Prague Spring

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD HISTORY

Prague Spring

 

I remember Prague Spring

The Velvet Revolution

Such a beautiful thing

Of human evolution

Let the bells of freedom ring

Imagine a solution

And sing

 

I remember the student rebellion

The streets of Paris sixty-eight

The Champs-Elysees barricades

A defiance of the state

A reboot of idealism

A challenge to our fate

 

I remember the Summer of Love

San Francisco flower child

Peace love and happiness

Free spirited and wild

Questioning the way it is

The establishment defiled

An alternative way of life

With dignity and style

 

I remember the Harlem Renaissance

Cultural birth of civil rights

Cotton Club and Langston Hughes

Redefine the stereotypes

A celebration of the spirit

And everything that’s right

The darker shades are beautiful

The colors of the night

 

I remember the Beat Generation

In the city by the bay

A town of artists and poetry

A movement made of clay

Kerouac and Ferlinghetti

Heroes of the day

They came for the spirits

For the love they stayed

 

I remember Tiananmen Square

The courage of conviction

The day the people dared

State sponsored dereliction

On display everywhere

Their acts of disobedience

Demanded that we care

 

I remember the Stonewall Inn

The assertion of gay pride

The march to Central Park

The day passivity died

They would no longer cower

They would not stand aside

They sent a message clearly

To places far and wide

 

I remember the Chicano Moratorium

In the heart of East LA

A peaceful protest against a war

That planted many Chicano graves

They killed Ruben Salazar

To silence what he had to say

They sacrificed themselves

To show us all the way

 

These moments of great promise

Echo through the halls of time

They renew our sense of dignity

As our history unwinds