Not You. Not Here.

June 27, 2020June 27, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Bullying, Colonialism, Current events, Exclusion, Hate, History, Human Rights, Immigration, Poetry, Racism, Trauma, Unwelcome, Weekend Writing Prompt 17 Comments

Photo: Markus Spiske on Unsplash

You are not welcome.

Here.

Or anyplace that we hold

Dear.

You are unwelcome

Here.

Because you lack

The right color

Or veneer

Or gender

Or conviction,

And because you have far too much

Proclivity toward

Fear.

You are not welcome.

Here.

Though if you come,

Subservient,

Kowtowing

To us

Year by lingering

Year,

We might allow you

To remain

As long as you

Humbly

Adhere,

To our need to aggrandize

Our wrongs,

And as long as you

Declare you will

Never rise

Above a state that

Holds us as

Premier.

Note: Dedicated to all who fight ingrained injustice, racism, hate, brutality, and the historical realities of too many who bolster themselves by believing they are somehow ‘premier.’ For the record, there is nothing ‘supreme’ about anyone who claims ‘supremacy.’ There never was.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Unwelcome in 91 words

All The Colors

June 6, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Creative writing, Current events, End Racism, End violence, hope, humanity, Micro Poetry, No More Hate, Poetry, Racism, Weekend Writing Prompt, Writing prompt 15 Comments

Photo: Rene Bernal on Unsplash

We are,

All the colors

Of this earth,

Broken into

Pieces of

Humanity and

Mixed together

To make into

A kaleidoscope

Of hope.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Kaleidoscope in 23 words

Blackout

June 2, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Current events, Life and love, Poetry, Reflections, Uncategorized, Writing Tags: Blackout, Current events, End hate, Enough, Human Rights, humanity, love, Racism 7 Comments

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda

To Know Good

May 31, 2020Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Meditations, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Writing Tags: better future, Cruelty, Current events, Elders, End violence, Good, kindness, Moral compass, Poetry, Promises, Racism, RDP, Support, Truth 20 Comments

Photo: Valario Davis on Unsplash

“So how do you,” he asked,

“Know good

From bad?”

“By the heart,” she replied.

“By the actions that

Build

And prop up,

And the words that

Support

And patch the

Cracked places

Inside broken parts.”

“And how,” he pressed,

“Do you know what

Just needs

Giving up?”

“By the soul,”

She patted the warm place

On her lap.

“For breath

Matters,

And hope

Matters,

And kindness

Is superior to any

Pass-by-night

Emperors

Full of promises

Of might,

Touted

For our good

But seeped in

Falsehood meant

To bring on

Plight.”

He shuddered

And she stroked his wet cheek

And held a cool

Palm to his brow.

“Now sleep,

And let spirits

Of light,

Hold back the bad

And

Fill your cup

With good

Till the world grows

Up.”

For RDP Sunday: For Our Good

In Thrall

July 6, 2019November 12, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Poetry, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Discrimination, Enthrall, Freedom, Inequity, Jim Crow, Poetry, Prejudice, Racism, Society, Weekend Writing Prompt, Writing Challenge 19 Comments

Photo: Lancaster Ohio 1938

He was enthralled.

His fate decided

By those who bought

And sold

The humans they preferred

To see as lesser than,

In order to exact a price

For their own

Self-aggrandizing,

Once freed,

His slavery was still

Held against him

In deliberate inequity,

His struggles mocked

As ‘proof’ he hadn’t been trying

Hard enough.

For Sammi’s Weekend Writing Prompt: Enthrall in 54 words

Never Again

May 1, 2019Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Life and love, Memoriam, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: 1LinerWeds, All is One, Briefly, Current affairs, History, Holocaust, humanity, Interconnectedness, Memoriam, Never Again, Never Forget, Racism 2 Comments

Photo: Ofir Asif

May never again slogans of harm,

tattoo death on hearts, souls, and arms.

