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

Perspective

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Perspective

 

The world has taken a horrid turn

If there’s anything left

There’s something to learn

We’ve gone our own ways

No thought for our brothers

A tilt of the axis

And we’ll lose all the others

 

We’ve taken a ride

On a suicide train

Can’t stay dry when

You’re nude in the rain

Moving faster and faster

When we should slow down

Crops don’t grow on

Dry cracked ground

 

There’s got to be a better way

Don’t we all know it?

You feel it in your heart

But you’re afraid to show it

 

Take a long look around

Don’t like what you see?

Change your perspective

See what it could be

 

There’s a dozen ways

All better than this

But it will not get better

Without cease and desist

 

Undecided

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Undecided

 

Democracy or despotism

However can we choose?

Incompetence and bigotry

What have we got to lose?

 

We’ve watched this rolling train

Like a virus on the loose

We see what looms ahead

We’re riding in the caboose

 

We can stay on this errant track

If we’re determined to die

Or we can slam on the brakes

Put an end to the great lie

 

We will have to rebuild of course

There’s no way around it

It’s broken and scattered

That’s the way that we found it

 

But don’t tell me it’s hard

To choose between the two

There’s no choice at all

It’s the false and the true

 

What we choose to do now

Sets the future in place

The fate of our children

And the whole human race

Thirteen Days

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

Thirteen Days

 

Thirteen days to the thirteenth

Most important election

Of my lifetime

 

I don’t remember who

I voted for back then

I know I never voted Republican

(It’s not in my bones)

I know I never voted for war

(Conscientious objection)

I know I never got the chance

To vote for a Kennedy

(I saw Bobby on the train to LA)

 

I do remember voting for Nader

I remember voting for Leonard Peltier

I remember voting for Hope

Remember Hope?

 

Every time every election

Every four years I was told

It was the most important

Election in my lifetime

 

Vietnam

The Gulf War

Afghanistan and Iraq

Global warming

Global pandemic

American democracy

Voter suppression

Voting rights

Civil rights

Women’s rights

Universal healthcare

The next Great Depression

Fire wind and rain

The fertile earth

 

This time they’re right

This time it’s real

This time all the cards

Are on the table

 

The Power of Spite

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Power of Spite

 

Can spite and malice grab the chalice

That enables four more years of power?

 

Can the power of spite fill hearts with fright

That extends this nightmare another hour?

 

What twisted thoughts run through his brain

Like a man in a flood who prays for rain?

 

What next awaits our horrid fate:

The entire nation in a desperate state?

 

There is no answer to metastasized cancer

We await the song like a forlorn dancer

 

Herd Immunity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Herd Immunity 

 

Survival of the best and brightest

(at least the richest)

Genocide of the poor

(the old and sick)

Winnowing the herd

(eliminating the slow and feeble)

Sacrifice the common masses

(the nameless horde)

Let the weak and useless go

(who needs artists actors poets?)

Call it population control

(like China’s one child policy)

Throw the dice and let it ride

(you can run but you cannot hide)

 

What’s a few million or more?

 

But who decides who lives and dies?

The con man and the hustler?

The man of infinite lies?

 

Who decides who dies and lives?

The man who admires dictators?

The man who never gives?

 

We think not

We’ll take our chances

With good old Joe

And science

Good old science

 

Damage

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Damage

 

A flat tire can be fixed

A friendship can be revived

An old car can be replaced

A leaky roof can be patched

A scratch on a wall can be forgotten

A bad experience a broken chair

But a damaged nation is hard to repair

 

Like a façade in a local play

The nation stood on shaky ground

Its healthcare system strung together

With chicken wire and duct tape

Its poor falling into homelessness

Its rich growing richer

At the expense of all others

Its military engaged in endless war

Desperation at the door

 

Now we teeter on the edge

Of absolute collapse

A runaway contagion

Two steps from a Great Depression

Thousands dead and thousands dying

Democracy imperiled

 

It’s getting harder to bear

I must wonder: Do we care?

One false move and all is gone

To our children it’s not fair

A damaged nation is hard to repair

 

Cataclysm

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Cataclysm

 

The guy with the shifty eyes

Tells lies all the time

Lies to hide his evil crimes

Behind the splendor of his office

Inside the smile of his disguise

Behind the curtains of his show

Inside the secrets of his rise

 

The cataclysm is upon us

The great destruction has begun

Hope hangs on by a thread

Two hundred thousand people dead

 

We are the decimation nation

Our leader is out of order

We have lost our first world status

With our obsession at the border

 

The entire world is crying

How did it come to this?

