Pages

Tuesday, July 12, 2016

Kate Hudson Writes a Poem


She posted it on her Instagram account a few days ago:

Shot in the Dark

When the silver drops who wins
Shot in the dark
Why
Haven't we seen this story for too long
Haven't we lived this scene centuries long
Haven't we tired of too many wrongs
When does it end
When does one see
I am you and you are me
We live together intrinsically spiritually realistically
And yet we continue to separate, abominate, hate and
Hate.
Why
I need to believe
To hope
To reach for faith
That we as humans can create the space
Where change can be embraced.
Love is the lesson
But how do we teach when shot in the dark
Scared with guns drawn
How do we teach when one has never felt love as a spark
Violence on violence has never made change
Only headlines to read and families that grieve
Violence on violence makes us fall to our knees
Question our faith
Shake our heads in disbelief
But believe it now for this anger is real
We know cause we see it rise
Like oxygen to fire it ignites a raging burning storm
Angry until sadness appears
Angry until we fall into tears
we can't hold this weight for too long
It infects our souls and then fear wins the debate.
We can't let that win
It destroys and discriminates
We can't let fear rule
For then we are too responsible for a world too cruel
Fear is who takes a shot in the dark
And we must stop sitting back and watching this silver drop

The punctuation is hers, not mine. There are only three periods - at the ends of lines 12, 18 and 34.

Why?

I have no idea. But I'm sure she'd place well in a Black Lives Matter sponsored poetry slam.

Speaking of which, here is her explanation for the context:
 
These last few months have brought so much sadness. From Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Orlando shooting, Dallas, to terrorist attacks of late Bangladesh, Istanbul, Baghdad, Somalia. Everyday there is violence like this reported and not reported. It becomes overwhelming that there could be such hatred and senseless killing. When I can’t make sense of things I just start to write. I don’t usually share my writing but I felt a desire to put this out there. Peace.
Personally, I'd like a moratorium on the use of "senseless" as in "senseless killing" or "senseless violence." On the strict meaning of the term, every example mentioned had sense behind it. In the case of Philando Castille, a policeman shot a robbery suspect who he thought was reaching for his gun. In Dallas, a black supremacist wanted to kill as many non-blacks policeman as possible for revenge or to ignite a race war, etc. In Bangladesh, Muslim terrorists wanted to murder non-Muslims in a quasi-public way so as to advance the cause of a world caliphate.

Of course the moral value system underlying the sense in each case is different, which is why lumping them all together as "senseless" or indeed, lumping them together at all is not helpful.   


And not to further nitpick, but violence on violence has often made change. Or more to the point, violence has often made change. For better and for worse.

Was Kate Hudson drawing a moral equivalence between the black supremacist who shot those five cops and . . . those five cops? Well, she did say violence on violence, didn't she?

If so, that's senseless.

"I am you and you are me"

Are we are all in this together?

I'm crying.

4 comments:

  1. I especially liked how she rhymed hate with hate. Gutsy move.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Vapid. She says she is almost losing her faith. Guess that would be her faith in Obama. Bet she's stumping for Hillary.

    I guess since you're a man the pedestrian poetry of a fetching female warrants a blog post. I say, "meh".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Finally! We have a T.S. Eliot for our age. Only way hotter.

    ReplyDelete