Beneath the Surface

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Beneath the Surface

 

The sky is clear and blue today

A calm breeze caresses my face

Smiles and pleasantries abound

Everything seems to fit in place

 

Beneath the surface another world

Looms in hidden spaces

All is not well

Nor has it ever been

Chaos and misfortune lay in wait

Anxious to emerge and pounce

Eager to spread their misery

Ready to strike again

 

We strive to move forward

Put on our smiling faces

We go about our days

Nothing can disturb us

We cling to certain ways

We set and follow patterns

And rarely will we stray

 

Beneath the surface of our joy

There lies a certain desperation

A sense of overwhelming pressure

Traps and trepidation

Nothing is as it seems

Nor has it ever been

We live inside our dreams

And fight it to the end

Desperate Hours

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Desperate Hours

 

Hurling through the expanse of space

Our prospects dimming by the hour

We cannot turn the clock around

Building weapons extolling power

No one knows just where we’re bound

We are in the desperate hours

 

We live in fear of our fellow beings

Guarded communities brazen towers

Losing touch with beauty and grace

Natural wonders and simple flowers

Our lives slipping from our control

We’re in the desperate hours

 

O how we wish for simple pleasures

Our techno lives have turned us sour

We cannot live without devices

Our hopes now seem so dower

We turn around but it’s too late

We are in the desperate hours

 

The Ni-ni's of Columbia

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Ni-nis of Columbia

 

(Ni-ni: neither work nor school)

 

They fill the streets of protest in Columbia

Their numbers are growing in

Chile Argentina Brazil and Mexico

Young people without hope or promise

There are no jobs and those

Who cannot see past the hour

(an hour of hunger and rage)

Have no need of education

They are the disenchanted

They are the disengaged

They have lost faith in institutions

Government has failed them

Democracy has failed them

Free enterprise has failed them

The church has abandoned them

God has betrayed them

 

They have only one endeavor

One remaining purpose in this life

To fill the streets of protest

Day after day

Night after night

 

They feed on hopelessness

They feed on social media

Some say they feed on fake news

But reality is more than sufficient

You cannot beat them into submission

You cannot pound them into hope

 

Your corrupt institutions have failed

To serve the heart of your society

The time has come to step down

Let the next generation take over

Give them a place at the table

Allow them to remake the world

That you have molded in greed

Give them their due or

Face the dismal consequences

 

Finality

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Finality

 

There will always be doubt

Like the virus itself

Some trace of it remains

To haunt us with its deadly legacy

To caution and warn us

Life will never be the same

 

Yet it begins to feel normal

It is not my first thought each morning

There are times I forget

Times when the mask seems strange

Times when it feels like a movie

Times when it feels like a dream

 

We are resilient beings

It is our nature to overcome

It is our nature to survive

 

Somewhere in the folds of our minds

We know it could strike again

That place of darkness will always be

But it will not drive us insane

 

We will move on

We have moved on

Life returns to normal

And we give thanks

 

Democracy Down in Belarus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Democracy Down in Belarus

 

In Belarus as in Moscow

They imprison dissidents for being dissidents

For expressing opinions contrary

To the state propaganda machine

For encouraging others to stand in protest

For writing and distributing pamphlets

For reporting the news

For being leaders and believers in democracy

For being journalists and doing their jobs

Honestly and well

 

Putin puppet Lukashenko has gone so far

As to hijack a passenger plane in flight

To abduct journalist Roman Protasevich

And his girlfriend Sofia Sapega

(girlfriends are dissidents too)

They are now subject to torture

As terrorists and enemies of state

Their friends and families must also suffer

As collaborators in terror

Their confessions and apologies

Will follow as night follows sunset

 

Do not believe them

Do not allow them to escape consequence

For crimes against humanity

For crimes against us all

They are the great oppressors

And they walk among us

Anxious for their turn at power

 

It is the way of tyranny

It is the way of dictators

It is the way of Putin and Lukashenko

Left standing it is the way democracy falls

 

Reclaim Patriotism (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

Inevitability

 

We have fallen under

A spell of comfortable passivity

 

The past is forgotten

The future is inevitable

 

The arc of history bends toward justice

 

Why fight for a cause however worthy

When the die is cast (alea iacta est)

And the future is ordained

Why bother with it all

Sit back and witness as our

Heroes on tall white horses

Save the day

 

Ask the victims of Mussolini

About the arc of history

Ask the Spanish about Franco

Ask the Jews about the Reich

The Chinese about the purge

The Russians about Stalin

The Ukrainians about Putin

Ask your elders about McCarthy

And the letters KKK

 

The future is not written

Nothing is inevitable

Nothing belongs to fate

 

Tyranny is enabled by passivity

Passivity is enabled by faith

In the inevitable

Howling Wind (for Phil Mickelson)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Howling Wind

 

Blow wind blow!

Howl like the scream of banshees in a raging storm

Let all god’s creatures beg for mercy

Howl like a rage of angry demons

Caught in a maze of thorns

 

Blow wind blow!

Blow like a ringing echo of horror

Let tall trees bow down before you

Let the dirt and sand carry your name

Shake their spirits into full flight

Put all of them to shame

 

Howl wind howl!

Push the sun and the clouds aside

Put all the earth’s forces on due notice

Let the whole world witness your glory

Let them speak of you in pubs and taverns

Let them tell your fateful story

 

Who dares to stand against the wind?

Who dares to break the chains?

Let him be called the last man standing

For he alone remained

 

[Congratulations to Phil Mickelson

2021 PGA Champion

Oldest winner of a Major]