Dream for President Bush on the Radio
I want President Bush to have a dream … like the one that Ebenezer Scrooge had … I want him to be visited by the ghosts of Iraqi children … who cry out “But mankind was your business”
A little Bach flower remedy for calming the nerves and some deep breathing was in order.
“I’m glad I’m not on a web cam because I didn’t dress for the occasion,” I joked to Pokey Anderson, co-host of The Monitor, a Pacifica radio program out of Houston, Texas.
I was about to read my poem “Dream for President Bush” over the phone while she recorded it for her upcoming show this Sunday. After I posted the poem on my blog a few weeks ago, it was excerpted by Blue Gal on the Crooks and Liars website, which is where, I assume, Pokey found it.
She laughed and kept me talking so that she could adjust the controls to match my voice. “What’s the weather like there?”
“It’s dreary and raining. Not too cold but cold enough to have my wood stove going.”
“Wood stove?” she questioned.
“Yes. People still use wood stoves up here in the mountains of Virginia,” I said.
Dream for President Bush was written as a spoken word poem during a solo writing retreat in November of 2002. I had rented a cabin just down the mountain for a weekend get-away by a lake. While writing it, I paced the cabin floor in front of a roaring fire, shouting the lines in an emotional outpouring, as if they would reach Bush and awaken something in him. I knew the reason for the rush to war was being trumped up. I knew invading a country unprovoked, even a dictatorship, was going against international law and would set a shameful precedent that our country would come to regret. I knew that Saddam was holding warring fractions in Iraq together with force and that without him a vortex of violence would erupt. If I knew these things, those in power certainly did. The Bush administration wasn’t being honest. The Democrats caved, the corporate media caved. I had a lot to get off my chest that weekend and I did it through writing the poem, which was more of prayer than a protest.
In the first year after writing the poem, I was invited to read it at a peace vigil in Roanoke. I read it for a cable TV show in Hull, Massachusetts, the town I grew up in, after running into a Hull Times reporter who recorded it at the January 2003 Peace March on Washington. I passed out copies at the march and handed one directly to Representative, Cynthia McKinney, and to actress, Jessica Lange, both speakers at the event. Someone read the poem at a Blacksburg Peace Rally that I wasn’t able to attend. Here in Floyd, where I live now, I’ve read it at open mics at The Pine Tavern, The Black Box stage, Oddfellas Cantina, and the Café Del Sol. When I first read it at the Pine Tavern to a packed house, the war had already begun. Although the poem was overwhelmingly well received by the crowd, one couple got up and walked out. The last time I read it, this year at the Café Del Sol, no one got up and left the room.
I want President Bush to be haunted … by the ghosts of our Founding Fathers … until he learns this lesson: that killing civilians is a terrorist act … and preemptive strike is invasion …
According to The Monitor’s website, they are a weekly news analysis show founded by Mark Bebawi on the eve of the invasion of Iraq in 2003 in response to the poor quality of available news coverage at the time. “Since then it has evolved into a weekly examination of many large stories ranging from Climate Change to changes in the world’s economy,” the website reads. The guest list for past shows is impressive and includes Daniel Ellsberg, Molly Ivans, Seymour Hersh, Arianna Huffington, David Cobb, Helen Thomas, Gore Vidal, Frank Rich, Robert Fish, Scott Ridder, William Rivers Pitt, Howard Zinn, and others.
When I wrote Dream for President Bush I was fired up. Sadly, I’m more apathetic now. While I believe every human being can be redeemed, like Scrooge was, it’s unlikely that President will ever have a vision worthy of a leader. And even if he did, so much damage has already been done. No matter what course a president from either party takes now in Iraq more people are bound to die.
The poem that needs to be written now is one that calls for action to hold the Bush administration accountable for its chronic ineptness, corruption, and abuse of power. Otherwise we can expect the low standard our country holds now to remain, be repeated, or worsen. Such a poem, like the one I wrote, should not be considered political, but rather one that reminds us of the core values our founding fathers intended for this country and inspires us to do whatever we can to protect them.
While reading Dream for President Bush over the phone to Pokie, I found myself getting up from my chair, walking while reading, closing my eyes to feel the meaning behind words, and looking up from the typed words on paper as if someone was in the room listening.
If President Bush doesn’t have a real dream soon … he should step aside for those who do … He should impeach himself … and ask for forgiveness … for imposing his nightmare on the world …
Post notes: You can hear the poem broadcast live this Sunday between 6 and 7 p.m. Central Standard Time (that’s 7 – 8 p.m. here) at the KPFT website HERE by clicking on the “listen now” icon in the upper right hand corner. Or, you can listen after it’s aired at The Monitor’s website HERE, archived under the Sunday, December 30th show. The photo is of a collage I made a few years ago, incorporating the first stanza of the poem.
Update: Not only can you read the poem in its entirety HERE, you can hear the clipped audio of me reading it on the show HERE. Thanks to Jeff for figuring out how to capture the poem from the hour and a half show, and to Nelson for helping me post it here at Loose Leaf.
December 29th, 2007 11:18 am
Colleen, I am going to try and get to that website at 6PM (it’ll be 6PM for me since I am EST…would love to hear your voice reading it!
December 29th, 2007 12:51 pm
I look forward to hearing it.
