The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 

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 quest for understanding

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 comprehension

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. 

 

Social Need

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Social Need

 

Humans have most basic needs

Beyond physical necessities

Beyond water and the air we breathe

Some pay homage to honor

Some answer to greed

Art can give us pleasure

Books can plant a seed

Money can buy a continent

A hero we can breed

But all the money in all the banks

Like all the fishes in the seven seas

Cannot bring joy to the human heart

Cannot fulfill the social need

 

Zuckerberg gave us social media

Bezos gave us a material dream

Jobs open doors of perception

Gates made it cheap

 

But all the wonders of technology

No matter how spectacular

No matter how it seems

Cannot make a human whole

Or fulfill our social need

 

Replacement Folly

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  SOCIAL JUSTICE

Replacement Folly

 

Fear is its name

Fear of others

Fear of colors

Fear of change

Fear of losing hold

Fear of another race

Fear of being replaced

 

We hold these truths to be self-evident

That the white Anglo Saxon race

Was born to reign above all others

The supreme sisters and brothers

 

They’re coming to get us

They’re coming to marry our daughters

They’re coming to fill our spaces

They’re coming to replace us

 

Be afraid

Be very afraid

Be afraid of dark skin radicals

Be afraid of brown and black

Be afraid of open borders

Be afraid of a frontal attack

 

We own this nation

We fought for it

We committed genocide for it

We killed the buffalo for it

We claimed the land

We planted the flag

This land belongs to us

 

We are a white Christian nation

All others can clear the way

We conquered the land from sea to sea

You can bet we’re here to stay

 

Juxtaposition (The Poor and the Wealthy)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SOCIAL JUSTICE

 

Juxtaposition

 

The Dow soars to an all-time high

While the poor que up in food lines

The needy live in humility

But the wealthy are feeling just fine

 

A sparkling day in the lush green valley

The harvest has turned into wine

Farmworkers are counting their pennies

Rich farmers are doing just fine

 

In a land of great wealth and plenty

It seems futile for me to opine

The homeless are suffering greatly

While the privileged are doing just fine

 

The rich grow richer the poor stay poor

I know it’s a timeless cliché

But the saying never rang truer

Than it rings this cold winter day

 

It’s not just the poor but the workers

Who take any jobs they can find

We make the best of what we have

But the wealthy are doing just fine

 

(Comments welcome!)

 

El Paso Massacre

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

 

El Paso Massacre

 

A young white killer

Walks into an El Paso Walmart

Six hundred miles away from home

Opens fire with his semi-automatic

Killing 23 wounding 23 more

Easy as mowing the lawn

 

The killer believed that Mexicans

(and blacks and Jews and others)

Were a part of the Great Replacement

A grand conspiracy to supplant

The pale with darker races

 

He is proof that thoughts combined

With weapons of mass destruction

Have the power to erase many lives

In the time it takes to tip your hat

 

There is no Great Replacement

There is no white genocide

But there is pathological insanity

Born of ignorance fear and prejudice

The world is changing faster

Than enfeebled minds can grasp

 

There is fear of others

Fear of weakness

Fear of being swept away

By unseen hands

And forces greater than

 

There is fear and there are weapons

There are those who take advantage

And there are those who prove their worth

By driving six hundred miles

To murder Mexicans

In a Walmart

 

A Social Conscience

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

A Social Conscience

 

Fundamental to life

All beings possess a social conscience

Crows guard collective territory

Wolves howl to warn the pack

Whales sing empathic sorrow

Dolphins swarm to protect the weak

 

When we speak we speak in all voices

When we sing we add to the symphony

Of all humanity throughout time

 

The triumph of one inspires all

The tragedy of one breaks all hearts

 

We are born without greed

We are born without selfishness

We are born to be socially aware

We are born to serve and care

We are born to rise above ourselves

To seek the comfort of our fellow beings

 

Greed is a disease of the soul

Humility is the cure

 

Pity those who are wrapped within themselves

Who cannot see beyond their own reflection

For they are warped and tortured beings

Destined to grief and loneliness

 

The Long Road

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

The Long Road

 

When the needs of now are pressing

The needs of tomorrow cease

Like coins in a piggy bank

For payments on a lease

 

We cannot see the horizon

For the haze within our eyes

For the fear rising within our hearts

For the poison in our skies

 

The karmic debt is mounting

While we poor souls are still

Counting and recounting

Coins to pay the bill

 

We are stranded by the roadside

In a far off lonely place

On a road that leads to nowhere

Staring blankly into space

 

The way ahead is long and hard

We know it in our bones

But the only choice we have is

To go together or alone

 

For mother earth will take her toll

She will not be ignored

All living things are equal

All people rich and poor