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

Copyright © by John R. Green
Shown with his blessing
(Return To "An Episcopal Poet")

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.

Unemployment the despairing rule;
Hungry children fail in school.
Illness stemming from food denied;
Hunger marches desperately tried.

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, and 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!

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.

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.

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.

Overcoming European despotic tyranny and Oriental outreach,
FDR envisions a structure for freedom to reign and teach.
Thus came the United Nations into being,
Ushering in humane advance and freedom.

While in the throes of death his voice rendered still;
But eternal spirit his humane mission is fulfilled.