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New Day for the Old Dominion

“This is what unity looks like” —Glenn Youngkin, Virginia governor-elect

Virginians venture toward a vivid day
Of family life and work as each sees fit;
Next year the cost of living spirals down,
The prospects for creating wealth increase,
The government goes back to serving people,
Protecting them with well-esteemed police,
Maintaining freedom’s right to self-defense,
Supporting teachers able to provide
The learning parents choose for children dear.
It takes outsider business skills to nix
The crony contracts and consulting fees,
Dismantle useless boards and regulations,
And send the profiteers back out of state.
No dismal handouts for swamp-suited staff;
Blue Ridge, Red River labor on together:
Virginian Virtus flattens tyranny,
And lifts a sword to battle its return,
As awe for God sustains the Old Dominion.
We exile hostile racist pedantry,
And teach instead America’s bright dream
Of citizens revered for character,
Remembering the heroes gone before
And welcoming arrivals with ideals
That join us equally—this new day heals.

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“Virginian Virtus” and the following line describe the state seal.

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Margaret Coats lives in California.  She holds a Ph.D. in English and American Literature and Language from Harvard University.  She has retired from a career of teaching literature, languages, and writing that included considerable work in homeschooling for her own family and others.  

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19 Responses

  1. Sarban Bhattacharya

    Brilliant poem , Margaret. It’s a victory to celebrate. The poem reminds me of public poetry and Pindaric odes.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Youngkin’s victory is worth public celebration. Kind of you to mention Pindaric odes, a grand poetic genre originally known for celebrating winners in athletic contests.

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Thank you, Paul. It was put together mainly from Youngkin’s campaign speeches. I should point out that the red-hatted lady near him on the platform bears the poetic name of Winsome Sears. She is a Jamaican immigrant who won her separate race to be Virginia’s next lieutenant governor.

      Reply
  3. Joseph S. Salemi

    I’m sure that dirtbag McAuliffe now fully understands the meaning of Virginia’s motto: SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS!

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      I hope McAuliffe has learned a lesson. He said, when shifting from political money management to running for office, that he wanted to be a governor rather than a senator, because he would have more to give. He belongs to the Democrat Party rather than any state, and considered running for governor of Florida, but did not want to be so far away from his habitat in the DC swamp.

      Reply
  4. Brian Yapko

    Your joy is palpable, Margaret! I very much enjoyed the poem and I hope that sanity returns to politics across the board. I agree with you. Character is what matters.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      It’s joy for the state I learned to love while on active duty at Fort Monroe, in the southeast Tidewater region. Three-day passes gave me opportunities to visit much of Virginia.

      The biggest issue in this campaign was whether character matters. State schools are teaching Critical Race Theory, which contradicts Martin Luther King’s dream of a country where character supersedes color of one’s skin. The mainstream media lives in another country. As soon as the election was over, it told black Virginian Winsome Sears (soon to be lieutenant governor) that she owes everything to white supremacy. What is more racist than that? She shot back and said her achievements are her own, earned by staying in school and working hard. Best wishes to all Virginians for schools like hers! And that includes Virginians such as I was, the large numbers of active duty military who live and work and raise families there, but vote at their homes of record.

      Reply
  5. C.B. Anderson

    How well it is, Margaret, that you elected to set in verse a political event that shows us that not all has been lost. Even in Virginia, where a large plurality of voters are Federal employees, there are signs of hope. The Blue Ridge and Red River, though iconic in a certain sense, are just isolated examples of what can happen when, having been pressed too hard, people begin to remove their heads from their asses.

    Although your verse be blank,
    I’ll take it to the bank.

    Thank you, Margaret, for this hefty deposit.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      I must credit the value of the last line to Evan Mantyk, who suggested word changes that made a good rhyming ending. In trying to decide the poetic form, I looked for something to make a connection with Virginian poetry, and came up with blank verse as the strength of Lucy Virginia French. Not a big name, but someone who wrote on political healing after the War Between the States.

      As for present politics, Youngkin knows how to give credit to his fellow Virginians, especially parents of schoolchildren, who turned his campaign into a movement (that’s his own expression). Ordinary citizens, demonized by the Party in power, were the ones who spearheaded this victory over tyranny. That is perhaps the most hopeful sign we see here.

      Thanks so much for the appreciative comment!

      Reply
  6. Cheryl Corey

    If only you could say the same about California! Here in CT, the Dems have us in a chokehold.

    Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      California lost the chance to turn around. But things changed when the Democrats realized they might have been the losers. It’s push and shove at present, with another election next year.

      Reply
  8. Peter Hartley

    Margaret, I am so sorry that I am unable to comment on the substance of this poem as I know not the first thing about American politics, but it does remind me that a good poem doesn’t necessarily have to rhyme even at SCP to read well, and how wonderful it is to find someone who knows that spirals can go down and in, as well as up and out (as in “spiralling out of control”) and that “spiral” is not just a synonym for “increase.” Just thought I’d mention it.

    Reply
    • C.B. Anderson

      I’m watching, too, Peter, and I wonder what you think of “gyre” as a synonym for “spiral.”

      Reply
    • Margaret Coats

      Peter, I frequently go up and down a tiny spiral staircase that seems to go down and in compared to the space above where the light fixture hangs. I must have been thinking of it rather than of spiral galaxies and other things that seem to whirl out of control.

      C. B., I am in favor of “gyre” as a synonym for “spiral.” If we are speaking of the form, I think “gyre” could refer to a circle or ellipse as well. I tend to use “gyrate” for the motion, but I believe I’ve seen “gyre” for “whirl” in poetry.

      Reply

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