On this MLK Day, I am reminded of his “mountaintop” speech delivered the night before he was assassinated. I used this “mountaintop” reference in my poem, BUCKET BRIGADE – Owed to Karen Krause, written for a friend who died in 2013. Here is an excerpt:
For what death cannot touch
We have firmly held
The mountaintop
In portions made human
Sizing us up
Long the weigh
Only making us stronger
Martin Luther King, Jr. referenced difficult times ahead, and 56 years later this reality persists, within the long, multi-generational struggles for peace and justice. May each of us incarnate the good fight. “Never, never be afraid to do what’s right. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way” — Martin Luther King, Jr.
