Rules

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Rules

 

The rules of economy

The rules of civility

That guide our morality

And inform common decency

 

Broken and scattered

Pummeled and shattered

Like particles imploded

Nothing lasts forever

To change we are devoted

 

The laws of gravity

The laws of motion

Suspended with revulsion

The real beneath reality

We haven’t got a notion

 

The rules of writing

The rules of grammar

Smashed to pieces

With a two-ton hammer

 

What’s young is old

What’s old is new

Yesterday’s false

Is sometimes true

 

The children have abandoned school

Their teachers are a band of fools

They don’t need no goddamned rules

They have their own survival tools

 

And so it is for old folks

Our truth becomes their joke

Accept it and then move on

We’re here and then we’re gone

 

Genocide in Gaza

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Genocide in Gaza

 

The Holocaust

A policy of extermination

The buffalo massacre

Forced relocation

The slave trade

The Trail of Tears

Milosevic and the Serbs

 

There are many kinds of genocide

From methodical mass murder

To the evacuation of a people from

Their homelands under threat of harm

 

When we think of genocide

We think of the Nazi’s and the Jews

We think of the American Indians

We think of the Armenians in Turkey

We think of the aborigines in Australia

Maybe we think of South African apartheid

 

We never think of Israel and Palestine

We rarely think of Gaza

The forced relocation of Palestinian

Families women and children

Perhaps we should

 

If there is no right to fight back

Against genocide

Then there are no rights

 

The irony is just too rich

Israel

Palestine

Genocide

War Crimes

 

Are our memories so short?

Less than a century later

The victim becomes the perpetrator

 

Leaders Lost

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  WORLD DEMOCRACY

Leaders Lost

 

Adrift in a rocky sea

Deserted in a naked desert

Tied and suited on a sandy beach

Untethered in an empty place

Floating through oblivion

Like a drifting speck of dust

 

Our leaders lost our way

Absent map compass or divination

No one noticed until the day

We awoke in a foreign place

Where everyone had much to say

But no one had salvation

 

You promised us a rose garden

You delivered only thorns

We turn away in consternation

Curse the day you were born

 

Where now shall the people go?

To whom shall we turn?

After all we’ve seen and suffered

We’ve lost our will to learn

 

We struggle to find our bearings

Struggle to stay afloat

We’d settle for a good night’s sleep

Safe passage on a sturdy boat

 

Throw the captain overboard

Let him swim himself to shore

Take all our lousy leaders

And toss them out the door

Reclaim Patriotism (On Tyranny)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

 

Reclaim Patriotism

 

Tyranny flies under the flag of patriotism

Authoritarians always lay claim

But if we live in a true democracy

There is no greater lie

And can be no greater shame

 

The cry of patriotism fuels the lies of war

Demands the sacrifice of basic rights

Justifies unspeakable crimes

Defends the indefensible

Leads to internal strife

 

It is time to redefine patriotism

It is time to reclaim the flag

 

A patriot believes in the nation

For what it represents

Not unconditionally like lemmings

Marching blindly into the sea

But for what the nation stands for

And for what it proudly could be

 

A patriot defends the nation and her flag

Against those who would abuse her

Fomenting violence and immoral acts

Committing injustice in her name

And demanding we excuse her

 

A patriot knows and upholds

The bill of rights

Against pretenders who never read

Past the second amendment

 

A patriot stands for free and fair elections

The foundation of our democracy

Without regard for the outcome

But with respect for the ballot box

 

A patriot supports a free press

Including mainstream media

Especially when it conflicts

One’s own beliefs

 

A patriot raises a hand

Takes an oath to democracy

And swears to defend it

Against all enemies

 

(Based on Timothy Snyder's excellent pamphlet.)

Bodies in the Ganges

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Bodies in the Ganges

 

Bodies float down the Ganges

By the dozens by the scores

The result of too many corpses

To bury or burn and mourn

 

Take care it does not happen here

It can and surely will

If we do not heed the warnings

Our cemeteries will be filled

 

We have declared victory

Just as India and Brazil did

They opened the doors of commerce

They took the highest bids

 

Now there are bodies in the Ganges

There are loved ones left forlorn

And there are leaders in Mumbai

Whom the people have come to scorn

 

Fight Back

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Fight Back

 

Resist

Fight back

Seize the day

Let them know

There will be a price to pay

 

A landlord serves eviction notice

To a community of seniors

In a recreational vehicle park

They have nowhere to go

But they cannot stay

 

Resist

Fight back

Stand in their way

Let them know

There will be a price to pay

 

A Canadian oil company

Wants to drive a pipeline

Straight through Indian land

They claim there is

No other way

 

Resist

Fight back

Seize the day

Let them know

There will be a price to pay

 

A coal company stakes claim

To a beautiful lake in Michigan

The land the air the water

The wildlife and ecosystem

All will be thrown astray

 

Resist

Fight back

Seize the day

Let them know there will always be

A price to pay

 

Everywhere injustice raises its ugly head

Everywhere greed and avarice

Fill our pipes with lead

Every time the one percent

Bumps the price of bread

We must rise as one to say:

 

Resist

Fight back

Seize the day

Let them all know

There is always a price to pay

 

America Never Leaves

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

America Never Leaves

 

When the president announces an end to war

We take him at his word

We forget he’s not the first to promise

He is in fact the third

 

We did not leave the Philippines

We did not leave Japan

We did not leave Nicaragua

We did not leave the Nam

We did not leave Iraq

We have not left Iran

We will not leave Afghanistan

And we do not give a damn

 

We go to war where money talks

Not caring who it grieves

When America goes to war beware

America will not leave

 

So be wary if you want our help

There is something up our sleeve

When this mighty nation goes to war

We are not inclined to leave

 

