The election of Trump awoke a generation
Social activists united across nations
But as the clamoring grew louder and louder
Leaders shut the shades on their ivory towers
Identity, security, gone with the wind
“O’hara never paid for her privileged sins”
“Centuries of servitude justified by science –
Eugenics spread to Germany thanks to our suppliance”
Polarization heightens as the world is shrinking
Cultures rearranging, economies linking
Survival of the fittest in today’s day and age
Thanks to globalization is a global rat race
Our future in the hands of data systems
Determining algorithms of our existence
AI replacing manufacturing jobs
While politicians blame upper-crust snobs
Blame the 1% but blame the upper-middle too
Hoarding opportunities, living without a clue
That most people don’t get to travel abroad
Go to an opera, sit back and applaud
Americans that do travel stick together
People speaking English flock like birds of a feather
Exchange students live with their fraternity brothers
Tourists and locals don’t get to know one another
Transatlantic relations become us versus them
Pay your 2% or we will condemn
We live in a time of constant connection
wifi that is, not the human dimension
When events are viewed through a snapchat story
Ongoing wars become transitory
We need to promote more meaningful exchange
Language learning opportunities at an early age
Cultural events besides festivals of beer
To show Germany as people with voices to hear
We cannot be free until we use our own words
Associations that go far beyond our own herds
Renouncing the sound bites of demagogues
Repeated over and over on Internet blogs
As nations we have real problems to face
Like terrorists, the climate, populations displaced
Face them together and success is at hand
But cooperation must be transparently planned
Democracy requires the popular trust
Facts and scientific reasoning are a must
But when conspiracy theories run the media
And the answer can’t be found in an encyclopedia
We must strengthen our diplomatic relations
They should transcend races, classes, and nations
Gender, age, and sexual preference
To all points of view we must have reverence
Dear Amy,
first of all just WOW!
I love how to approach this task and topic. I personally had a hard time at school in analyzing and understanding poetry, and I admire your skills. Your text really depicts the main issued in TR and exposes some hipocrit situations. I could see this in a poetry slam competition organised specifically to target this kind of political issues. Shared later one after one on Social Media.
“We live in a time of constant connection
wifi that is, not the human dimension
When events are viewed through a snapchat story
Ongoing wars become transitory” that is my favourite part! 🙂 🙂
Amy,
I second Feodora…Wow!!!! Your submission is poetic and insightful. I sincerely hope that this gets published! You have a great strength in your message – using poetry in a powerful way to make a strong point. So many of us wrote articles (myself included), but you maximized the creativity of this challenge.
This is so relevant to today’s time with the public discourse on the mistrust of the media.
Democracy requires the popular trust
Facts and scientific reasoning are a must
But when conspiracy theories run the media
And the answer can’t be found in an encyclopedia
Well done!
Brandy
Hi Amy,
thanks for your very impressive and poetic input!
Hi Amy, thank you for this contribution. What an amazing and powerful piece! – Claudia
Hi Claudia,
Thanks for your very real and heartfelt piece. I think you hit every crucial fault in the deteriorating transatlantic relations. Do you think poetry could be an effective public speaking point to policy-makers?
Kind regards,
Lindsey
Lindsey,
I think poetry and the arts should be incorporated more in the world of public policy making. I was especially disheartened that Trump did not have a poet at his inauguration, but it is pretty telling given his funding cuts for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I think the more that policy-makers can embrace using and listening to poetic language, the more intentional and thoughtful their decision will be!
Amy, what a great piece, thanks for that!
As to the line “We live in a time of constant connection, wifi that is, not the human dimension”. Do you think that digital media is not contributing to a broader and easier connection between people?
Cheers,
Amélie
Amélie,
Thanks for your feedback! I think it is beyond question that digital media has generated broader and easier connections between people, and it’s exceptional for maintaining contact. I regularly Facebook message with my host parents from Spain and like Instagram videos of my friends from Cambodia, people who I won’t be able to visit in the near future since airfare is so expensive. However, I think the medium of a screen makes it difficult to generate true empathy between people with whom you haven’t first met in person. When communication is so effortless (clicking like) it is easy to feel ‘connected’ without truly having the lasting bonds that are necessary to inspire action. But who knows, with the oncoming of Virtual Reality technology, maybe some of these technological barriers can be eliminated!
I can only agree with the previous comments, Amy! This is really a great piece of art with an important political message. I especially liked this section because I feel you captured the issue perfectly: “Democracy requires the popular trust
Facts and scientific reasoning are a must
But when conspiracy theories run the media
And the answer can’t be found in an encyclopedia”. Do you think that art and poetry can contribute to counter what you call conspriacy theories?
Sarah,
Thanks for your positive feedback! I think art and poetry can absolutely counter conspiracy theories. Trying to counter ‘alternative facts’ with more ‘facts’ can become a vicious cycle when neither side is verifiable and issues are not black and white. I think we should embrace the grey zone, and rather than debating semantics, should focus on the people who are actually being affected by a particular issue. The most verifiable “fact” is the human experience, and I think that is easier communicated through art and poetry than in academic prose.
Amy Jo,
Your poem was a refreshing departure from all the essays here and to your credit, you still managed to make the same points many of us aimed for.
I do appreciate the artistic take on the criticisms of the current state of transatlantic relations and the optimism on where it should be. Art, in all its forms, has a unique way of jumping over many of the roadblocks many other forms of communication face when trying to convey an important message.
Amy Jo, I just came across this after a reading a comment of yours. It made me go back and read your article, which I hadn’t seen previously. Great work–any chance we get to see a video adaptation of you presenting this, for example at a Poetry Slam?
Dear Amy Jo, I agree with all other comments – great job! I would live to watch you perform this as @mark-mcadam suggested!
The point you make about
“Americans that do travel stick together
People speaking English flock like birds of a feather
Exchange students live with their fraternity brothers
Tourists and locals don’t get to know one another”
especially caught my attention as I – like many others here – always raise the flag for more opportunities of exchange and encounter. Your observation also holds true for non-Americans (i.e. I observed that Spanish Erasmus students show similar behavior), so I wonder: What can we do better to actually make a trip abroad or an exchange experience a truly intercultural experience? Looking forward to your ideas!