Midnight Strike E-Book

D.L. Lang

• Herausgeber: D.L. Lang
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

Midnight Strike D.L. Lang’s 12th book of poetry. D.L. Lang served as Vallejo’s poet laureate. This book contains 70 new poems primarily written between September 2018 and July 2019, and includes topical poetry, some Jewish poems, and poetry written for events in and around Vallejo, California.

Lang's latest collection of poetry is a  cri de coeur on the injustices of contemporary life. Lang's bold, erudite language will empower and uplift readers: "Until all women are safe from violence, so that a woman can exist in any space without fear, we march!" Such pieces leap off the page and demand to be read aloud to release their crackling energy. Skeptics who deem protest-oriented verse to be ineffective or outmoded will struggle with most of Lang's writing, but for others, it will be a persuasive call to action. A forthright, energizing collection.  -- Kirkus Reviews

Leseprobe

Midnight Strike

by D.L. Lang

Copyright © 2019 Diana L. Lang

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the author at the email address below:

[email protected]

poetryebook.com

Table of Contents

Foreword

What’s on Her Mind?

A Blessing for the Women Who Pray With Their Feet

We March! (Alternative Verses)

I Devour Thy Words

A Recipe for a Better World

Poem for Grattan Kids

Poetry in a Bottle

The Spaces that Whisper Home

Tomorrow’s Gifts

Ish

Ready

Scene

Love Lights the Way

Is

Voices of the Season

Hanukkiah Lighting

Passover

Turning

A World Without Bullets

Never Known

Pittsburgh

49 Lights

22 Nisan 5779

Fatigue

A Foundation

Clarity

Speak Up for Peace

The Journey to Sunland

Sun Boxer

Blackout Poetry

Vegetarian Decisions

Moonlight Song

Bovine in Orbit

Moonscapes

County Fair Fever

Freedom of the Wild

Summer is in the Air

Who am I?

The Mourning of a Nation

Dostadning

Berlin, 2001

The Soul of Oklahoma

Blanton

Heidi

Poetry

Our Celestial Dance

Poetic Economics 101

Poetry in the 21st Century

A Poet’s Life

Movement

The Disconnectwork

The Choice

Mythbusting

Civilization

Remain True

This is Not Just Any Election

Us versus Them

She Who Begat Is Left Unnamed

Gluttony of Denial

If You Happen to Disagree

You Can have it All at Bourgeois Prices!

Turn Around

This Message Still Applies

Make it Stop

Too Many

Shall Not

Frisco 5

Democracy Springs

Independence Day

In the Darkest Hours of the Night

About the Author

Connect with D.L. Lang

Foreword

I called this book Midnight Strike since it’s my 12th poetry book.

As of publication on July 4, 2019, I will have published 1,117 poems, 70 of them in this book, and read my work to the public over 218 times, 119 of those times while serving as Vallejo’s second ever poet laureate with a handful more to come as notated in later paragraphs. 124 times before the end of my term on August 31st, 2019.

The funny thing is that when I was 10 I pictured myself being on stage, but I had no idea such things were even possible with poetry until 2015. I am grateful to all who have made that possible.

The majority of poems in this volume were written between September 2018 and June 2019. The exceptions to that time range are the following eight poems:

“Turning” was written on Yom Kippur in 2017 and was withheld for first publication by ReformJudaism.org. 

“Is” was first published in the Marin Poetry Center Anthology, Vol XXI. “The Choice” was first published in Light & Shadow by the Benicia First Tuesday Poets. Both of them were written in the winter of 2017. “Is” won 3rd Place in Published Poetry at the 2019 Solano County Fair, and “The Choice” won 1st Place in Free Form Poetry at the 2018 San Mateo County Fair.

“Frisco 5” and “Democracy Springs” were written in response to headlines in May 2015 and April 2016, respectively, and were rescued from my submission reject pile and were written prior to my serving as laureate.  “Poetry in the 21st Century” and “A Poet’s Life” were written in sometime in 2017 or 2018. Portions of “The Mourning of a Nation” were written prior to December 5, 2018, the day to which the title refers.

Although there are also some lighthearted rhymes peppered throughout this volume, many poems were born out of the necessity of poet laureate as town feeler and many are a reflection of the times we live in and my own political evolution.

