Poems about Martin Luther King As we celebrate the life of
Martin Luther King and his courageous opposition to racism and
economic injustice, I feel people should know of two poems by
Eli Siegel, the great American poet and founder of the
philosophy Aesthetic Realism, from his second volume of poetry,
Hail, American Development (Definition Press, NY). With enormous
respect for Martin Luther King, Mr. Siegel expresses what
America and every person in our troubled world is hoping for.
Abraham Lincoln, as Dr. King himself recognized, wanted the
murderous injustice of slavery to end. He considered the
Emancipation Proclamation, written in his own handwriting, "the
central act of my administration and the great event of the 19th
century." Martin Luther King is loved for his bravery, sincerity
and enormous energy in fighting for the social and economic
rights of people of all races. He spoke out early and steadily
against America's vicious, unjust war in Vietnam, saying: "This
business of burning human beings with