Finishing Point

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Finishing Point

 

On the seventh day the lord did rest

And decided it was best

One must make an end to the greatest ventures

One must yield to a final decree

For though life may reach eternity

We are but mortal entities

Whose journeys seek our destinies

 

We mark it on a map

We trace a course in hopeful dreams

We make all preparations

And embark in great faith

We encounter walls and barriers

We face a thousand unknown factors

Disasters strike from all directions

We find ourselves enchanted

And lose our selves in love

We make another plan

Mark a new direction

And learn to make amends

 

At the finishing point

Where all lives must end

Our destiny is never quite

What we intended it to be

Yet it is all we could ever want

All we could ever desire

All we could ever dream

We have reached an end

 

Dance

Sing

Rejoice

 

To Hear from Within

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

To Hear from Within

 

The heart is the drumbeat

The rhythm of life

Waves of an eternal ocean

Pounding a driving beat

The force of unending time

A song of soul survival

The poetry of living

The wonder of being alive

 

To hear from within

To feel one’s internal rhythm

To sense one’s pulse without touch

Is a sensation rarely felt

Only the artist can appreciate

The depth of such sensation

Only the poet can imagine

Such a foreign phenomenon

To feel beyond the senses

To exist beyond the self

To hear from within

 

Angela the Great (The Chancellor)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Chancellor (Angela the Great)

 

Elected to office in 2005

Dubya Bush was in his second term

Jacques Chirac was President of France

Tony Blair was PM of Great Britain

And Vladimir Putin was Czar of Russia

 

Angela the Great

Chancellor of the German Republic

Outlasted them all

Except the Great Dictator

Emperor of the North

Putin the Puppeteer

 

De facto leader of Europe

She guided her nation through

The ill-fated American wars on terror

The blooming of the European Union

The global economic collapse

The sudden shock of Brexit

The rise of buffoonery in the US and Britain

And the Great Pandemic of 2020

 

She stood up to nationalism

When nobody would

She stood up to Putin

When America faltered

She stood for democracy

When autocracy was in vogue

 

We may disagree with her policies

But her strength and perseverance

In times of great upheaval

Is beyond all question

 

All hail Angela Merkel

Long may she live and prosper

 

Running Dry (The Colorado River)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Running Dry

 

The Colorado River feeds the land

That feeds the world

When the river runs low

The battle between agriculture

Fish and wildlife

Industry and people begins

A battle no one wins

 

Water is life

When the river runs dry

Life shrivels and dies

Fruit on the vine

Grain and root vegetables

In dry cracked ground

Desperate and barren

Lost and unfound

 

Dry cracked earth

Does not grow crops

It becomes a wasteland

A host to the death spiral

Ugly and thirsting

Bleeding and bled

Dying and dead

 

The most fertile valley

In all the land

Will soon run dry and

The war for water will begin

We will then discover how

Human humanity really is

 

Nicaragua

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Nicaragua

 

There was a time

(not so long ago)

When this nation favored

Latin American dictators

They were easy to control

They could be manipulated

With money

 

Ortega of Nicaragua

Follows the CIA handbook

Terrorize the opposition

Terrorize the people

Imprison those who threaten

Disappear those who persist

 

There was a time

(not so long ago)

The press went along

With the CIA charade

Those who fought for the people

For freedom and democracy

Were labeled radicals

Militants and communists

If they disappeared

Who would miss them?

 

But times have changed

(or have they?)

This nation sanctions

The Nicaraguan dictator

In the new world order

We honor and support

Only democracies

(or do we?

Only time can tell)