This week let’s write a poem with the words century, symbolism and voice in it. This is another of those prompts where I randomly choose three words from a list of the top 1000 words in the English language plus a few of my favorites. Post your poems in the comments below.
Living Poetry 
Last century
WW II symbolized
The power of America
To twart its enemies
The current century
A cacophony of voices
Makes the country look weak, divided
The new ayatollahs
Trying to hold fast
To a vision of America
That never really existed
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Posted by Second Act Blogger | August 16, 2022, 12:38 PMLove the reference to the Ayatollahs. Totally agree. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | August 16, 2022, 1:36 PMI live in the Lowcountry
where the bottomlands meets black waters
far from the roar of the highway
so close to the past
that sometimes you remember what year it is
From the back porch I sit and watch
the evening show with all my favorite stars
the osprey and the gator
the night herons and the fallow deer
remnants of a time long gone
Then, as evening closes, the Chuck-wills-widow
her voice bearing her name
starts her night-long vigil
a frenzy unmatched, except, maybe,
by a love-struck Mockingbird in springtime
And sometimes on such evenings
when moon, stars and light
combine in just the right way
You’ll see him, the Lord God bird
an Ivory-bill
a giant with wings black and white
beating unhurried like the black water home
from where he comes
No one believes me that this bird exists
“There hasn’t been a verified sighting for nearly a century”
they said when I told them
No picture was good enough
“Inconclusive!” they say
But then the talk became dismissive of me
as dismissive of the “extinct” bird itself
“What, do you have Carlina Parakeets in a cage as well?”
“I bet you dine a finest Heath Hen in the Lowcountry!”
I stopped going to the bird club meetings
36 years after I first joined
their silent jeers met by my silent response
like the bird no one believes
lives in the swamp beyond my home
the symbolism lost in the noisy chatter
of the monthly bird club choir
So I sit and watch the unfolding drama
that comes on every evening
in the best high-definition any eye can see
The osprey and the gator
The heron and the deer
And sometimes, when the moon, stars and light combine just right
You can see the Lord God bird
flying through the trees
to his unreachable hidden roost
safe from all the naysayers
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Posted by Chris Clarke | August 15, 2022, 10:02 PMLovely story. Thanks for sharing!
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | August 15, 2022, 11:33 PMWonderful to hear about the ivory billed woodpecker, and a smooth low-country melody in the poem.
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Posted by ts19page | August 16, 2022, 2:34 PMwhat symbolism the voice of a century silenced in seconds
Jonathan Byrd YouTube.com/jonathanbyrdmusic
>
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Posted by Jonathan Byrd | August 15, 2022, 9:22 AMGreat use of the prompt! This could apply to so many artists. Thanks for sharing.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | August 15, 2022, 8:21 PMnot a great start
to this century
mayhem plague and war
dissenting voices earn
a fatwa in the mail
it’s not symbolism
it’s for real
ask salman rushdie
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Posted by Rall | August 15, 2022, 8:22 AMGreat work and timely! Thanks for sharing.
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Posted by Bartholomew Barker | August 15, 2022, 8:18 PMThat’s good
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Posted by Second Act Blogger | August 16, 2022, 12:40 PM