Winter Wildfire (Prayers for Boulder CO)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Winter Wildfire

 

If you’ve ever been to Boulder

You know

If you’ve ever known its wonder

You understand

 

Boulder is a home to art and artists

It is a place of poetry dance and music

It is a place that embraces philosophy

A place that encourages freedom of thought

 

If you’ve ever been to Boulder

You know it is an enchanted place

Where dreams take hold and flourish

 

Boulder is in trouble

As a winter wildfire strikes down

Her winter walls

Breaks down her gates

To threaten all who dwell within

 

Dozens of brave firefighters

Weary from their own battles

Stand ready to come to her defense

From all corners of the nation

Prayers and warm wishes

Rush to offer comfort and aide

 

Let us once again affirm that

We are all one

United in common purpose

Determined to protect our own

Whatever the cost

 

Through all storms and disasters

Through all misfortune and tragedy

We stand our ground in Boulder

And proclaim to a weary world:

We shall not be broken

We are Americans

And we will prevail

 

[A wildfire wipes out hundreds

of homes in Boulder, Colorado]

 

The Year of Constant Chaos

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Year of Constant Chaos

 

The Trump Insurrection

and so it began

We jumped into action

and ran ran ran

 

The incredulous king

would not give up his crown

The election results

could not bring him down

 

The renewed virus continued to kill

It seems we swallowed a poison pill

Some fought it while others surrendered

and yes we’re fighting it still

 

We finally left Afghanistan

America’s longest war

After so many years of fighting

we no longer knew what for

 

It was a year so strange indeed

The lead Republican was a Democrat

Remember the saying of Senator Reid:

Hold your noses cuz “I smell a rat”

 

Cops found guilty of committing crimes

Breaking the blue wall of silence

Will this be the year we draw the line

between reasonable force and violence?

 

The ghost of rampant inflation

ran roughshod across the nation

and rampaged much of the planet

It had been so long we could only say dammit!

Let’s punt cuz we don’t understand it

 

China and Russia formed a twisted alliance

Based largely on mutual defiance

of civilized norms and basic rights

Both seemed anxious to start a fight

in Taiwan or Georgia or embattled Ukraine

Vlad the Great began his reign

and Emperor Xi sang the same refrain

Their love of power will drive them insane

 

Fires hurricanes twisters and floods

Whole towns engulfed and buried in mud

Those who claimed a climate change hoax

Find themselves political jokes

 

Democracy threatened in all hemispheres

Dashing our hopes engendering fears

But the people rose and hopes were renewed

In Chile Bolivia Honduras Peru

 

Omicron became the new viral scourge

Strike up the band for another dirge

 

We sent our vision to the end of space

warming the hearts of the human race

 

Winter storms brought a mountain of snow

once again allowing our hopes to grow

The end of the drought may be drawing near

We welcome the promise of a bright new year

 

The Big Bang Paradox

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

"There's no such thing as random chance."  Jack Random

 

The Big Bang Paradox

 

Can we observe our own birth

without existing in two places at once?

 

Can we be the observed and the observer?

 

As the Webb telescope zooms

to the outer reaches of space

where it promises to come within

a whisper of observing the birth

of the known universe and all it entails

the question must be asked:

 

Can that which does not exist in time

observe that which does? 

 

Will time in all its mystery unfold

before the eyes of humankind?

And if it does will we observe

ourselves from behind?

 

Will we come undone in time?

Will we pass through the doors

of perception and conception?

Will we enter a new age

of evolution and comprehension?

Will our minds expand or implode?

 

When we reach beyond the moment

of our existence will we still exist?

 

We have discovered the paradox of being

without knowing or understanding

what follows

 

Boom

 

(for John Lopes)

Chile for Hope

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Chile for Hope

 

In the election of Gabriel Boric

Over the right-wing strongman Kast

The Chilean people raised hope

That they have buried Pinochet at last

 

A rejection of the Bolsonaro clone

The promise of a new constitution

The people were bold and decisive

In tossing the old institutions

 

It is a bold new day in Chile

May it spread across the land

A message of democracy and freedom

Strike up a victorious band

 

The new president must now deliver

On the promises he put forth

Governing by forged consensus

Without the abuse of force

 

The world knows it will not be easy

But there’s no other way ahead

We’ve had enough of strongman oppressors

Let’s try liberation instead

 

Pillars of Shame

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL JUSTICE

 

Pillars of Shame

 

Anguished faces of the fallen

A stern reminder of the purge

A remembrance of the massacre

A memorial to the courage

That is Tiananmen Square

 

It stands as a pillar of shame

Though you remove it from our sight

It sits forever in our minds

Though you prohibit its pronunciation

It is burned into our hearts

Though you have banished

All thoughts and memories

 

You cannot ban the contents

Of hearts and minds

You cannot tell us

What to think

What to feel

What to remember

Or who to mourn

 

We take a vow now and always

To remember all of the genocides

All of the victims of oppression

All of the crimes against humanity

All of the suffering and sacrifice

Until the end of civilized time

 

(The Chinese government takes down

the monument Pillar of Shame at

Hong Kong University.)