River of Wind

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

River of Wind

 

Storm of storms

Sky river of wind and rain

A torrent of building waves

Bending tall trees of oak and pine

Triggering mud and rock slides

Washing away highways

Tumbling boulders

Smashing buildings and homes

Trails of ruin down the coast

 

The wind whistles through the leaves

Before it becomes a scream

Howling like a pack of wolves

Like an enraged poet on a rant

Lost in nature’s dream

None will get out unscathed

None will be unaffected

 

Terror strikes the afflicted

In the widening path of destruction

An instinct to run is countered

By the realization: it’s too late

Run if you will

Stay if you must

But know: our lives are forever

Changed

Standing with The People (of Sudan)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Standing with the People (of Sudan)

 

A diversity of citizenry in Sudan

In the public square have taken a stand

To demand a representative democracy

To reject a strongman autocracy

 

Back down you generals and commanders

This is not the way to go

For though the road is paved with hardship

Its progress is steady and slow

 

Do not turn your guns on the people

Let them work to find a way out

Overcome your need for power

Reject your burden of doubt

 

Democracy must find a way

Like water through fields of stone

Uphold the will of the people

And you will never stand alone

 

All nations of law and liberty

Must back the people of Sudan

As they make their voices heard

As they take a courageous stand

 

Fires in the Caves of Thought

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Fires in the Caves of Thought *

 

We are as cave beings

Searching for the flame

That will light the fires of thought

 

We grunt and moan as the ancients did

To convey our wants and needs

We find stones to throw at our adversaries

We find plants to feed our children

We will kill to enable survival

 

Once in a rare while

We find words that spark a flame

That light a fire

That warms the soul

On a cold and bitter night

 

We search for others

To share the warmth

To fill the quiet moments

In the caves of our thoughts

 

We live we love we cherish

Just as the ancients did

We form circles of common cause

To ease the pain of living

To share the hardship

To celebrate the triumph

Of truth and survival

 

* Jack Foley “Shadow Boxing with Floyd”

(for Floyd Salas)

 

Looking Back

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

 

Looking Back

 

Ten years ago pot was illegal

In fifty of fifty states

Twenty years ago killer cops

Never made the news

(buried in the back pages)

And black lives never mattered

(except Martin Luther King)

Thirty years ago gay people

And gay love were outlawed

Forty years ago indigenous people

Had no voice in government

(certainly not in the BIA)

And the American genocide

Was not recorded in history

(remember Wounded Knee)

Fifty years ago the government

Spied on people with impunity

(Richard Nixon and the FBI)

And soldiers returning from Vietnam

Received no treatment for wounds

Of the mind spirit or soul

(Agent Orange and PTSD)

Sixty years ago college athletes

Beat up hipsters and gays for fun

Seventy years ago we stood in line

For crewcuts and puff hairdos

Eighty years ago we fought

The fascist war machine

And won

 

The years roll by

Like a river runs

The waves of change

Sweep over us

In many ways we are so much

Better than once we were

In other ways we have advanced

Only to turn back again

 

The struggle never ends

Yet history still bends

Toward the just and righteous