Immortality

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Immortality

 

The essence of immortality:

Everything that is will always be

 

The stone becomes the mountain

The mountain yields to the sea

The whales sing their timeless songs

Recording the planet’s history

Everything that is will always be

 

Death is but an illusion

The tree gives way to seeds

Though we mourn each mortal passing

Consciousness is the key

Everything that was continues to be

 

Time does not exist but

As an invention of the mind

A tablet to tell the story

Of man and woman kind

 

From the gardens of ancient Babylon

To the temples of antiquity

Everything that ever was

Will forever be

 

Nature Strikes Back

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Nature Strikes Back

 

Nature betrays

Betrayed by man

Nature strikes back

Birds no longer passive

Recognize their mortal enemies

Band together in flocks and gaggles

Murders of crow

 

Oceans filled with toxic rage

Enough industrial waste to bury Africa

Enough poison for aquatic genocide

Tsunami winter is coming

Tsunami spring and summer

Vengeance of the sea gods

Poseidon and the leviathans

Wreaking havoc upon the land

 

The sky falls to a fevered howl

Angered at our indifference

Enraged at our willful negligence

Torrential wind and battering rain

Towers toppled and trees uprooted

Stripping the land of all monuments

To our never ending folly

 

Fire rips across the horizon

Converting lush green to dry brown

A barren cracked deserted land

No longer giving nourishment

No longer sustaining life

 

The earth cracks open

Angry molten lava springs forth

Four winds of destruction

Five directions to hell

 

A dream?

A vision ripped from the bowels?

The leanings of an overworked mind?

 

But fire bears no anger

Winds carry no rage

The rising sea seeks no vengeance

The abiding earth indifferent

We destroy ourselves

We take vengeance on ourselves

We have done this to ourselves

And we must make amends

 

The Day Democracy Died

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Day Democracy Died

 

History is a strange phenomenon

You don’t see it when it’s happening

You don’t know when it makes a difference

You don’t recognize the signs

You don’t piece together the facts

Until it’s too late to react

 

They lost an election fair and square

Nothing they could do about it

They yelled and screamed: it’s not fair!

Told the whole white world: we doubt it!

 

But when they charged the nation’s capital

They changed the nature of the game

No longer open to debate and reason

It begged another harsher name

They crossed a line to treason

 

If the traitors get away with it

If their treacherous leader is never tried

We may well remember that day

As the day our democracy died

 

Don’t think it cannot happen here

It can and will I fear

If we do not raise the warning cry

If we perpetuate the evil lie

If we do not give it proper weight

Dictatorship could be our fate

 

A Fool's Rights

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

A Fool’s Rights

 

Every fool has a right to folly

Every bigot has a right to bigotry

Every racist has a right to his own

Every ass imagines chivalry

The old South may have its charm

But no one has the right to harm

 

Say that the planet is a flat plain

Floating in a bowl of water

Tell me our leaders are reptiles

Born of reptilian daughters

Say that the people are mostly sheep

And none of us really matter

Tell me I’m dumb as a cucumber

Or as mad as the Mad Hatter

 

I’ll defend your right to speak freely

To say whatever you please

As long as you don’t harm others

Or spread a deadly disease

 

Arise and Behold!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Arise and Behold

 

Arise and behold

In the twenty-first century

Millions of people live in squalor

Millions have no medical care

Millions die for want of food

Millions drink from poisoned water

 

Arise and behold

The depths of our despair

WE CANNOT GO ON

We hold our breath and stare

PRETENDING NOTHING’S WRONG

At those who die for lack of care

SINGING YESTERDAY’S SONG

We’re trapped inside a lair

FOLLOWING THE MINDLESS THRONG

We demand what’s only fair

 

Arise and behold

We are the blessed and the bright

WE ARE YOUNG THEY ARE OLD

We take what’s ours and say goodnight

THEY ARE SOFT WE ARE BOLD

Trust our leaders will do what’s right

WE’RE THE SELLERS THEY’RE THE SOLD

Pick and choose the righteous fight

WE STAY WARM WHEN THEY ARE COLD

Keep our loved ones within our sight

NEVER WILL WE FOLD

Always reach the highest heights

THEY WILL DO WHAT THEY’RE TOLD

Always know we’ll be alright

 

Arise and behold

We are the greatest force on earth

FOR BETTER OR FOR WORSE

An empire greater than Charlemagne’s

A BLESSING OR A CURSE

Possessing wealth beyond imagination

GUARDIANS OF THE EARTH

Knowledge and technology

NEVER KNOWING WHAT ITS WORTH

The envy of all the gods

NEVER CARING WHO WE HURT

And yet we suffer from anxiety

TIL WE AWAKEN IN THE MORN

We suffer from insecurity

FORSAKEN AND FORLORN

We suffer at our own failure

STRICKEN TO THE CORE

To ease the world’s pain

 

Arise and behold

Or bow down and fold

We know we can do better

 

 

[Note: Jack Foley pioneered the multi-voiced poem or poetic duet.]

Kindness of Strangers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Kindness of Strangers

 

I remember small towns

Where common folks wore smiles

And welcomed you with kindness

Where nothing ever riled

As if they knew your heart

And found it filled with joy

They’d walk with you for miles

Just to show you the best way

Where all the girls and boys

Greeted you like a movie star

And begged for you to play

You’d think: they’re being coy

But they like the way you are

And they wish that you would stay

Another day it’s not that far

 

Those days are now gone

Like a calm before a storm

Like a wish for blowing candles out

Like the chill after a warm

People greet you with suspicion

And a strong measure of doubt

As if they know by intuition

Are you with them or agin them?

You’re agin them by and by

Unless you know what they’re about

And so we go our separate ways

Never knowing how or why

We became so lonely and alone

So estranged and so disturbed

Always gazing at the phone

Never trusting what you’ve heard

Never giving a kind word

To strangers in your town

Who do not know the way around

 

Adversity II

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Adversity II

 

You cannot breach the summit

Without a slip

 

You cannot cross the river

Without a scare

 

You cannot complete a journey

Without a detour

 

You cannot fulfill a life

Without regrets

 

In any endeavor of importance

In any mission of worth

In any undertaking for any reason

In any venture on this earth

There will be adversity

 

The greater the objective

The stronger the resistance

Those who embrace adversity

Those who relish the opportunity

Those who take it in stride

Without grief or remorse

Will not only survive but thrive

 

Adversity is the great teacher

The developer of character