The Mad Poet of the Year blog posts share the poetry of a long-time Mad Poet. This year-long appointment provides readers with a deep dive of the writer’s work and thoughts on poetry. We are thrilled to have Lisa DeVuono serve as the Mad Poet of the Year for 2024.
Ten Lies We Told Ourselves Out Loud and One We Didn’t
The planet is not on fire
That was a lie
He’s harmless
That was a lie
He’ll never get elected
That was a lie
It will be fine
That was a lie
They started it
That was a lie
I’m not a racist
That was a lie
They’re all murderers
That was a lie
It’s a hoax
That was a lie
I’m not afraid
That was a lie
Your vote won’t matter
That was a lie
It can’t happen here
Well… it happened. Again.
Like others who didn’t vote for Trump, I woke up on November 6th with a sinking feeling in my gut, telling myself several of the lies in this poem, “I’m not afraid. It will be fine.”
I wrote this poem several years ago thinking that the threat of a second Trump presidency was behind us and that somehow this poem would remain just a rant. Sadly, I feel like it’s become an anthem for his biggest fans who allow their feelings of frustration, fear and anxiety to be usurped. They choose to be un-informed. They follow a con man and a bully who uses the language of promise to tap into their feelings of hopelessness. They believe his lies to be truth. They want something easy; to relish in the story of blame and misery buying into simple slogans for complex problems.
Listening to some analyses of this past election, pundits argue that the reason voters turned out for Trump was they felt they hadn’t been heard, that he spoke for them. Really? When did lying, cheating, breaking the law and inciting violence and hatred become the mouthpiece that many think they want and need? How did basic decency and care for others get replaced with selfishness?
Trump has too often portrayed himself as the Messiah, a savior for these broken times. In our darkest days, it makes sense to look for a bright light but selling my soul to a real devil in the real world is not my idea of salvation.
As for the print above, it’s aptly called “Blood on Our Hands.”
Lisa DeVuono is the 2024 Poet Laureate of Montgomery County. She was one of the founders of It Ain’t Pretty, a women’s writing collective that performed locally. She produced multi-media shows incorporating song, music, poetry, and dance, including Rumi in Song at the Sedgwick Theater; and Whole Heart Home, and Breaking Open Breaking Free, part of the IceHouse Tonight series in Bethlehem.
She led creativity and poetry workshops and has worked with teens in recovery and cancer patients. She wrote a peer-based curriculum Poetry as a Tool for Recovery: An Easy-to-Use Guide in Eight Sessions for facilitators working with persons living with mental health challenges.
In addition to the full-length manuscript This Time Roots, Next Time Wings, her poetry has appeared in the Mad Poets Review, Paterson Literary Review and the anthology Grit Gravity & Grace: New Poems about Medicine and Healthcare. She is the author of the chapbook Poems from the Playground of Risk published by Pudding House Press and was the recipient of an honorable mention in Passaic County Community College’s annual Allen Ginsberg Contest.
Recently retired, she has worked as an administrator, librarian, and lay chaplain.