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To Truth
—in memory of Charlie Kirk (1993 – 2025)
You fly above the flap and fray,
Beyond the stir of earthy air.
On dauntless tongue, you find the way
__To spread your care.
Your song is bright and bold and plain,
Sung with fire in the face
Of hatred (wracked with raw disdain)
__In strains of grace.
You flow from fearless lips that seek
The selfless path of lamb and dove—
A thorny route (mapped by the meek)
__That leads to love.
.
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Susan Jarvis Bryant is a poet originally from the U.K., now living on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
Beautiful poem. Strong and genuine imagery
Christian, thank you for your lovely comment. I’m glad you liked the poem.
Perfect eulogy and shining tribute to an American martyr!
Roy, I appreciate your kind words, and I’m pleased you liked the poem. Thank you!
Thanks, Susan – Charlie was a very special sort of guy and, as many have noted, a definite candidate for a future president.
Mark, thank you very much indeed. Charlie was indeed a special guy – a very rare one. Not many young men would dare to challenge the force-fed, fashionable propaganda of our era by giving our impressionable youth the unsullied, unembellished truth. He paid the ultimate price for it… but the truth he freed is loose on the college campuses spreading through questing minds and rising from empowered lips… I have a feeling it will release future generations from iron-fisted clutches.
I love this heartfelt poem, Susan, which is so appreciative of everything that Charlie Kirk did and stood for and was up against. He was indeed fearless yet a loving man who was willing to endure that “thorny route” “mapped by the meek”. In this phrasing — with subtle references to the crown of thorns and the Beatitudes — you invoke Christ imagery in a way that is deeply moving. Anything more heavy-handed would have harmed the poem. You get the tone just right. A most fitting tribute.
Brian, this cold-blooded, evil assassination stirred sadness and rage in my heart too. When a young husband and father is killed for expressing opinions (no matter how unpalatable to some) with knowledge, eloquence, and respect, this cannot be ignored. Your poem says it all with passion and integrity. I wanted to write something that held up the immutable truth in honor of a man who sought it and spoke it fearlessly. Brian, thank you for your support and your inspiration.
A beautiful poem, and the addressee isn’t Charlie, but Truth itself. The Truth flies, the Truth spreads, the Truth flows from fearless lips. Charlie Kirk was the vehicle of Truth, and it is up to the rest of us to also be defenders and promoters of Truth.
Joe, I thoroughly appreciate you getting to the core of my poem which purposely focuses on the Truth – a rare gift we hear little of these days. I am particularly grateful for the closing line of your comment. “Charlie Kirk was the vehicle of Truth, and it is up to the rest of us to also be defenders and promoters of Truth.” – you are spot on, and if now is not the right time to tap into our consciences and choose to speak the plain, simple, and timeless Truth, when is?! Joe, thank you!
Decent guys are not tolerated by the left, and exemplary characters get a bullet in the neck. Great Britain has gone downhill since you emigrated, Susan, but their loss is our gain.
C.B., thank you. It’s an honor to be a fellow American. It’s also heartbreaking to see the iron fist of a tyrannical government come down on my beloved homeland. The citizens of the U.K. are flying their flags in London today because they want to be heard by their increasingly deaf and increasingly draconian MPs. In my lifetime I have never witnessed wickedness reach the levels I’ve observed in Britain and in America over the last few years, and it isn’t letting up. Your comment reminds me of this quote by C.S. Lewis: ““My hope is that when I die, all of hell rejoices that I am out of the fight.” – Since this debater and seeker of the Truth (who NEVER raised a hand to anyone) was murdered, I hear hell rejoicing and every time evil words are spat from vile mouths, I know Charlie Kirk’s legacy is burning brightly and I rejoice!
Beautiful, and fast. Perhaps one day your great poem will be read to mark a national holiday created to honor another fallen civil rights leader
Warren, thank you so very much. Sometimes there are no words powerful enough to express the magnitude of an evil event… but I so wanted to honor this admirable and amazing young man who encouraged other young people to find their voices and use them for good by debating in a civil manner to get closer to the Truth. We must never stop expressing our opinions… it’s those harsh and often wounding differences of opinion that lead to solutions. Warren, keep your topical poems that make all of us think long and hard coming. I believe it’s time to double down.
Susan, it looks like the British people want their freedom of speech back! Charlie’s legacy is global because people know the truth when they hear it.
This article makes it plain that seekers of truth have had enough:
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2025/09/watch-live-1-million-patriots-flood-london-honor/
Thank you, Mike! The greedy MPs have a lot to answer for. Instead of listening to their global overlords, perhaps it’s time to listen to the British taxpayers filling their ever-bulging coffers.
The leftist mainstream media (led by the insufferable BBC) tried to downplay this massive demonstration by claiming that it was “only” one hundred thousand people.
Elon Musk has said it: “The Left is the party of death.”
God bless Charlie Kirk — along with Tommy Robinson, Nigel Farage and all other English men and women who are not going to take shit from the Left any longer.
A beautiful tribute to a magnet of faith and patriotism. Perhaps his tragic death will propel the movement he has started; creating an unstoppable strength with the leadership of Erika.
God Bless Charlie and Erika!
Thank you, Paulette. The Truth is powerful and is destined to thrive – Charlie’s legacy will live beyond the lies. Truth always wins.
Susan, thanks for this tribute to a principled and decent man. I agreed with a lot of what he said (not all of it) but anyway we have lost a fine orator. I don’t know details of the shooter, but what adds to the tragedy is how the Left, from X users to news anchors, has rationalised or even gloated over his death. I remember a time when in Britain, the left had figures like Richard Crossman and Tony Benn. You might not agree with them but they had decency and intellect. Now we have Owen Jones and Corbyn and McDonnell. I weep for Charlie’s family, and I weep for the UK.
