SUBSTANTIATION
Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay
The science proved to
the many eyewitnesses
that Jesus was dead.
More eyewitnesses
prove historically to us
that Jesus now lives.
#seventeenintwentyfour
pictured words
a simple pairing of pictures and poetry
Tag: History
March 30, 2024
March 24, 2024
Ohio vs Michigan, the Great Toledo War
So, armed men to Toledo were sent,
and full war was the solid intent.
But despite the alert,
only one man was hurt,
with poor Michigan left to lament.
Well, this war was as short as this verse.
There was hardly the need for a nurse.
One side kept its realty,
and one got its *U.P.,
with not even a wage to disburse!
© Marie Elena Good, 2024
*U.P. is what they call their Upper Peninsula
March 13, 2023
TOLEDO MAIN
Toledo Main
This grand dame has stood tall since 1937, all while stooping to serve our region “of makers, dreamers, and doers.” She seems the heartbeat of downtown, freely welcoming all who want to peruse the volumes of knowledge and wonder she houses. I believe anything you want to learn about our own region, and branching out into the far reaches of the known universe, may be found within her walls. You may ask what would make us want to look through her books, what with the world at our fingertips in such a literal sense via the phone in our hand. It’s hard to imagine that some may have never fingered through paper pages filled with words that others over generations have fingered and read as well. In a library, history is not found in the pages of history books alone, but in the pages of every book on every shelf .. each page silently chronicling the very fingerprints of those who have been there before us. How many lives have touched the book we now hold in our hand? How many have absorbed and come to an understanding quite like our own? Or perhaps nothing like our own? How many people like us, or immeasurably different, have we made eye contact with as we skim the world-wide web? How many have we smiled at, and potentially rescued their day … or they, ours?
Gather the volumes
and let volumes speak of you.
Be read. Read others.
© Marie Elena Good, 2023
September 6, 2020
I Remember John-John’s Third Birthday
My five-year-old eyes
watched a three year old salute
his daddy’s coffin.
© Marie Elena Good, 2020
Written in response to Walt Wojtanik’s “I remember …” prompt at Poetic Bloomings.
April 2, 2020
WHITE SPACE
Photo from HMbd.org
There is a distance
of point eight miles from my home
to “Indian Hills,”
our name for the site
of The Indian Wars, on
the Maumee River.
Seventeen Ninety
to Seventeen Ninety Five:
The “savages” fought
To save their homes from
American Pioneers
aiming to settle.
Nineteen Fifty Five:
An historical marker
was erected, and
continues to stand
regally, as visitors
are enlightened to
the proclamation
of “peaceful white settlement.”
And there’s not enough
Witeout on hand to
to cover our ignorance,
and there will never
be enough distance
between Seventeen Ninety
and my property.
© Marie Elena Good, 2020
Historical Marker of The Indian Wars. 1790-1795, erected in 1955 by the Historical Society of Northwestern Ohio
The marker begins, “When American pioneers attempted to settle the area north and west of the Ohio River, following the ordinance of 1787, the Indians, aided by the British in Canada, fought valiantly and fiercely for their homes in the Ohio country. It required the efforts of three American armies to break the Indian resistance.” It goes on to say, “ … the Indians signed the Treaty of Green Ville August 3, 1795. They were thereby placed under the control of the United States, and the Northwest Territory was opened, in part, to peaceful white settlement.”
And it makes me shudder.
January 5, 2020
THE PAST IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY
Photo by Keith R. Good, 2014
“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.” From The Go-Between, by L.P. Hartley
Hindsight is a curious thing.
It can swing from delight
to fright, and anything between.
I mean, we’ve seen the ways
the history books make crooks
look chaste. But oh,
the aftertaste.
And who would know
we owe apologies for
theologies twisted,
persisted, and falsely
scripted.
As we become aware
and lay bare the lies,
our own past appears
foreign in our eyes.
Don’t bury the dead.
Look behind; look ahead.
Yearn for better days.
Find better ways.
Learn who we are.
Raise the bar.
© Marie Elena Good, 2020
pictured words 