Peaceful Protest (Europe)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PROTEST

 

Peaceful Protest

 

Peaceful protest is at the heart

Of every democratic government

It was declared from the start

To be certain and self-evident

 

Along with freedom of speech

And freedom of the press

A right no government should breach

As a most fundamental test

 

From Portugal to Spain

To Belgium, Denmark, Ukraine

The people own the streets

Our founders made it plain

 

So when the people march

To exercise their rights

To express what’s in their hearts

Do not challenge them to fight

 

There may be troublemakers

Just shuffle them aside

There are always instigators

They go along for the ride

 

Protect the right to protest

As a fundamental creed

Let the dictators oppress

Do not follow where they lead

 

Paris in Defeat

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: FRANCE

 

Paris in Defeat

 

Sitting calmly at an outdoor café

Watch fire on the streets

It’s just another lawless day

Paris in defeat

 

One wonders how it came to this

Marseille to Paris up in flames

They answered with a brutal fist

It can never be the same

 

A sense of safety compromised

The sense of order gone

The promises now seem like lies

And everything seems wrong

 

The world is turning upside down

The rage is ever stronger

To days of chaos we are bound

It can’t go on much longer

 

Without the world imploding

Like a pressure-filled balloon

The anger is exploding

With a feeling of high noon

 

Maybe we can walk it back

We all face a common enemy

The earth is under grave attack

We should answer to its needs

 

 

Equality (France)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: FRANCE

 

Equality (France)

 

France is on fire

It fills my heart with pain

France should reach ever higher

Inequality is her stain

 

She leads in foreign matters

On tariffs and Ukraine

But with fat cats getting fatter

All efforts are in vain

 

A government must look within

Before it looks without

With this shock France must begin

To relearn what she’s about

 

Inequality of wealth

Inequality of education

She has sacrificed her health

She has disgraced the nation

 

It is time to tax the billionaires

The unfettered corporations

Let them finally pay their share

As the price of reparations

 

We look to France to lead

In justice and morality

Instead the people bleed

And suffer these fatalities

 

 

No Kings Today

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

No Kings Today

 

No kings today

No kings tomorrow

We remember the date *

It still lives in sorrow

 

You began your reign

Proclaiming blood and gore

You sounded insane

Any you promised no war

 

You were lying then

Just like you’re lying now

It will come to an end

On the day of the Tao

 

We don’t want your war

We don’t want your inflation

We are keeping score

How you’re screwing the nation

 

You don’t want a congress

As a check on your power

Even friends will confess

You’re alone in your tower

 

You don’t want to be king

You want to be even greater

You want angels to sing

But that will come later

 

We will take down your throne

And your statues of gold

You’ll be all on your own

When we take what you stole

 

* January 20, 2017

 

Housing Crisis in Spain

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SPAIN

 

Housing Crisis in Spain

 

Parliament has failed to pass

Legislation to remedy housing

Affordability to the working class

The people find arousing

 

PM Sanchez did what he could do

He’s called a snap election

Without support to see it through

His party faces mass defection

 

The world economy is under strain

Trade wars with the States

All remedies have been in vain

Too little and too late

 

The people march in protest

Some action must be taken

The government must invest

Or the workers are forsaken

 

This is the problem everywhere

The rich want ever more

Until their leaders start to care

The people’s voice will roar

 

The right to decent shelter

Should belong to everyone

Until then it’s helter skelter

The government is done

 

Student Uprising in France

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: FRANCE

 

Student Uprising in France

 

The right to decent education

For both the rich and the poor

Fundamental to a civil nation

In France must be assured

 

The privileged have the finest schools

In France and everywhere

But in France they follow equal rules

The government must care

 

France must hold the light

To show the way for all

You must know it isn’t right

To hide behind your walls

 

Do not fight them on the streets

Listen and take heed

In the middle you must meet

You must try to meet their needs

 

We remember nineteen sixty-eight

A clarion call to France

Yet still the students wait

Why not give them a chance?

 

They are the future of the nation

Make them proud to take their place

Release them from this subjugation

They are the nation’s face

 

 

Russian Elections

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RUSSIA

 

Russian Elections

 

An election in Mother Russia

Is like a mandatory convention

Voters show up because they must

Despite their contrary intentions

 

Putin banned the opposition

Those opposed to the war in Ukraine

Their votes are cast in derision

Though they know the war’s insane

 

What point is there in voting

When there is no chance of change?

When your vote is just promoting

A leader who’s deranged?

