The Old Oak

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

The Old Oak

 

They still call it a live oak

Though it is clearly dying

Its naked arms reach outward

In all seven directions

People have supported it with

Thick wires of steel that

Make it seem invented

A work of human hands

Though it is clearly one of nature’s

Most magnificent creations

One of the tallest order

It has witnessed the best and

Worst of humankind

It has watched the parade of

Style and always changing fashion

It has laughed at human folly

It has roared at human error

It has shed its leaves

Over centuries of toil

It has seen the river break

Over its earthen banks and

Swallow the land beneath

It has stood its ground and

Steadied all around it

A home to hawks and eagles

A perch for crows and jays

A playground for squirrels

A refuge for creatures great and

Small and bountiful as nature

It tires of the mystery now and

Yearns for the peace of solitude

A shadow of its former glory

It is time to let go sleep and

Rise in live oak dreams

Dangerous Words (On Tyranny)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

 

Dangerous Words

 

Beware cries of terrorism

Be they real or imagined

For what soothes the heart today

Can turn on you tomorrow

 

The attack of September 11

Became the endless wars in Iraq

Afghanistan and Yemen

 

Beware the word extremist

For though it may seem true

When it comes to them

Soon enough it turns to you

 

Beware the term exception

We should learn this one in school

For what once was an exception

Can easily become the rule

 

Words often have double meaning

And can pack a lot of power

They can steal away our rights

Before democracy can flower

 

Superiority

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: EQUAL RIGHTS

Superiority

 

To feel superior to someone else

Seems a basic human need

Like jealousy and hunger

Like avarice and greed

 

In America we are equal

It says so in our creed

But it only takes a single slight

To plant an evil seed

 

We divide ourselves by color

And again by our beliefs

When a horrid crime takes a life

We divide ourselves by grief

 

Everyone feels better than

And everyone feels worse

It’s the state of our humanity

It’s civilization’s evil curse

 

The time will come to start again

To change the way we think

With all the problems confronting us

We stand together or we will sink

 

 

The Anti-Vax Movement

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Anti-Vax Movement

 

How have we gone so wrong?

 

It was the virus against humanity

Now it’s us against them (again)

The sane against insanity

In a war we cannot win

 

Everything is politics

Even the rain is politics

Hotdogs and apple pie

Sweat on a summer day

The way the crows fly

A random tweet

A message from our college days

Our favorite films

Our favorite bands

A jazz refrain

 

Everything is politics these days

 

So we cannot be surprised

When the GOP takes sides

With the virus against vaccines

We’d rather burst at the seams

Before admitting we were wrong

We were foolish all along

 

We were winning this deadly fight

Return to normal within our sight

But now it moves away

The anti-vaxxers have their day

 

They are marching in London

They are marching in Berlin

They march for the virus

To claim its toll again

 

Hear the bells

Hear them ring

Hear the dead

For whom they sing

Confronting China (Confronting Us)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Confronting China (Confronting Us) *

 

No one wants a war with China                           

SO YOU WANT A WAR?

But we must stand for democracy 

YOUR DEMOCRACY IS A JOKE

Your actions in Hong Kong alone 

STAY OUT OF OUR BACK YARD

Are an affront to human dignity   

STAY HIGH AND HAVE A COKE

 

Of course we want to get along

WE HAVE GIVEN YOU OUR FRIENDSHIP

With all nations weak and strong

YET YOU RESENT OUR STRENGTH

But our best allies cannot be                               

WE HAVE GIVEN YOU RESPECT

Authoritarian autocracies 

BUT IT HAS REACHED ITS LENGTH

 

Mass incarceration denial of rights

SUPPRESSION OF MASS PROTEST

We must be adversaries in this fight

YOU DENY YOUR OWN

We must oppose oppressive laws

YOUR FREEDOMS ARE SHRINKING

For we support the people’s cause

OUR FREEDOMS HAVE GROWN

 

Free trade came at too great a cost

OPEN TRADE BENEFITS ALL

Corporations won but workers lost

CORPORATIONS MADE A KILLING

You make your profits on the backs of labor

CONSUMERS GOT CHEAP GOODS

You have not been a good global neighbor

CEO’S FOUND IT THRILLING

 

This crooked game has gone too long

WHY CHANGE WHEN ALL IS WELL?

The time has come to end this wrong

WHY STOP WHEN BEFORE ITS DONE?

For while we have our share of blame

THE PARTY IS GETTING STARTED

Your barbaric crimes put ours to shame

THE GAIN IS ZERO SUM

 

* The multi-voice poem is an innovation by poet Jack Foley

International Connections (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

International Connections

 

We are not alone in the world

What happens in Ukraine

Can foreshadow what happens here

As it did when Putin unleashed

His propaganda machine in Kiev

 

The year was twenty thirteen

Putin ran a puppet regime

Enlisting his team of paid hackers

Like a virulent stream of trackers

To flood Ukraine with misinformation

False and misleading accusations

But the local press responded quickly

And Putin’s lackies shriveled sickly

Shot down at every turn

Had we been listening

We should have learned

What happened to them

Would happen to us

Our democracy tossed

Under the bus

 

In this world we are not alone

We are all in this together

If we form a solid free alliance

There is no storm we cannot weather

 

Common Cause (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

Common Cause

 

A difference between democracies

And authoritarian nations

One has only the government

The other has civil organizations

 

We may grow tired of solicitude

We have only so much to give

But organizations that serve the cause

Will enhance the lives we live

 

Find a cause that feeds your soul

Be as generous as you are able

When it all comes to a head

You’ll have a place at the table

 

