Wow, I couldn't disagree more!!!

LA times totally panned, In my opinion, Alexander's poem, and I couldn't disagree more. I believe she did write a poem that spoke to so many of us. I'm working on writing my humble response, but I've already posted a blip and so will post this blurb, until I can get my thoughts and words around what she did for us.

Peace,

Caitsmom

Ok, so I don't think that the the media--common or elite can take in poetry for what it can offer us. That's my feeling. The average individual who has not experienced extra-ordinary events (such as the death of her only child) has limited ability to understand the power of this poetry. There, I said it, and I'm glad.

You must be open. And you must be open to the arts. You must willingly be vulnerable to the joy and sorrow of regular life to understand and appreciate what Alexander had to say. And, people! She spoke from a humanist perspective and she included religious as well as "non-believer" perspectives. No one group was laude. We all were shown to be of a people who understood how to love. Did you listen to how she explained what kind of love would save this miserable world? Ugh. I'm so frustrated.

Why does it have to have a package that Christians, Jews, and Muslims believe? Why does it have to be a monotheistic belief represented for a particular group, before others are moved? People, seriously, can you not see that all love and all wail in the death of their children? Mothers whose babies die in Jesus are just as inconsolable as those who die in Islam or in non-belief.

I am not capable of seeing this event through the eyes of none other than a bereaved mother. Why cannot other acknowledge their biased lens? You see it through your god, admit it and be who you are, but please don't participate in more violence.

Alexander, in her poetry calls us to look to the broadest definition of love. Why is that not good enough for us? Why must we continue to force belief upon another? In my humble nobody opinion, the cynics should have first taken to heart the statement by Barack Hussein Obama that "to the cynics, the earth has shifted beneath you." Why do people not want to seek a better way? I don't know. But this poem was worthy of laude.

Politics aside, this sentiment, this poetry, was worthy of pause and attention.

Peace.

This poem used words, I have thought, but did not have the skills to fashion. Did you hear her understanding of love beyond romantic and familial? Did you hear? Please, listen. The dead beg that you listen.