Joseph Ross' "In a Summer of Snipers"

Joseph Ross' "In a Summer of Snipers" takes us back to that moment in history when American society seemed that it was splitting down all its seams, with assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert Kennedy, riots and resistance in cities throughout the country, the darkening turn of violence around anti-war protest (which blew up during the Democratic National Convention in August).  Ross takes the symbolic gesture of Black Power made by two athletes at the Olympics in 1968--an act that was deemed controversial--into something beautiful, the upthrusting of hope.

Split This Rock  Poem of the Week -  Joseph Ross                                                              In a Summer of Snipers      for Tommie Smith and John Carlos, 1968  In a summer of snipers  some men raised their hands with fingers pressed  to triggers trying to squeeze away  a generation's hope. But you lifted your hands  to conduct a choir just learning to sing  anthems of a victory not yet won.  The world watched you, standing shoeless,  like so many others, with no protection  from the earth itself, its bullets, its boundaries  real as a waiting noose, a lynching tree,  and a gathering crowd. You raised your hands,  gloved and black and held us all  for just a moment where no rope  could reach.   -Joseph Ross             Used by permission. Joseph Ross is part of the vibrant literary community in the Washington, D.C. area. His poems appear in many anthologies including Collective Brightness: LGBTIQ Poets on Faith, Religion and Spirituality, Come Together: Imagine Peace, Full Moon on K Street, and Poetic Voices 1 and 2. His work also appears in a variety of journals including Poet Lore, Tidal Basin Review, Beltway Poetry Quarterly,Drumvoices Revue, and Sojourners. He has read at the Library of Congress and been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. An early member of D.C. Poets Against the War, he co-edited Cut Loose The Body: An Anthology of Poems on Torture and Fernando Botero's Abu Ghraib. He founded and directs the Writing Center at Archbishop Carroll High School in Washington, D.C. and has taught writing at American University. He writes regularly at JosephRoss.net.    Please feel free to forward Split This Rock Poem of theWeek widely. We just ask you to include all of theinformation in this email, including this request. Thanks! If you are interested in reading past poems of the week, feel free to visit the blog archive.     Split This Rock www.splitthisrock.org info@splitthisrock.org 202-787-5210