Burning Books in Berlin

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Burning Books in Berlin

 

People say it cannot happen

The deplorables can never win

The Nazi movement got its start

Burning books in Berlin

 

America is not so different

We’ve elected the worst of men

Men who sabotaged democracy

They stand ready to do it again

 

They gather by tens of thousands

Not knowing it’s a cardinal sin

To steal the vote from the opposition

Like burning books in Berlin

 

It seems we’ve turned the page on history

Tossed it in the garbage bin

Or placed the book on a raging fire

Like the Nazi’s in Berlin

Don't Panic (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

Don’t Panic

 

Inevitably

That which we fear will happen

Must happen

In the course of time

In the unfolding of events

In the race against the darkness

Don’t panic

Remain calm

 

Those who would deny your freedom

And steal you rights

Are counting on your reflex

At the next cataclysmic event

Don’t panic

Remain calm

Keep your feet on the ground

And your faculties intact

 

For there will always be cataclysmic events

And people who wish to exploit them

For humans are an unscrupulous lot

Of power seeking women and men

 

Bush the Younger and old Dick Cheney

Exploited September eleven

Vlad the Bad exploited numerous threats

It’s been going on forever and ever

At least since nineteen and seven

 

The storming of the Capitol Building

Is the latest in tragic exploitation

The call goes out for new laws

To strip away our civil liberties

To conquer domestic terror

 

Don’t panic

Remain calm

Remember the Patriot Act

Remember the names they called us

For opposing

 

Of course there are homegrown terrorists

Of course they pose a threat

But ask yourself: 

Do our security forces

Need any more power

To spy on our fellow citizens?

 

Don’t panic

Remain calm

Proceed in due caution 

 

 (Based on Timothy Snyder's excellent pamphlet)

I Remember Mama (on Mothers Day)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Remembering Mama

 

I remember mama every time

I drive down the same road I drove

On my way to visit her at home

 

I remember mama every time

I see an easy rolling creek

Or majestic Sierra pines

Or old barns and rusted tractors

Like the ones she painted

With so much love and tenderness

 

I remember mama every time

I order cobbler or bread pudding

At an old time restaurant

That never seems to know

How to make it right

 

I remember mama every time

I see a game of scrabble

A deck of cards for pinochle

Rummy or Hoof and Mouth

And someone smiles like she did

When she scored a big hand

Or a seven letter word

 

I remember mama every time

I need an understanding ear

Or someone who will not judge

But will listen and nod her head

Knowing she is pleased just

To be here with her son

 

I remember mama all the time

 

Wishing you were here

Immortality

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Immortality

 

The essence of immortality:

Everything that is will always be

 

The stone becomes the mountain

The mountain yields to the sea

The whales sing their timeless songs

Recording the planet’s history

Everything that is will always be

 

Death is but an illusion

The tree gives way to seeds

Though we mourn each mortal passing

Consciousness is the key

Everything that was continues to be

 

Time does not exist but

As an invention of the mind

A tablet to tell the story

Of man and woman kind

 

From the gardens of ancient Babylon

To the temples of antiquity

Everything that ever was

Will forever be

 

Nature Strikes Back

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Nature Strikes Back

 

Nature betrays

Betrayed by man

Nature strikes back

Birds no longer passive

Recognize their mortal enemies

Band together in flocks and gaggles

Murders of crow

 

Oceans filled with toxic rage

Enough industrial waste to bury Africa

Enough poison for aquatic genocide

Tsunami winter is coming

Tsunami spring and summer

Vengeance of the sea gods

Poseidon and the leviathans

Wreaking havoc upon the land

 

The sky falls to a fevered howl

Angered at our indifference

Enraged at our willful negligence

Torrential wind and battering rain

Towers toppled and trees uprooted

Stripping the land of all monuments

To our never ending folly

 

Fire rips across the horizon

Converting lush green to dry brown

A barren cracked deserted land

No longer giving nourishment

No longer sustaining life

 

The earth cracks open

Angry molten lava springs forth

Four winds of destruction

Five directions to hell

 

A dream?

A vision ripped from the bowels?

The leanings of an overworked mind?

 

But fire bears no anger

Winds carry no rage

The rising sea seeks no vengeance

The abiding earth indifferent

We destroy ourselves

We take vengeance on ourselves

We have done this to ourselves

And we must make amends

 

The Day Democracy Died

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

 

The Day Democracy Died

 

History is a strange phenomenon

You don’t see it when it’s happening

You don’t know when it makes a difference

You don’t recognize the signs

You don’t piece together the facts

Until it’s too late to react

 

They lost an election fair and square

Nothing they could do about it

They yelled and screamed: it’s not fair!

Told the whole white world: we doubt it!

 

But when they charged the nation’s capital

They changed the nature of the game

No longer open to debate and reason

It begged another harsher name

They crossed a line to treason

 

If the traitors get away with it

If their treacherous leader is never tried

We may well remember that day

As the day our democracy died

 

Don’t think it cannot happen here

It can and will I fear

If we do not raise the warning cry

If we perpetuate the evil lie

If we do not give it proper weight

Dictatorship could be our fate

 

A Fool's Rights

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

A Fool’s Rights

 

Every fool has a right to folly

Every bigot has a right to bigotry

Every racist has a right to his own

Every ass imagines chivalry

The old South may have its charm

But no one has the right to harm

 

Say that the planet is a flat plain

Floating in a bowl of water

Tell me our leaders are reptiles

Born of reptilian daughters

Say that the people are mostly sheep

And none of us really matter

Tell me I’m dumb as a cucumber

Or as mad as the Mad Hatter

 

I’ll defend your right to speak freely

To say whatever you please

As long as you don’t harm others

Or spread a deadly disease