Tag Archives: Black Lives Matter

Mountains Loom and I Won’t Stop Now

By Robin Bates | Published: December 9, 2020

Naomi Long Madget has just died at 97. Her poem “Midway” continues to inspire.

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Trump’s Troops Have No Stinkin’ Badges

By Robin Bates | Published: July 23, 2020

Trump’s special federal troops claims they need not wear identifying badges, bringing to mind the most famous line from the novel (and film) “Treasure of the Sierra Madre.”

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The Glory of the Coming of the Lord

By Robin Bates | Published: July 4, 2020

“The Battle of the Hymn of the Republic” is one of the most influential set of lyrics in American history–for good and for bad.

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Black Cat Fights for the Day He’ll Be Free

By Robin Bates | Published: July 2, 2020

Friday Attempts to demonize Black Lives Matter take me back to 1968, when the Black Panthers were similarly demonized. Their response to murderous cops was to arm themselves, which was the last time that Republicans supported significant gun control legislation. It also led to some shootouts and to the police assassination of Fred Hampton and […]

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I Am a Part of You and You of Me

By Robin Bates | Published: June 29, 2020

Langston Hughes provides an important and humane voice at this point in time.

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From God’s Breath to “I Can’t Breathe”

By Robin Bates | Published: June 23, 2020

Wednesday This past Juneteenth I was flipping through channels and caught MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell quoting James Weldon Johnson’s “Creation.” It was a moving application of poetry to this important moment in time. Mitchell was referring to George Floyd’s plaintive cry “I can’t breathe” before he was suffocated by Minneapolis police. Johnson’s poem, she said, reminds […]

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Tate’s Dangerous Ode to the Confederacy

By Robin Bates | Published: June 21, 2020

I find odes to the Confederate dead (such at that written by Allen Tate) more dangerous even than Confederate statues.

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Juneteenth & Freedom’s Challenges

By Robin Bates | Published: June 18, 2020

Rolle’s poem about Juneteenth makes it clear that freedom, no less than fighting for freedom, is hard

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Black Lives, Durable as Daisies

By Robin Bates | Published: June 17, 2020

This previously unpublished Lucille Clifton is perfect for our tumultuous time.

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