 

The times cry out for protests

In every town and city square

Though they’ll be subject to arrest

Let them know the people care

 

They have buried many martyrs

They’ve imprisoned thousands more

You’re the stick Navalny stirred

You know Putin’s keeping score

 

There can be no election days

When the ballot is impaired

Let us call it mass resistance day

Let there be protests everywhere

 

 

Contempt

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP

 

Contempt

 

The president has contempt for democracy

The president has contempt

The president has contempt for

Freedom of speech

Freedom of the press

Freedom of thought

Freedom of expression

 

The president has contempt

For the right to vote

For the right to dissent

The right to gather in protest

The right to write and publish

The president has contempt

 

The president loves autocracies

Where no one asks questions

Where the leader’s word is gold

Where the opposition is oppressed

Where activists are jailed

Where protestors are shot

Where the people bow before him

Where judges are compliant

Where the people have no voice

 

The president has contempt

For all that we hold dear

Freedom, independence, individuality

The right to be ourselves

 

 

Mourning in Iran

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: IRAN

 

Mourning in Iran

 

If you kill thousands of your people

You do not get to mourn the dead

Beyond the push of the martyrs’ pull

Accept the fury you have bred

 

Blame it on the foreign agitators

Though all the world can see the lie

Blame it on domestic instigators

Blame it on the star-crossed skies

 

Even you can see and smell the truth

When so many have been killed

The rising of an outraged youth

They have expressed their will

 

All the nation is in mourning

For the martyrs you have decried

To all oppressors here’s a warning

History isn’t on your side

 

In time the righteous will prevail

Though it may take a hundred years

In time the oppressors will be jailed

And none will shed a martyr’s tears

 

The Resistance Grows

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RESISTANCE

 

The Resistance Grows

 

We don’t know how it began

We don’t know how it will end

But we know and understand

What lies around the bend

 

We’ve all seen this act before

Like a nightmare in repeat

It’s a scene of blood and gore

They’re all pounding out the beat

 

We’ll be heading out tomorrow

To see what we can do

We’ll take what we could borrow

To see our mission through

 

The men in masks will follow

Wherever we may roam

Their hearts and souls are hollow

They’ll hunt us to our homes

 

They’ll take away our families

They’ll threaten all our friends

They’ll call us all the enemies

From which they must defend

 

But the people won’t believe them

They’ve seen enough to know

Too often they’ve deceived them

Their sense of outrage grows

 

 

A Thousand Little Fires

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RESISTANCE

 

A Thousand Little Fires

 

You cannot fight a war

With water guns and whistles

It does no good to roar

When the enemy’s firing missiles

 

He starts a thousand little fires

He knows we can’t address them all

Before long we’ve grown tired

We just can’t answer every call

 

He lights a fire in Ukraine

He lights another at the border

He pretends to be restrained

He cries out for law and order

 

He wants Greenland under ice

He wants Canada to pay

He’d like us to pay the price

To send our working force away

 

There are a thousand little fires

Every single one is burning bright

Every circumstance is dire

It’s all too much for us to fight

 

So choose your battle and take aim

Keep your target in your sights

Exposing lies and naming names

Holding justice to the light

 

 

The Killing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PROTEST

 

The Killing

 

They’re killing us on the streets

Just for being who we are

They’re killing us in our cars

A sense of heartbreak and defeat

 

We remember Rodney King

We remember George Floyd

Through our tears we feel the sting

When the soldiers are deployed

On the streets of our cities

In the center of our nation

Have you no heart and no pity?

Have you no sense of indignation?

 

We remember Kent and Jackson State

That’s when we knew they were willing

To shoot us down at the gates

To answer protests with killing

That’s when we had to contemplate

The cost in blood and the chilling

That’s when we knew the rabid hate

In their thugs they were instilling

 

Now we’re back to where we were

Law and order is their cry

Before the dead have been interred

They are spreading deadly lies

 

(In memory of Renee Good & Alex Pretti) 

 

Hope Rises

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Hope Rises

 

Hope rises like the Phoenix

And crashes like a bomb

Take a breath, make a wish

Decide what side you’re on

 

When you’re on the side of hope

You’re a moment from despair

From worrying how to cope

To doubting why you care

 

When hope rises from the dust

Every day becomes bright

When we shake off all that rust

We set out to make it right

 

We are the hopeful warriors

Just like we’ve always been

We’re workers and we’re lawyers

We’re ready to fight again

 

For hope rises with the sun

And hope falls in the deep of night

The long war cannot be won

Yet we will always seek the light

 

 

Freedom

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Freedom

 

Those who are blessed to be free

May not know how it would be

If our rights were taken from us

Would we even make a fuss?

 

When one innocent is imprisoned

All good people are on the run

Like a shadow on the sun

The light is blocked for everyone

 

When Peltier * was released

The light of freedom shined bright

Enabling all of us to breathe

Bringing freedom into sight

 

When we refuse to do our part

To stop oppression in plain view

There is an emptiness of heart

That informs us what to do

 

For all of us are in this now

From the farmers to the cops

Let our conscience show us how

Tell our government to stop

 

Freedom is a gift to all

Guaranteed by our constitution

If our sacred rights should fall

We must demand restitution

 

* Leonard Peltier, Lakota Spirit Guide

   Granted a pardon by Joe Biden