“Pittsburgh” was written after the mass shooting that killed 11 Jewish elders at the Tree of Life synagogue. I performed this, choking back tears at Unity Plaza during the October 28th, 2018 vigil Vallejo United Against Hatred and Anti-Semitism.  I then wrote “A World Without Bullets” as a more hopeful poem shortly thereafter, and premiered it on OZCAT Radio 89.5 FM on November 29, 2018.

After the horrific shooting at two mosques in New Zealand in March 2019, I wrote “49 Lights” at the request of Jews of Vallejo and Their Fabulous Friends as a show of solidarity with the Muslim community. I also crafted their public statement. Both were printed in the Vallejo Times-Herald on March 19, 2019. “Never Known” and “22 Nisan 5779” were written in reaction to the Passover shooting at Chabad in Poway, California.

“Voices of the Season” was written for the McCune Collection’s holiday celebration of the same name, and performed on December 16, 2018. I read some Hanukkah themed poems from various poets as well as “Hanukkiah Lighting,” “Hanukkah Train,” “Penguin Season Blues” and the aforementioned “Voices of the Season.” During Hanukkah in 2018 I performed "Hanukkiah Lighting” for Hanukkah & Hilarity. I also had the honor of performing a set of Jewish poetry and doing a Q&A at Congregation Beth Sholom in Napa on March 6th, 2019. I appreciate the Women of Rodef Sholom for publishing my poem about our annual sisterhood retreat “Scene” in their June 2019 newsletter.

I wrote “A Blessing for the Women Who Pray With Their Feet” as an invocation for the 2019 Vallejo Women’s March, “Women Building Vallejo.” My opinions on women’s issues spilled out into 36 verses. The ten intended for the invocation appear in this poem. The 26 alternative verses which could be swapped out for a longer reading as more of a rallying cry for women are located in “We March (Alternative Verses).” The beginning of the invocation expounds upon a poem I’d published in 2016’s Armor Against the Dawn. I gave a statement to the Times-Herald regarding the national Women’s March controversy. My invocation “A Blessing for the Women who Pray with their Feet” was created as a call and response prayer so as to energize the assembly, a way of sharing and spreading the performer’s high and lifting everyone up spiritually.

On October 6th, 2018 I performed “Headline Antidote” by memory at the historic Gathering of California’s Poets Laureate. We were all recognized by the state senate and the California Arts Council, and appeared in a short documentary. I wrote “The Journey to Sunland” during the trip down to Sunland-Tujunga where the gathering was held. I had the pleasure of meeting the California State Laureate, and then in January 2019 I also met the U.S. Laureate at her performance at the SFJCC. “A Recipe for a Better World” was written for Vallejo Soup and performed at their gathering at the Vallejo People’s Garden on September 27th, 2018.

On March 13th, 2019 we released Verses, Voices, & Visions of Vallejo, the anthology that I edited, to a record-breaking crowd and quickly sold out of the 100 books I had purchased for the occasion, raising money for the Vallejo Peace Project.

We had our annual Poetry Month show at the JFK Library on April 6. I performed “The Snarkadelic Wordsmith Awaits the Penguin Whisperer” from Abundant Sparks live on KPFA radio in celebration of National Poetry Month on the BAJABA Jazzline Show on April 20, 2019. On April 25, 2019 I read “PB Poem” and “Enough” during Vallejo Peace Project’s Speak Up For Peace. I hung out at Bookshop Benicia for Independent Bookstore Day on April 27.

On May 15 I visited Grattan Elementary School in San Francisco. I read a selection of kid-friendly poems to two groups of 4th and 5th graders who also asked me questions afterwards. I crafted a poem using vocabulary supplied by the students, “Poem for Grattan Kids.” The students had filled about 8 giant posters with words throughout the library. They also gave me a bottle filled with words on slips of paper. I made a second poem using as many of those words as possible called “Poetry in A Bottle.” It was a rare opportunity to entertain children, and I truly enjoyed their enthusiasm and curiosity.

I had the honor of being a judge for Solano County Poetry Out Loud for the third consecutive year on February 13, 2019, and during the event at the Naval and Historical Museum in downtown Vallejo. There I also recited from memory my own poem, “Poetic Timing” from Poet Loiterer.

