Poems & Prayers

“Streamers in the Hall of Justice”

This satirical poem pokes fun at the US legal system. The tone veers between mocking humor and genuine exasperation. 

When the speaker finds the abandoned library that is serving as the virtual court, he jokes that it is an “odd place for judge and jury” (Line 12). When he gets connected remotely, he finds bestial chaos: “[T]he place was a zoo” (Line 23) while “the clerk of the court did his best to herd the cats” (Line 30). He finds the other denizens of the courtroom to be either conniving or inept: “[E]verybody was dealin’ and backdoor dissin” (Line 28), “[t]he prosecution needed tech support” (Line 37), and the judge is absent.

The speaker finds the humor in the fact that while he is in Marfa, Texas, the courtroom is unmistakably in California, which gets so many earthquakes that the clerk “shared the local news from his earthquake app” (Line 42). This prompts the speaker’s amused response, “at least I know now why my chandeliers keep fallin’” (Line 46).

As the poem draws to a close, he bemoans the fact that the case took two years to get to court and cost so much, but the verdict was handed down in less than a minute: “This litigation gig, it seems quite the racket, / costs a lot of money just to see if you can hack it” (Lines 61-62). Even though the outcome was a success for him, he walks away expressing exasperation and cynicism; he notes the connection between the legal system and politics and grows “more suspicious of those we’ve elected” (Line 56). 

“Pep Rallies” 

A “pep rally” is a student gathering before a school sporting event meant to promote enthusiasm and school spirit. 

In this poem, McConaughey derides politicians for their version of pep rallies; in a note below the poem he claims politics is too much “about negotiations, compromises, party preservation, and pep rallies,” and wishes that it “was more about selling beliefs, standing on principles, sacrifice, and showtime.” 

The speaker doubts either liberals or conservatives can address the country’s problems. He calls liberal ideals “fairy-tale” (Line 1), or lacking practical solutions or policies. Likewise, he dismisses “the right-wing dictate semper fi” (Line 2). Semper fi is the motto of the US Marine Corps; short for the Latin phrase semper fidelis, it means “always faithful” and represents loyalty and commitment. By couching it as a conservative “dictate” (Line 2), McConaughey is criticizing right-wing politicians for draping themselves in the flag, being dogmatic, and leaning authoritarian. 

The speaker ends the poem by saying he prefers to watch documentaries, since he thinks they present material in a more objective manner.  

“Blessed Are the Peacemakers” 

The title is a biblical allusion: In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus preached that, “Blessed are the peacemakers for they will be called children of God” (Matthew 5:9). 

The poem takes a different view of would-be peacemakers. The speaker feels that the people who get put in charge of diplomacy are not suited to the task. They are quick to make judgments that prevent them from seeing both sides of an issue in a productive way: “[W]e sure see good and evil, / black and white, wrong and right, / our definition of what’s legal” (Lines 4-6). They are more eager for the limelight than for empathy and connection: “too insecure to understand, / only fighting to be heard” (Lines 9-10). 

Since human society is defined by its conflicts and “addicted to upheaval” (Line 17), the speaker urges those wishing to make peace to refrain from narrow thinking: “good and evil” (Line 18) is the province of God. Instead, “maybe we’re here to broker better or worse” (Line 17). By using the comparative forms of these adjectives, the speaker introduces nuance into the divisiveness he sees in “black and white” approaches.  

“America, Yet”

The title is an allusion to Langston Hughes's 1938 poem, “Let America Be America Again,” which describes an ideal that has not yet been realized—the US as a land of freedom and opportunity for all people, not just a select few—and calls the US a “land that has never been yet” (Hughes, Langston. “Let America Be America Again.” 1938. Poetry Foundation). Hughes’s poem expresses a strong belief in the American dream, as well as the bitter reality of how it falls short. Hughes was a leading poet of the Harlem Renaissance, a flourishing of Black literature and art in the 1920s and 1930s. 

Hughes’s work serves as McConaughey's inspiration. However, in this prose piece, the vision of the US differs in one important respect. Like Hughes, McConaughey admires the notion of the American dream and agrees that the reality falls short of the ideal. However, unlike Hughes, McConaughey doubts that the dream can ever be realized. 

The piece instead proposes a paradox. We must always keep striving for equal opportunity, justice, and righteousness, even while we are aware that we will never acquire them. McConaughey alludes here to a speech by famed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. In “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop,” delivered in Texas in April 1968, the night before he was assassinated, King emphasized getting to the “promised land” rather than merely aspiring to it. In contrast, McConaughey writes that we will never reach the mountaintop, but we must continue to climb. For McConaughey, our continued striving despite our inability to reach our ideals is the new version of the American dream.