If you cannot give your money

Perhaps you can give time

We are so much stronger together

Your hands linked to mine

 

The Third Wave (Return of the Zombies)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Third Wave (Return of the Zombies)

 

It is shutting down Italy

As it sweeps from east to west

They opened up too early

Now they face another test

 

And it’s batten down the hatches boys

The storm is on its way

The virus is determined

To find a home and stay

 

The second wave was deadly

The third is deadlier still

Its mutations are evolving

To find new ways to kill

 

So take your cover now

Don’t wait for that fateful day

The more we are prepared

The less we’ll have to pay

 

Turn back from all the naysayers

And look them in the eye

You may say what you will sir

It is not my day to die

 

Remember

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  LIFE SONGS

 

Remember

 

We remember in our hearts

We remember in our bones

We remember in the words we choose

We remember in the choices we make

We remember in each step we take

 

I cannot help but wonder

What others may remember

A hundred years from now

 

Will they remember your smile

Preserved in an ancient image

Reflected in a loved one’s phrase

Captured on a poet’s page

 

Will they remember your love

And how you gave it so freely

Will they remember your generosity

Will they remember your empathy

 

Will your spirit still exist

In the consciousness of others

Will they rise to your memory

And raise a toast to your living soul

 

I believe they will remember

Though they may not have a name

For that strange sense of wonder

That lifts us from our shame

 

For we live forever

Not only in the heart and mind

But in the air the trees the soil

The misty ocean and the tides

 

I will remember you

As I hope you remember me

For time is but an illusion

In a vast and endless sea

 

Yemeni Genocide

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Yemeni Genocide

 

They bomb hospitals don’t they?

Blockade the ports and block the airways

No food no hope no medicine

No basic means to survive the plague

 

Yemen is the latest field of play

For global power games

In terms of moral righteousness

Both sides are just the same

 

It’s the people who suffer in this war

As the people always do

They don’t care which leader rises

They don’t care which god you choose

 

And here we are again

Stuck in a bottomless pit

Taking sides in someone else’s war

A horror we cannot quit

 

It is time to stop the killing

For reasons we dare not say

For every bomb and every bullet

There is a price that must be paid

 

The Bridge

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

The Bridge

 

You’re young and healthy

(at least you think you are)

If you believe you can jump off a bridge

Without harm to yourself or others

I’m fine with that

Live free or die

Do what you will

Go your own way

Dance to your own music

 

But don’t go berserk

If I won’t do the same

Your freedom does not include

The right to bully me

Your rights do not trump mine

 

I must admit the fact that you endanger

Others with your recklessness

Bothers me

 

It drills into my consciousness

And triggers my rejection

 

Do unto others is my creed

(I thought it was yours)

I thought we were all in this together

Until we weren’t

 

So go ahead

Jump off that bridge

Just don’t take anyone with you

 

Accumulation

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Accumulation

 

We are all that we have ever been

We are every moment of doubt

We are every breath of affirmation

We are what we are without

We are the love our mother gave us

We are the strength our father drove

We are an explosion of anger

We are the spirit of resolve

We are that awkward haircut in the seventh grade

We are the underdog who overcame

We are the hand that helped a stranger

We are the times we turned away

We are the music and the dance

We are the stumble and the fall

We are everything we ever thought

We are everything we ever saw

We are everything we ever felt

And everything we ever dreamed

We are fantasies of pure illusion

And everything they seem

We are that for which we are not proud

And that we should not have said out loud

We are everything we have ever done

We are joyful laughter and endless fun

We are the thoughts we take to bed

We are all that rambles through our heads

We are everything we’ve thrown away

We are the place we chose to stay

 

We are an accumulation of all things

Within our sphere of understanding

And beyond

The Royal Bloodline

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

 

The Royal Bloodline

 

The royal family has decreed

The royal bloodline must be pure

Should any prince plant a seed

Immediate expulsion is the cure

 

The royal house of Windsor

Goes back a thousand years

The queen upholds tradition

And commoners hold her dear

 

The darker side of aristocracy

Is race discrimination

The goal of every royal wedding

Is genetic purification

 

The royal family through the ages

Is white as purest snow

Is all the pageantry necessary?

The answer: clearly no

 

Relief

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Relief

 

Sigh breathe take it in let it go

Like shelter from a winter storm

Like fire in a world of snow

At last relief is on the way

To soften hardship’s blow

 

A billion words in Washington

Without a word of common sense

Without a sign of understanding

Without a hint of recompense

 

But in the end the ones

Who have no needs

Gave in to those who do

In the end their willful ignorance

Gave in to what is plainly true

 

The ones who lost their livelihoods

The ones who cannot pay the rent

The ones who live from day to day

The ones whose hope is all but spent

 

Spend an hour in their heads

Know their worries and their fears

No longer would you play your games

If you could feel behind their tears

 

The Pope in Baghdad

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Pope in Baghdad

 

Remember when Iraq was everyday news

Every day a new battle

Every day another casualty

Every day another atrocity

Every day a new horror to endure

 

Now we hardly ever think of Iraq

The nation we destroyed for being there

The nation we designated evil

And decided to possess as tribute

To the never-ending war on terror

 

Now the Pope goes to Baghdad

In a gesture of good will

And I wonder what the Iraqis think

Do they greet him as we would greet

A most holy imam or ayatollah?

Do they hold him responsible for what

The western world has done?

 

This Pope is a holy man

This Pope brings a message of peace

This Pope believes in tolerance

But I wonder I would think

What I would say or do

If I were in Iraqi shoes