By Jane Stoever
Ron Faust, who often writes poems for our PeaceWorks events, shares his 2017-2020 poems in his new work, Percolating Poetry. Some of Faust’s poems, he reflects, cover “the American legacy, warts and all.” Some are love poems to his wife. Some simply celebrate life.
In his introduction, Faust offers “A Cup of Coffee”:
To have a cup of coffee Is to take a break in the action And to listen for the loving thing That someone might have said.
In “Juneteenth Recognition,” Faust refers to George Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe.” Faust tells of the June 19, 1865, announcement of freedom from slavery to slaves who learned, two years late, of the Emancipation Proclamation. Faust writes:
… they were as liberated as everyone Who equally breathed invisible air
Faust weaves together several topics: the first Juneteenth, the Tulsa Massacre in 1921, a campaign rally in Tulsa in 2020 by a white racist president, and the exoneration of police brutality. Faust concludes:
It matters that we breathe without racism.
In a companion poem from 2020, “John Lewis,” Faust praises the man
Who paved a path through civil rights
Voicing the conscience of the Senate
In “Horrors of Hiroshima,” Faust issues this critique:
In 1945 yearning to seduce Pandora’s Box And unveil the dark secrets of the atom Hence a Big Boy bomb dropped a dilemma Upon humanity by introducing the Atomic Age That could show a road to total destruction And sell a nation’s soul to militarism
And Faust goes on to challenge:
Our hope lies in abolishing all nuclear weapons
For all of you who’d like to take your cup of coffee with a poem, “buy the book!” for $16.99 from publisher Xlibris, at Xlibris.com or 844-714-8691. Faust also announces, “An e-book is in the works” for $3.99.
—Jane Stoever serves on the PeaceWorks Kansas City Communications Team.
