Climate of Sorrow, by Mary Monroe

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Will our children
have those same
long sunburned
stretched out
moments of
immortality,

lying in the sun
thinking of nothing;

or have we
collapsed
the world
around them
with our
childish
fears?

"Climate of Sorrow," by poet, writer and playwright Mary Monroe

Last month The Los Angeles Times called for Opinion poetry by Times readers, and above was one of my favorites.

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Who knew?

When we put out a call for Op-Ed poetry, we had no idea how many budding poets were out there. But by the time the Aug. 16 deadline rolled around, we'd gotten more than 1,500 submissions, many of them including multiple poems. There was even one, by E. Milton Wilson of Claremont, addressing the plight of the opinion editors: “The deadline nears. The poets have spoke. Editors wish about now it had all been a joke!”