We did our best it seems

But there’s something that we missed

 

We forgot about empathy

We forgot how to care

When others suffer we protest

It’s just too much to bear

 

The King

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The King

 

When asked what kind of nation

The founders had secured

A wise man said: A republic

If a republic you can keep

Then the people went to sleep

And waited for a civil war

To expand the voting franchise

To men of dark complexion

And men of lower means

Then we slept again for a century

Before we let the women in

Another century of sleep goes by

While we allow minority rule

Let the senate play us for fools

Let the wealthy buy the party

Blocked the sound that freedom rings

And sanctified a king

 

The angels have no wings

Our divas do not sing

Democracy has lost its zing

Jay-Z without his bling

America has crowned a king

 

Pardon me dear friends

Is this but a dream:

The election has been cancelled

By our self-anointed king

 

For What it's Worth

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

For What it’s Worth

 

The taste of fresh clean water

A sparkling stream

A moonlit sky

A drive along the coast highway

Hearing Santana for the first time

Jazz on the Coltrane

A walk in Central Park

Laughter in a canyon

The smile of a stranger

A celebratory birth

The things we take for granted

For what it’s worth

 

A fine Beaujolais at dinner

Fresh ale at the end of a ride

Visions of an eagle’s flight

A dance of muses

Botticelli’s masterworks

A magic bus to the heavens

A dive to ocean depths

The crisp high mountain air

Kids on a playground

The miracle of birth

The things we take for granted

For what it’s worth

 

Tracking down a long fly ball

A kite on the wind

The scent of cinnamon pastry

The immortal soul of Billie Holiday

A floating white cloud

The mourning cry of a dying sun

The song of a rising moon

The glory of Crazy Horse

A warm fire on a frigid night

Life on planet earth

The things we take for granted

For what it’s worth

 

 

The Soul

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

The Soul

 

Have I spoken to you of the soul?

Have I spoken of the center of life?

Have I spoken to you about that

Which remains when all else fades?

Have I spoken to you of the soul?

 

In the spring of life

When the body blooms

And draws to earthly pleasures

Like wildlife to a fertile garden

When desire is everything

And heartbreak takes its toll

There is no need of soul

 

In the summer of youth

When the mind opens to a world

Of endless possibilities

We step out of our safe confines

To explore the open road

In search of adventure and awe

Seeking secrets of our yearning

We wonder what it’s like to grow old

We discover the hidden soul

 

In the autumn of our journey

We seek the knowledge of elders

And the wisdom of vision seekers

Our thoughts turn to darkness

We become aware of Death

That powerful and mystic friend

We don’t want our lives to end

Before we learn and know

The contents of our soul

 

In the winter of our descent

We seek calm and peace of mind

We seek to pass our knowledge on

To those in love we hold

We have reached our lifelong goal

We have uncovered our soul

 

Have I spoken to you of the soul?

Have you found your place in life?

Have you located the meaning

That makes your life whole?

Have you asked what I’ve learned?

Would you like to know?

Have we talked about the soul?

 

Vengeance

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Vengeance

 

The path of vengeance

Is not easily taken

But when the nation

To its core is shaken

We must act in accord

With conscience

 

There is a line

We dare not cross

Lest we sacrifice ourselves

In our souls we sense the loss

Our compass on a shelf

 

Our enemies are great and strong

And morally bereft

They pull us where we don’t belong

We fear there’s nothing left

 

There will be no vengeance taken

Not today not tomorrow

We’ll suffer through the madness

And exorcise our sorrow

 

Tomorrow will be better

Better still the day after

For we will find the key to hope

in faith and in laughter

 

Words Flow (Don't Know Why)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Words Flow 

 

Words flow

Like the wind blows

In a tropical storm

On a raging sea

 

What can it be?

What can it be?

 

Thoughts course

Like the river goes

Through a granite canyon

On a millennial run

 

It has begun

It has begun

 

Emotions follow

Like a child’s growth

In the teenage years

When the heart explodes

 

Where does it go?

Where does it go?

 

Dreams float

Like the sky snows

In Sierra winters

On an open road

 

What does it show?

What does it show?

 

My mind opens

Like a clear blue sky

When a drifting cloud

Comes floating by

 

Don’t know why

Don’t know why

 

Find your Bliss

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Find your Bliss

 

When days are dark and hazy

When waking is a chore

When at your best you’re lazy

When every nerve is bored

Take stock of all you know

And just remember this: 

Find your bliss

 

The death toll keeps on ringing

The impulse is to weep

The sirens keep on singing

Our leaders went to sleep

Do not become forlorn

Think of what you’d miss

Find your bliss

 

Every cloud a silver lining

Every fall a rise above

Cease the never ending whining

Greet worry with a shove

Start the day with a kiss

And remember this: 

Find your bliss

 

(In memory of Joseph Campbell)

 

 

Endure

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Endure

 

A ladybug on a leaning tower

Tips the balance of global power

 

The awkward smile on a villain’s face

Propels the world to a tragic place

 

A cough a sneeze a careless choice

Distorted judgement a loss of voice

 

A series of unfortunate events

Hastens civilization’s descent

 

A dust storm on Mars an alignment of stars

A collision of cars a shot from afar

 

We are at the mercy of random chance

We cannot retreat and cannot advance

 

As if frozen in time

We have lost our rhyme

 

We stumble and fall

Cannot answer the call

 

How long can we endure

We cannot be sure

 

One thing and another

Dividing sister and brother

 

At the end of the line

We throw it in and resign

 

No and no again

 

We cannot give in

Surrender is sin

 

We will overcome

Before this is done

 

And the age of the virus is over