The Summit of Knowledge

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Summit of Knowledge

 

We are a unique species

Unique to the experience of life on earth

We are driven in the pursuit of knowledge

We have invented language to that purpose

We have invented writing and the printing press

We have invented science to reach higher

in the pursuit of knowledge

We have invented the arts and philosophy

to reach beyond the limits of science

We have invented computers and

advanced technology

We have invented and invested in institutions

of higher learning

We have pushed and prodded the depths

of human understanding

Higher and higher and higher we reach

until at last we have breached the very

summit of all knowledge

and we have come to this conclusion:

We know nothing

We have always known nothing

We will never learn for there is nothing

to learn beyond the simple facts

of life and death

We are here and then we are gone

We are alive and then we are not

We may choose to be good to each other

or we may choose to be cruel

It is better to be good. 

 

The Chinese Curse

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Chinese Curse

 

Covid is a disease

It is not a Chinese curse

The curse is their failure

to come forward with the truth

China, Brazil and Florida all

lied about their covid dead

The Chinese covered up the

origin and spread of the virus

They all covered up the infection

and the death rates

If you don’t test, you don’t diagnose

If you don’t diagnose it doesn’t exist

They practiced a policy of denial

Someday the truth will surface

It is emerging now in China

They failed to contain covid

They cracked down on the people

yet failed to control the spread

Now the crisis is imminent

and the world is intolerant

When you deny the truth

at a cost of countless lives

you sacrifice good faith

You are no longer trusted in

the community of nations

 

The Good War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Good War

 

War is never good

Nor can any war ever be considered great

There are wars that are justified

and there are wars that are not

There are wars that are necessary to the

sustenance of human civilization

and there are wars that are fought

for greed and power

 

We have had too many wars for

greed and power

We have had too few wars for freedom,

justice and democracy

We always fly the flag of patriotism

We always claim a righteous cause

Too often it is a lie

 

The wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and

Vietnam were lies

The war in Ukraine is not

The people of Afghanistan, Iraq and

Vietnam would not fight for our cause

for it was not their own

The people of Ukraine fight for their

own cause and welcome our assistance

 

Not since World War II has there been

a war so righteous

Not since WW II has there been

a cause so true

 

Ukraine is fighting for freedom, justice

and democracy against a brutal tyrant

War is never good but this war is

just and necessary

 

Israeli Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Israeli Democracy

 

The people of Israel gather

in Tel Aviv’s Habima Square

by the tens of thousands

to protest Netanyahu’s attempt

to overturn Israeli democracy

 

He wishes to strip the judiciary

of its authority over parliament

and the Prime Minister

 

A government without judicial

review is not a democracy

A court without power is not a court

Democracy requires the rule of law

and an independent judiciary

The court is not an accessory

It is the heart of democracy

 

If you do not like your Supreme Court

ask yourself how it came to this

If the fault is in the process

change the process

If the fault is in yourselves

change yourselves

 

A people that does not value

democracy will surely lose it

 

A New Day

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

A New Day

 

I’ve never seen a cloud

That did not dissipate

I’ve never faced a choice

That could not wait

 

Though it may barrel down

Like a shotgun blast

I’ve never seen a storm

That did not pass

 

The clouds that linger now

Will soon float away

The choices that are pressing

May press but will not stay

 

It is the way of life

That darkness comes and goes

Time may come a rumbling

But inevitably it slows

 

Though the winter of our sorrow

Seems it will not hide its face

The sun will rise, the morning glow

We will welcome a new day