You will be surprised to find that I 100% agree with you about making executions public. If the popular wish is for criminals to be killed, then it should be done publically. In fact it was the unseemly scenes of public glorification of these deaths which was a major factor in leading to the abolition of the death penalty. Why not just bring back lynchings? It would save the expense of having to pay lawyers and judges. I believe the last lynching was as recently as 1981 in Alabama.
.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGeezer
Thu, 2020-02-20 12:40
Further...
I will consider this discussion closed here on this site. It is a place for "Poetry" not a dialog on "Humanity" and its' failings.
~ Geezer.
.
There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.
Edna Sweetlove
Thu, 2020-02-20 13:20
Sounds like...
...an admission of defeat to me.
.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGeezer
Thu, 2020-02-20 16:41
Not on your life!...
To make a deliberate pun. I just don't feel that our comments should be the news of the day. I will continue to debate you in PM's if you like. ~ Geezer.
.
There is value to commenting and critique, tell us how you feel about our work.
This must be the place, 'cause there ain't no place like this place anywhere near this place.
Edna Sweetlove
Thu, 2020-02-20 17:20
As I said...
...conceding defeat. Never mind, I shan't boast about it
.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentEumolpus
Wed, 2020-02-19 10:26
not a compliment
rants are good for therapy, but don't necessarily make good poems. Forgetting the content itself, you have just told the world the history according to you with a couple of adjectives thrown in. No metaphor, no mystery, no poetic imagination.
It's a speech given on a shoe-box. It's propaganda, not poetry.
I get it. it's a shitty world. Get off the shoe-box and write poetry.
Eumolpus
I'd rather learn from one bird how to sing
than teach ten thousand stars how not to dance
ee cummings
Edna Sweetlove
Wed, 2020-02-19 15:58
I have no intention of...
...indulging in a slanging match with you or anyone else. If you dislike my writings, don't waste my time by being inaccurately pompous about what IS and what is NOT "poetry" in your personal opinion. I have to say your comment that my writings lack "metaphor, mystery and poetic imagination" superfluous as well as being just plain rude.
.
And I am sick and tired of seeing that clichéd quotation from that useless pretentious scribbler Cummings who couldn't even bother to punctuate.
.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGracy
Wed, 2020-02-19 20:05
Hi Edna, your poem is sadly
Hi Edna, your poem is sadly true. I'd only change the title because it's putting the USA as if it were the only country full of horrible people. It's a descriptive poem, which is OK. Poems don't need to have metaphors. IMO.
I live in Argentina, so I know a lot about conquerors. The Spanish were terribly cruel to the "indians" and then the independant Argentine presidents sent armies to what they called The Conquest of the desert".
There were millions of indigenous people and they were killed mercilessly. They were "savages" to most everybody. The negroes escaped to Brazil, where they were a little better off.
My two uncles died at a young age in WWI, so my father came penniless to Argentina. He saw it all, he was kind to the farmhands when he became a fruit farmer. A shame you don't mention the cruelties of the British Empire. That's what I mean, no offense meant. My parents were both British, so I know plenty about our history.
I only think that your poem is a tad lopsided, but bravely speaks out. I'll return for another read.
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"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies; fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die, I can fly, my friends.” – Freddie Mercury
Edna Sweetlove
Thu, 2020-02-20 11:14
Dear Gracy...
...thank you for your intelligent comments. If you check back on many of my other postings here, I have been equally critical of the British, my own sorry and shameful nation with a racist, lying bigot and boastful adulterer as its PM and a cabinet full of liars to boot. I don't think the title salutes the USA specifically.
And we agree that whilst a poem CAN have metaphors, similes, whatever, it does not require one to be a "poem".
Cheers
.
xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
author commentGracy
Fri, 2020-02-21 15:55
Yes, I'm worried about
Yes, I'm worried about visiting Britain this coming October. What will it be like? I dislike Bozo as much as you appear to. To begin with, referendums on important issues usually need a 2/3 majority to be legal. Cameron did a very stupid thing, but now it's turned out as he wished.
I just think the title of your poem is a bit harsh because it would apply to all the world. Human beings are the worst and most destructive animal on the planet.
I'll search for your other poems, I'm new here. So bye for now.
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"My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies; fairy tales of yesterday will grow but never die, I can fly, my friends.” – Freddie Mercury
Edna Sweetlove
Fri, 2020-02-21 20:35
Fear not...
...civilised Britain hasn't changed. All right, there's a bit more xenophobia than usual, but the real difference is that it's a little bit more open that before in yobbo-land - but only in pig-peasant proletarian areas - as a visitor, you wouldn't go there, would you? Don't forget that 3-4 million people signed a petition to revoke Article 50 and a majority of the country voted for pro-EU political parties. It's only our outdated voting system which led to a huge Tory majority. Plus, of course, ARSEHOLE Johnson's bigotry and blatant lies.
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xxx
Edna
Poet(ess) to the Stars
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