Ours Is Not A Caravan Of Despair

a crowd-sourced poem by Kathleen Dunckel

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

(Rumi)

We often have more in common than we think we do.

Yes, there is racism.

Yes, there is misogyny and hate.

Yes, there are truly irreconcilable differences between some of us.

But there is also a great deal of decency.

(Greg Hanscom, editor & publisher, High Country News)

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

I go to bed anxiously...feeling reams of despair.

We mustn't let things deteriorate on our watch.

I do not want despair to turn into doing nothing, into just tolerating.

We need to be active and engaged.

(Nina McConigley, author & professor, Colorado State University)

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

I have new lessons in not stopping after the election. If you are gripped with despair

when you think you might stop:

Speak to your dead. Write for your dead.

Tell them a story...

And when war comes...be sure you write for the living too.

(Alexander Chee, author & professor, Dartmouth College)

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

...the despair was something else again...

I vowed to keep away from the tailspin

of mutual wailing about how bad everything was,

a recitation of the evidence against us

that just buried

any hope and imagination

down into a dank little foxhole

of curled-up despair.

(Rebecca Solnit, author & activist)

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

Do not be provoked...by the one who prospers,

the one who succeeds in evil schemes.

Do not be jealous of those who do wrong,

for they shall soon wither like the grass.

The wicked draw their sword to strike down the poor and needy -

their sword shall go through their own heart.

(Psalm 37)

Ours is not a caravan of despair.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers –

That perches in the soul –

And sings the tune without the words –

And never stops – at all –

(Emily Dickinson)