Note: On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we mourn so many lost to deliberate ugliness that nurtured systemic cruelty and harm … and when some try to deepen horrors by claiming the suffering hadn’t even happened … May we find a path out of hate and violence, and away from whatever catchy slogans used to justify a pseudo-superiority. For in reality, we are all one, and the terror of racism leaves none of us unharmed.

For Linda’s One Liner Wednesday

Un-Pacified

August 3, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, WordOfDayNY, Writing Tags: Abuse of power, Be a voice, Bullying, Cruelty, Current affairs, Exploitation, MerriamWebster, Propaganda, Racism, Speak up, WordOfDayNY, WordOfTheDay 3 Comments

Instagram/@onyvava

One cannot pacify hatred

By fueling more hate,

Just as violence will not be calmed

Via harming.

Arguments aren’t settled

When truths are shut up,

Nor can peace be made by

The war-glorifying.

There is no equality

While oppression is sought

And brutality cannot

Bring on healing.

So rallies where ‘greatness’

Is clothed in cruel acts

Breed not power nor awe

But disdain,

As leadership’s hubris is paid

By the vulnerable

Again and again.

Merriam-Webster’s word for August 3, 2018:

Pacify

This post continues the blogging challenge in which Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day, serves as inspiration a-la the “Daily Prompt.”

Want to join me? Feel free to link to this post on your blog, and/or post a link to your blogpost in the comment section below so others can enjoy it, too. Poetry, photography, short stories, anecdotes: Go for it!

For more visibility, tag your post with #WordOfDayNY, so your post can be searchable.

“Follow” me if you want to receive future prompts, or just pop in when you’re looking for inspiration. Here’s to the fun of writing and our ever-evolving blogging community!

Amortize

June 25, 2018June 26, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, WordOfDayNY, Writing Tags: Abuse of power, Bullying, Current affairs, History, Human Rights, MerriamWebster, Racism, Value, WordOfDayNY, WordOfTheDay, WWII Leave a comment

never again poland

Allow persons in power

To amortize the legitimacy of those

They term ‘others,’

And the weak will fall behind them,

Eager to believe themselves

More worthy

Than most.

They’d be wrong, of course, for

They are not.

Because none who are truly strong

And deserving of honor

Would ever devalue others

Nor would they sit back as

Inhumanity

Takes hold.

Merriam-Webster’s word for June 25, 2018:

Amortize

This post continues the blogging challenge in which Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Day, serves as inspiration a-la the “Daily Prompt.”

For more visibility, tag your post with #WordOfDayNY, so your post can be searchable.

“Follow” me if you want to receive future prompts, or just pop in when you’re looking for inspiration. Here’s to the fun of writing and our ever-evolving blogging community!

Static In The Air

January 13, 2018January 13, 2018Na'ama Yehuda Anecdotes of Life, Current events, Life and love, Muse and Flow, Reflections, Trauma and Development, Writing Tags: Current events, History, No More Hate, Nonviolence, Potential, Racism, The Daily Post, Tolerance, wisdom 5 Comments

Photo: Ofir Asif

There is static in the air,

Discord at what can no longer

Remain unchallenged.

There’s a buzz

To hold accountable

The hate and prejudice that has no space

Among the truly civilized.

There is hope amidst the noise:

The march of feet and hearts

That will not stay silent

At disrespect and bullying.

The sparks of light

That multiply to pull aside

The medieval darkness

Some wish to blanket over progress.

There is static in the air.

It crackles with potential.

May it smother ignorance

With wisdom.

May it end violence

Through empathy

And tolerance.

P.S. Since several of you had contacted me to ask about the photo: my nephew took this photo at the Gas Chambers in Auschwitz. The staining on the ceiling is from the Zyklon B poison. I thought this photo was an apt backdrop for the evils of racism and why it cannot be allowed to rise, no matter where or against whom or by.

For The Daily Post