The Trauma of 1932
A poem about the Great Depression,
Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
World War II, and the United Nations
By Father John R. Green
An Episcopal Poet
Copyright © by John R. Green
Shown with his blessing
Prevailing in dark days
of the Great Depression
Woeful hunger, malnutrition and starvation;
Manifesting soup kitchens minus meats;
The robbing of families bearing food
on Newark streets.
Great Depression
Photos on Picryl
Unemployment the despairing rule;
Hungry children fail in school.
Illness stemming from food denied;
Hunger marches desperately tried.
A Hooverville in Alabama
on Wikipedia
By Hmalcolm03 - Own work,
CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Government assistance woefully weak,
Out look for families grim and bleak.
The homeless inhabiting
shanties and shacks;
Hoovervilles wincing at
vicious poverty attacks.
Clothing shabby, tattered and torn,
Threadbare, dingy and unending worn.
Gravely ill, treatment urgently needed,
Their tragic cries go unheeded.
Nonfunded hospitals their pains
cannot relieve,
Unless monetary payments
are first received.
Banks failing at catastrophic rate,
Farms facing foreclosure,
an alarming state.
Toward Soviet Russia's economic stance,
The impoverished and threatened
cast a desperate glance.
Something ordinarily few would think,
Racist Senator Bilbo feeling a little pink.
Declaring Mississippi constituents
ready to lead a mob.
Their misery to relieve as
the affluent they rob!
Mussolini and Hitler
on Wikipedia
Others looking somberly to the West,
Contending a Hitler or Mussolini
would meet the test.
Corporate and industrial barons leaping
...from high walls impaled,
Their controlling powers
assailed and derailed.
Facing the economic collapse
of their nation,
Plunging to avoid their earthly destination.
Civilian Conservation Corps
on Wikipedia
Then a voice rang warm and clear,
No sound more dear in any depression year;
Elevating nations' spirit
beyond contagious fear.
Smoke rising from factory chimneys,
...employment rapidly increases,
'CCC' boys the forest restoring,
...as dire destitution decreases.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Radio Fireside Chat, 9/30/1934
FDR Presidential Library
His fireside chats warmly enduring,
Peoples monetary assets in banks securing.
Terror abroad, raging devastation,
FDR alerting the Nation.
Creating resources to enhance
The resistance to the Nazi advance.
Supporing Britain through
her courage and grief,
Sending arms, her dwindling arsenal relief.
Warning his countrymen
of Japanese assail;
Planning their atttack to repel.
United Nations
Named by FDR
(Pixabay)