Exactly, David. I remember days in which robust discussion was a highlight of the British dining table, and now they call our intellectual discourse “hate speech”. This is the consequence of a sick ideology in which speech is labeled “hate”. Speech is NOT hate – assassination and its celebration is the very definition of “hate”. David, thank you!
The poem was not what I expected based on the title, and it took me pleasantly aback. It is perfect in its brevity and is not so much a paean to Kirk as what he stood for — what he died for. This is beautiful in its simplicity and clarity.
Adam, the absolute truth has been the reason for many an honest person’s slaughter. It’s a lot easier to live a lie. Charlie was an honest person who tried to connect with those who bought the big lie… and for that he paid the ultimate price. Charlie stood for the Truth. He was in the process of seeking the absolute Truth, and for that he paid a price no human being should pay for their heartfelt and honest efforts to find reason and purpose in this wicked world. No one should die for their words. Adam, thank you!
Murder is a terrible thing. That obvious point made, Kirk was awful. And since that is the very word he chose to use of Martin Luther King Jr, I don’t think he should consider it an insult.
The fact that our Vice President would certainly believe I should be sacked, if not doxxed, for saying this does not change my mind.
Boy, Julia, am I disappointed in your reaction to Susan’s poem honoring Charlie Kirk. You say Kirk was “awful.” I can’t help but feel that your judgment is terribly skewed. “Awful” because he tried to engage with youth and invited them to prove him wrong? Did he ever abuse a soul? Was he ever mean to a soul? Was he ever anything but patient, gentlemanly and intellectually rigorous with those who VOLUNTEERED to debate him? Go home, look in the mirror and realize that “awful” is reserved for people who kill or abuse or intentionally wound. It is NOT for people who invite debate and have the potential to change hearts and minds because — tragedy — he might actually be right about a lot of insupportable things that you cherish as truth. “Awful” in the context of a good man slaughtered in front of his wife, children and thousands of people? I’m sorry, but your views are vile and anathema to me. It is people of your liberal ilk who are happy to have the other half of the country dead. If I sound contemptuous, you haven’t heard the half of it. But by all means, engage me. Unless you’re too busy watching The View.
“Murder is a terrible thing”… BUT “Kirk was awful”. I would expect no less than a big “BUT” from you, Julia. I would also expect no less than you choosing to home in on the loss of a job being far more important than the loss of a life for an opinion. Thank you for drawing attention to all that is wrong with today’s sick ideology that holds “hate speech” above HATE! You make my job as a satirist easy… although, this poem, a poem used as a vehicle for your political rant, has nothing to do with politics. You don’t surprise me. You sicken and sadden me.
To Julia Griffin:
No one here is going to sack you or doxx you, honey. But we can’t answer for any of the millions who are enraged by the murder of a young man who just wanted to have peaceful conversations with left-liberals like yourself.
For your own safety, perhaps you should read this passage from the American writer Herman Melville:
There is sobbing of the strong
And a pall upon the land.
But the People in their weeping
Bare the iron hand.
Beware the People weeping
When they bare the iron hand.
Don’t say you weren’t warned. There are three shattered drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean that thought they were safe.
* The U.S. State Department has warned that foreign nationals who publicly praise or make light of Kirk’s killing may face visa consequences.
* There are reports that visa revocations are already underway for some foreigners who celebrated the killing.
* The U.S. government is tightening scrutiny of social media posts by non-citizens that glorify political violence, in some cases threatening to revoke visas.
* No reputable sources report that the government is stopping regular payments to individuals in the U.S. because they support or are alleged to support the assassination.
* There’s nothing credible suggesting that Social Security, welfare, or other government benefit checks are being cut off for such individuals.
* There are no federal statements or laws proposed (as of the latest reporting) that would allow payments to be halted merely based on supportive speech of political violence, at least not yet.
Victor Davis Hanson: Debunking the Despicable Lies Following Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jazkdAQ_jFc
Julia,
Charlie Kirk’s take on Martin Luther King Jr. has been ripped out of context and turned into a caricature. Yes, he has said some very blunt things — calling MLK “awful” and “not a good person” at AmericaFest 2023 — but people ignore that he has also praised King in the past, even calling him a “civil rights icon” and a “hero” in earlier years. What changed isn’t Kirk suddenly hating civil rights, it’s his frustration with how King’s legacy has been weaponized by modern institutions.
When Kirk criticizes the Civil Rights Act, he’s not opposing equal rights under the law. He’s arguing that the way the Act has been interpreted by courts and bureaucracies has gone far beyond its original scope, creating an entrenched DEI bureaucracy that undermines merit and liberty. In that context, his remarks about MLK are less about tearing down a historical figure and more about challenging the saint-like myth that shields certain policies from criticism.
The left seizes on one line — “MLK was awful” — to paint Kirk as dismissing civil rights altogether. In reality, he’s making a radical but consistent point: our society needs to rethink not only how we remember King, but also how the Civil Rights Act has been used to justify a regime of racial preferences and government overreach. Whether you agree or not, it’s a much more serious conversation than the sound bites suggest.
Julia, your shallow knowledge sullies the memories of King and Kirk.
https://babylonbee.com/news/cancel-culture-leftist-fired-simply-for-having-a-different-opinion-on-whether-conservatives-should-be-murdered?utm_source=The%20Babylon%20Bee%20Newsletter&utm_medium=email
This is hilarious, Mike. But only because it’s so true.