December 29th, 2007 1:20 pm
I am absolutely delighted that your fine poem got a second life, and that I could be a part of that. It’s a terrific piece of writing. Thanks for the link.
December 29th, 2007 4:24 pm
amen, sister ^j^
December 29th, 2007 7:26 pm
Accountability is the real American Dream now. That’s what I have left to hope for re: the Bush Administration. That’s the last likely good that can come from it. Again, I’m glad your poem is being broadcast. 🙂
Michele sent me this time.
~S
December 29th, 2007 7:55 pm
You go girl! I’ve made a note to listen in.
December 29th, 2007 8:00 pm
Hope you had a very merry Christmas
December 29th, 2007 9:42 pm
Even though Bush may never have that dream, I love that you imagined he might. I’ll be listening tomorrow!
December 29th, 2007 10:08 pm
Such wonderful, from the heart writing!
I wanted to wish you a happy, healthy and fulfilling new year. I’m so glad I found your site. 🙂
December 30th, 2007 3:24 am
Go, Collen! Say it for us all whose voices won’t be heard on radio. I still don’t understand why Bush is not being impeached!
December 30th, 2007 10:54 am
Congratulations. An excellent and powerful post – and your poem needs to go wider than just the US so that the rest of the world can see that not all Americans are Bush clones. I’m afraid that man has done the US’s international image no end of damage. It takes powerful voices like yours to show the world that not every American supports the Bush administration and what it has done. And yes, he should be impeached. Go, Colleen!
December 30th, 2007 11:03 am
Bravo, Colleen, and congratulations. You deserve this notice for writing such a powerful piece (peace?).
December 30th, 2007 11:32 am
Thanks for all your supportive comments. I’m irritated every time I hear people say that we are “turning against the war” now when so many weren’t for it from the beginning. The majority wasn’t.
December 30th, 2007 12:06 pm
Hi Colleen 🙂 Michele sent me to hear about your fifteen minutes of fame…..
You said: ‘When I wrote Dream for President Bush I was fired up. Sadly, I’m more apathetic now.’
But sweetheart, you may be more apathetic now and less optimistic about your leadership – but imagine how many people will be fired up after listening to your words.
Never underestimate the power of words and emotions…..
cq
December 30th, 2007 1:08 pm
I look forward to listening to your brilliant poem.
Have a wonderful New Year! I hope 2008 brings us all a real regime change, and not some “kindler gentler machine gun hand”, to quote Mr. Neil Young.
December 30th, 2007 3:11 pm
Dear Colleen,
While I admire all toiling writers and area bloggers and you, who I’ve heard read countless times…
This was the third year that Michele and I have lived through the Floyd County Arts and Crafts Fair and, more specifically, the racist writing-for-sale of vendor, Gary Walker. This year we made a real push to do something but on opening day of the fair it was just three of us, Michele and I and Chris Prokosh, confronting Mr. Walker and getting escorted from the fair by Floyd’s finest. We did get Christian Trejbal there from the RT and I think he wrote a great article. Aside from Doug Thompson, though, we didn’t get much support from the fine group of local writers and bloggers. While I did my best to contact all, there wasn’t much response. It’s that old cliche, “think global, act local.” While I would definitely concur that Bush needs a dream, Floyd needs to send the likes of Gary Walker packing. While the Woman’s Club has taken up a non-position, I know that Doug Thompson has promised to be one big fly in the ointment next year and I, personally, have contacted the Federation of Woman’s Clubs and the local chapter of the NAACP. Concerning this issue, we all need to raise our voices!
Keep the Faith
Rob
December 30th, 2007 5:09 pm
This poem continues to inspire hope and give voice to the frustration we all feel. keep the faith dear one, keep the faith. this too shall pass
all things must pass.
just empty phenomena rolling on….
December 30th, 2007 5:24 pm
Thank you, gesep.
Short answer for Rob: There are any number of worthy causes that people are working on publicly or privately in our homes, towns, countries, and world. It’s all part of the same work and we pick up the slack at different places and times.
Long answer: Best done over coffee (or in my case tea).
Faithfully and in friendship, Colleen
December 30th, 2007 6:19 pm
We just keep on keepin’ on, as the old saying goes. Maybe something will sprout somewhere soon. We can only push and hope. Excellent piece.
December 31st, 2007 8:06 am
I just saw photos of grave harvesting on another blog- it just gets worse and worse- one of the soldiers I sponsor is home 30 months 14 hrs IEDS a day – psycological counseling now
December 31st, 2007 5:39 pm
Unfortunately, I don’t think that Bush (or probably the vast majority of his party, and probably most of mine too) have had this dream, or listened to it….
Here’s to a happier new year, a wish in which Michele joins me tonight,
N.
December 31st, 2007 9:57 pm
Darn! Got home too late to hear anything but some bluegrass music and the announcer saying thanks and good-night to you. I did hear your voice though when you said “bye”. Glad I got hear the poem first hand at Spoken Word 🙂
And PS…great answer to Rob.
December 31st, 2007 10:00 pm
I said “bye?”
January 3rd, 2008 6:01 pm
WHat a wonderful achievement, Colleen! Excellent. 🙂
June 13th, 2016 3:13 pm
[…] Radio show The Monitor on December 30, 2007 HERE. Read about how the radio recording came about HERE. Thanks go out to Jeff Blakley for excerpting the poem from the show and to my brother-in-law Nelson […]