Changing Times

How strange that it has come
to this. Children of hardworking mothers
have been falling in the cracks between rich and
poor, while summer permeates the souls of fathers
battling the heat and storms throughout
these heavy gunmetal days. How sweet the
shift of chord from minor to major in a land
of bittersweet memories, loss and
an unknown future, where beggars don’t
have a hope in hell to even try to criticise
the people at the top, to ask them what
they’re going to do about poverty and crime. You
know that the time has come and you can’t
stop smiling: someone has shown that they understand.

Kim M Russell, 24th July 2024

Mary is hosting What’s Going On? this week with a prompt about changing times, inspired by Bob Dylan and his song ‘The Times They are a Changin’, which I was surprised to see was first released here, in England. 

Our challenge is to take inspiration from Bob Dylan’s song, and we may choose to be inspired by the topic ‘changing times’, the song as a whole, or some lines from the lyrics, or what the song means for us in today’s world. I thought I’d try a golden shovel with the lines:

“Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand”

It wasn’t easy! I don’t usually do political.

23 thoughts on “Changing Times”

  1. We havent come very far from the ages of royalty and serfs, it seems. The poor struggle so hard to survive. I love the note of hope at the end, when someone shows they understand.

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  4. I appreciated your poem a lot, Kim. ” How sweet the
    shift of chord from minor to major in a land
    of bittersweet memories, loss and
    an unknown future,  “

    Yes the shift of chord from minor to major expresses it so very well! The future, as you said is unknown, but hope does feel so very good…as long as it lasts! I liked the way you expressed your thoughts and the way you responded to a certain stanza of Bob Dylan’s timeless song!

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    1. Thank you very much, Mary. I’m not keen on writing political poems, but I’ve been watching Kamala Harris and will be rooting for her in the upcoming election.

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    1. I agree, Rajani. But the result of the recent election in the UK, and Kamala Harris running for president in the USA, might be faint hope on the horizon.

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  10. It’s a tough form, and you do it well. In the middle of the poem is this amazing image: “How sweet the
    shift of chord from minor to major . . . ” Lots is packed into that short phrase.

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