Thursday, February 11, 2016

Brotherhood


image by etsy.com


Brotherhood

“We don’t need holy wars. What we need is
tolerance & brotherhood--simple humanity.”
--Arien Specter

Dare we dream of perfect brotherhood
within a world strangled by greed?
If goals are checkmated by need,
are politician’s promises any damn good?

Our democracy perhaps should
be less other-directed, and take heed;
dare we dream of perfect brotherhood
within a world strangled by greed?

We are a nation of can’t--if only we could
actually govern from love, and not impede
those beautiful dreamers who want to lead
us out of chaos, to where equity is understood.
Dare we dream of perfect brotherhood?


Glenn Buttkus

Posted over at dVerse Poets Pub MTB

A humane, political plea in the Rondel form.

20 comments:

  1. Dare we even dream of honesty, and politeness.. it seems like politics is just being rude and shouting to each other... I cannot even listen to politicians these days.

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  2. The repetitive nature of this form works well to drive home the central message of this poem. Nice work with the form and I always enjoy the quotes you use to lead in to the body of work.

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  3. Yes! we might as well dare if we are to make a difference.
    Brilliant write :D

    Lots of love,
    Sanaa

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  4. Yes! I dream of that. The flow of this is as lovely as that thought of peaceful coexistence.

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  5. A wonderful dream, indeed! If only we could rid the world of pride and greed. As the bumper sticker says, "Wag more, bark less." Peace, Linda

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  6. perfectly stated! what has happened to honesty and compassion?

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  7. Unfortunately, the world is filled with too much selfish interests to make brotherhood a reality. Great piece!

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  8. This is a strong plea, Glenn. I think there is one candidate who is inspiring those dreams in the young & inspires hope for a better tomorrow. Makes me feel perhaps idealism is still alive. I do wish I were optimistic that perfect brotherhood could be achieved though.

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  9. Don't we all wish for this, a perfect brotherhood ~ But there's so much in stake in politics that all politicians just have a vested interest ~

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  10. I think if one was ever an idealist, one always retains hope the world will change with the right impetus or leader. Whenever my faith in mankind is restored, I revert back to Camelot and think maybe, just maybe, this is the change we need .. goodness and brotherhood will win out in the end. Nice emphasis in your repetitions here, Glen.

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  11. We do wish for a perfect brotherhood but I don't think we will ever achieve that. We can hope for a semblance perhaps but there will always be rumblings and chaos in this world. "--simple humanity"...isn't so simple. It is what it is.

    I love the topic of hope for brotherhood and your strong repeating lines in this, Glenn. If only the leaders of the world would heed the voices of their constituents.

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  12. Glenn,

    We must always dream of brotherhood and maybe someday it will be so but, probably not in my lifetime. You like to get to the heart of the matter :)

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  13. How well this repeating form works for a political plea. Well done.

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  14. Indeed! Can we? So well written and meaningful!

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  15. oh i'm a pessimist in this matter...as long as greed reigns perfect brotherhood is a mere utopia ...you've really played with the form so well...i see that the refrains work wonder here...

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  16. It must be hard to be a politician who has reasonable goals when they have to fight against a corrupt and greedy system

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  17. The "dare we dream" repetition is so powerful here. You've posed some age-old questions in this piece. And as MLK said, "I have a dream...." There are those who dream and only wonder....there are those who dream and work to enact. Let us hope to decrease the apathy and move forward! Very well done piece! As always.

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  18. SAdly again..
    when no longer
    the hunt for
    food is a j)int
    effort oF forAGe
    true.. stores become
    real in yesternowmorrows
    no longer now relevant..
    a fiGht oF Survival Love..
    moving connecting
    creating live dissolves
    iN human sidewalks
    of order
    over free..
    iN other words..
    freedom can only
    be attained at the individual
    and smAll group level.. in human
    eyes only evolved to flesh connect
    wITh 150 to 200 or so eYes of homogenous
    other.. there is no escape from Nature..
    but free iS Nature
    so at least we
    can come back
    for now
    wHere we
    are.. insanity
    oF a society iN
    population exploding
    sTill oF hairless small
    group apes.. is no
    escape but
    back to the
    past as future
    now once
    more
    now
    free
    iN
    fur
    of ancestral
    truths core to uS..
    liGht in smAll moving
    connecting creative now
    homogenous groups..
    strife will always be
    the different
    of us togetHeR
    iN Black and
    White Spectrums
    of aLL wE can beE
    iN colored Life
    oF RainBow
    hopes..
    now
    iS
    ALL that counts
    for now at least and
    so much more human
    potenTial great!ER N0W..:)

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