I wrote “Our Celestial Dance” for the April 24, 2019 Why Poetry? Joel Fallon Scholarship Fundraiser event at the Benicia Library, for which I also had the honor of being a judge this year. I also served as a judge for the 2019 Solano County Fair Talent Show on June 29.

At the request of artist Noah Dove I wrote a poem for the McCune Symposium on June 23, 2019 entitled “The Spaces that Whisper Home,” and he created companion ekphrastic art, featuring abstract stars and overlapping orbs. I performed “Pittsburgh” and “Perpetually 26” from Abundant Sparks at Bay Area Generations show #70 in Oakland, CA on June 24th, and these two poems were printed in their chapbook for the show.

In 2019 I had the honor of being a featured act at a number of poetry shows in the bay area: Last Sunday Fishbowl Poetry at Old Capitol Books in Monterey on February 24, Gears Turning at Adobe Books in San Francisco on February 10, Poetry Express in Berkeley on July 1, and Marin Poetry Center’s Traveling Show on July 25 at the Marin Civic Center Library.

During the summer of 2019 I entered four bay area county fairs: Alameda, Marin, San Mateo, and Solano. I had a total of 18 entries.

At the 2019 Marin County Fair I won the following ribbons:

“Bovine in Orbit” - 1st and Best in Class in Moonscapes Haiku

“Moonlight Song” - 1st in Moonscapes Haiku

“Moonscapes” - 2nd in Moonscapes Poetry

“Laugh With Me” - 3rd in Haiku

“Berlin, 2001” - 3rd in  World Travel, Creative Writing

“Orion” - 5th in Any Other Poetry

“The Journey to Sunland” - 5th in Any Other Poetry

“Heidi” - 5th in My Pet, Creative Writing

“Stars” - Honorable Mention in The Universe Poetry

“Wandering Stars” - Honorable Mention in The Universe Poetry

At the Alameda County Fair I won rosettes for two poems from my prior book The Cafe of Dreams:

“Forest Whisperings” 1st Place in Explore California State Parks

“The Woodpecker’s Beat” Honorable Mention, Poetry

I had the honor of appearing on the Poets Speak Forum at the San Mateo County Fair. In June I performed poems at the San Mateo, Alameda, and Solano County Fairs and read at the Alameda Summer Arts Fair on July 7 in Alameda.

I will be featuring at Live Poets Society in Orinda, California at Orinda Books on August 25, Ode to Workers at Georgia Galleria in Vallejo on September 13, and at the Gathering of Bay Area Poets Laureate and Emeriti on September 21 in Millbrae at the Millbrae Library. In addition I will read as part of the Poets Laureate on Social Justice series at Revolution Books in Berkeley on August 25, Benicia Public Library on September 18, Pegasus Books in Berkeley on October 3, Bird & Beckett Books in San Francisco on November 10, and Book Passage in Corte Madera on November 17.

Thank you to every single human being who has ever listened, read, cheered, liked, or invited me to read.

Huge thanks to my beloved husband, Tim, for filming me, doing any necessary heavy lifting, and driving me around California when my poetry started taking me places.

Thank you to my fellow poets whom I get to share this dream with on a weekly basis and who continue to inspire me with their words.

peace & love,

D.L. Lang

Vallejo, California Poet Laureate

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What’s on Her Mind?

I know my history, but...

Where is her story?

What is her story?

What is your story?

For every woman allowed to grace

the pages of man’s history books

there are millions more

achieving miracles that are overlooked.

Where are they?

What do they have to say?

For this is not the era

of “Women should be seen and not heard!”

Nay!

This is the era of every woman

must raise up her voice!

Every woman must have free choice!

Every woman must have a vote!

And I hope...

that this will be the era of the ERA

where women are seen and treated equal every day!

Yes, a woman can do whatever a man can!

Yes, she can!

Yes, you can!

Yes, we can!

But do we really want to?

Let us do one better!

Let us live each day with love

not by the letter of law and order,

but of compassion, mercy, and justice.

Let us never more

destroy ourselves with war!

Let us teach peace!

We all hold within us the keys

that shall make the fighting cease!

Let us act to save this earth

for the sake of every child that we birthed!

Let us choose a life of cooperation,

not one of greed and exploitation!

Now is the time for all human kind,

sisters, brothers, non-binary alike

to choose to unite

to build a world so open and kind.

This is how we make her story

become more than just a bedtime story.

And that...

And that...

was what’s on her mind!