Posting a slightly revised version of my poem "To Kansas." I drafted this quite some time ago, probably after reading an article about members of the right-wing fundamentalist members of the Westboro Baptist Church (of Topeka, KS) and one of their hateful protests. They were just in Annapolis recently to protest Marylanders' approval of same-sex marriage. I didn't make it to the counter-protest, but it got me thinking about revising this poem, which in part remembers a time when Kansas was progressive.
TO KANSAS
O Kansas! You were once
a beacon of freedom
in the heart of the nation.
You made the slave masters quake with rage and fear.
What are you now?
Homeland of reactionaries;
those who would deny freedom;
those who would close the books to truth,
shout down individuality,
and suppress free thought,
just like the slave masters against whom
our pioneer fathers fought.
Sons and daughters of Kansas,
sons of John Brown and of Lawrence,
daughters of Free Soilers and Jayhawkers,
heirs of the abolitionist spirit—
to all Progressives with roots in the rich Kansas soil:
Take back Kansas!
Take back Kansas!
About Me
- Michael Ratcliffe
- This site is a place to store my poems and other thoughts about poems. Think of it as a digital, on-line file cabinet to which the world has access. Or, a virtual poetry reading. Posting here is not intended to be self-publishing. Some of my poems have been published in various on-line and print journals: Commonthought Magazine, Kumquat Poetry, Free State Review, Symmetry Pebbles, Loch Raven Review, Dead Beats Literary Blog, The Copperfield Review, Do Not Look at the Sun, Poetry Quarterly, Three Line Poetry, the Little Patuxent Review, You Are Here: the Journal of Creative Geography, and the Beatnik. If you like what you read here (or even if you don't), please feel free to write to me at clogwyngoch@gmail.com.
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