Friday, September 6, 2013

Needed Discovery--By Jean Calkins--United States

Needed Discovery

What is it makes you want to kill?
Do you feel important
when another’s blood you spill?

Do you have no feeling for
their families at all,
or will you kill unnumbered more?

When you take your own sick life,
why? What made you so
confused and bitter, filled with strife?

They say God makes no errors
and he created you,
the monster of all terrors.

But mental illness has no bounds;
we all share some, it seems,
yet yours has crueler grounds.

How can we find the hidden hate
in someone’s precious son,
before he’s lost to murder’s fate?

Jean, at 80, has been writing poems since she was 18. For 25 years she published a popular poetry quarterly of up to 100 pages, with a subscribership of nearly 500. Illness in 1986 ended the magazine. She currently publishes, by email, a 2-page monthly of clean humor. Contact her at jcalkins01@charter.net.

3 comments:

  1. Thank you, Jack Horne, for the following comment--

    Jean: powerful and thought-provoking write

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  2. Dear Jean, Just yesterday I saw a show on the killing of Native Americans at Wachita and was wondering how anyone, even Custer, wish to harm women, children and the elderly. Had a friend in Tallahassee who took his own life. His wife found him hanging in his art studio. Although they had no children, his wife and friends were devastated. None of us even knew Lee was depressed. He left the public television station after anchoring the 6 o'clock news and gave everyone a high five. Mental illness must be hidden sometimes. I wish more people would understand that in taking their own lives, they are hurting those who love them. Excellent poem! Best wishes, Carolyn Devonshire

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  3. Jean,
    I wrote a detailed response to this before but just wanted to say that some people use mental illness as a crutch or a cop out. I have mental illness too and so fair I'm O.K. I still need therapy, but then again, who doesn't these days?
    David Fox

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