Question

Imagine that you are a best selling poet writing to give those suffering and working through the Reconstruction a calming, invigorating, or sympathetic read. Write a poem that gives insight into the people’s plights.

Answer 1

Why? The last thing anyone in Reconstruction needed was more self-pity, or to spend time ruminating over their misfortunes and difficulties. That way lies -- lay -- a half-century more of divisive racial grievances.

What they really needed was an iron determination to make the future better, whatever the cost in the present, and a willingness to forget the immediate past and not let it color how one acted. Courage, forward-thinking and faith was what they needed, and the most useful poem would, I dare say, be one that expressed confidence in the brighter future towards which they were working, and encouraged abandonment of previous ways of thinking and self-pity.

Answer 2

how exactly am i supposed to write a poem about that?