Epic (for Bob Dylan)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Epic (for Bob Dylan)

 

Now this is a story about

A man named Jed

Lived out in the holler

Barely kept his family fed

He went out to dig a hole

God only knows the reason why

Out came a stream of oil

Lord it painted all the sky

So the bankers came a calling

With a word for Mister Jed

Sign here you’ll be a millionaire

Before you go to bed

 

So Jed took that paper

And he did not think about it

That man seemed nice and friendly

He had no reason to doubt it

So Jed took a silver pen

And affixed his given name

He signed away his future

His fortune and his fame

 

They took his home and his land

Dumped him in some random alley

Jed became a homeless man

In the Shenandoah valley

 

Jed never knew what happened

He just never understood

He’d always been an honest man

He did the best he could

 

Now Jed becomes a symbol of

Displacement of the masses

Or maybe he personifies

Separation of the classes

 

He always thought it kind of strange

And maybe a little funny

What happens when the bankers come

To offer up a lot of money

 

(after Bob Dylan’s 115^th Dream)

 

A Man without a Soul

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POETRY OF POLITICS

A Man without a Soul

 

A man who does not fear

The solemn judgment of history

The honest voice of retribution

The ill will of an entire nation

The widespread outrage of the world

The lost affection of friends and family

Is a man profoundly alone

 

A man who does not fear

The righteous wrath of his people

The mounting rage of the oppressed

The abandonment of moral grounding

A universal sense of shame

A desperate yearning for change

Is a man who should never be

Entrusted with power

 

For the man who has no fear

Is a man without a soul

 

A Dictator's Fear

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

A Dictator’s Fear

 

When everyone who speaks

Loudly and out of turn

Must fear for her freedom

Fear for her family

Fear for his life

The question must be asked:

What does the dictator fear?

The answers are many and clear:

An honest election

Freedom of speech

The right to gather in protest

A well-spoken opponent

A glimpse of true democracy

A mere taste of freedom

An independent new media

A voice of the people

The right to organize

A people’s rebellion

A balance of powers

An uncensored truth

 

In the fullness of time

A dictator’s greatest fear

As his end draws near

Is the inevitable end itself

For a dictator never surrenders

Power without blood

 

Finishing Point

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Finishing Point

 

On the seventh day the lord did rest

And decided it was best

One must make an end to the greatest ventures

One must yield to a final decree

For though life may reach eternity

We are but mortal entities

Whose journeys seek our destinies

 

We mark it on a map

We trace a course in hopeful dreams

We make all preparations

And embark in great faith

We encounter walls and barriers

We face a thousand unknown factors

Disasters strike from all directions

We find ourselves enchanted

And lose our selves in love

We make another plan

Mark a new direction

And learn to make amends

 

At the finishing point

Where all lives must end

Our destiny is never quite

What we intended it to be

Yet it is all we could ever want

All we could ever desire

All we could ever dream

We have reached an end

 

Dance

Sing

Rejoice

 

To Hear from Within

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

To Hear from Within

 

The heart is the drumbeat

The rhythm of life

Waves of an eternal ocean

Pounding a driving beat

The force of unending time

A song of soul survival

The poetry of living

The wonder of being alive

 

To hear from within

To feel one’s internal rhythm

To sense one’s pulse without touch

Is a sensation rarely felt

Only the artist can appreciate

The depth of such sensation

Only the poet can imagine

Such a foreign phenomenon

To feel beyond the senses

To exist beyond the self

To hear from within

 

Angela the Great (The Chancellor)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Chancellor (Angela the Great)

 

Elected to office in 2005

Dubya Bush was in his second term

Jacques Chirac was President of France

Tony Blair was PM of Great Britain

And Vladimir Putin was Czar of Russia

 

Angela the Great

Chancellor of the German Republic

Outlasted them all

Except the Great Dictator

Emperor of the North

Putin the Puppeteer

 

De facto leader of Europe

She guided her nation through

The ill-fated American wars on terror

The blooming of the European Union

The global economic collapse

The sudden shock of Brexit

The rise of buffoonery in the US and Britain

And the Great Pandemic of 2020

 

She stood up to nationalism

When nobody would

She stood up to Putin

When America faltered

She stood for democracy

When autocracy was in vogue

 

We may disagree with her policies

But her strength and perseverance

In times of great upheaval

Is beyond all question

 

All hail Angela Merkel

Long may she live and prosper

 

Running Dry (The Colorado River)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Running Dry

 

The Colorado River feeds the land

That feeds the world

When the river runs low

The battle between agriculture

Fish and wildlife

Industry and people begins

A battle no one wins

 

Water is life

When the river runs dry

Life shrivels and dies

Fruit on the vine

Grain and root vegetables

In dry cracked ground

Desperate and barren

Lost and unfound

 

Dry cracked earth

Does not grow crops

It becomes a wasteland

A host to the death spiral

Ugly and thirsting

Bleeding and bled

Dying and dead

 

The most fertile valley

In all the land

Will soon run dry and

The war for water will begin

We will then discover how

Human humanity really is

 

Nicaragua

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Nicaragua

 

There was a time

(not so long ago)

When this nation favored

Latin American dictators

They were easy to control

They could be manipulated

With money

 

Ortega of Nicaragua

Follows the CIA handbook

Terrorize the opposition

Terrorize the people

Imprison those who threaten

Disappear those who persist

 

There was a time

(not so long ago)

The press went along

With the CIA charade

Those who fought for the people

For freedom and democracy

Were labeled radicals

Militants and communists

If they disappeared

Who would miss them?

 

But times have changed

(or have they?)

This nation sanctions

The Nicaraguan dictator

In the new world order

We honor and support

Only democracies

(or do we?

Only time can tell)

 

The Dissolving Past

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

The Dissolving Past

 

Whenever anybody says

That’s in the past

Understand that the past

Does not dissolve

Like ice cream on a summer day

The past remains

Like a cloud that lingers

Like a lover’s face

Like a song that moves you

Like saving grace

 

Whenever anybody says

The past does not concern me

Be assured the past concerns us all

The past holds onto you

Like tar to feathers

Like Custer’s Last Stand

Like a trauma of the psyche

Like the plane that did not land

 

Whenever anybody says

Let’s not talk about the past

Speak of nothing else

Until the ghosts stand exposed

Until the stories are all told

Until the buried have names

Until the miseries unfold

And everything hidden

Becomes everything known

 

The past does not dissolve

Like the present it expands

It renews in a constant cycle

Of death and rebirth

 

When the past dissolves

(or is allowed to dissolve)

We are as dawdling infants

Stunted in our growth

Cursed to relive the same old

Tragedies again and again

 

The past is the present

Eternal and ubiquitous

Until we know and understand this

We know and understand nothing

 

To remember is to connect

The present with the past

With the hope of building

A better future

 

Sunset Dream

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Sunset Dream

 

Soft step walking on clouds of gold

Taking chances where spirits fly

Saints and saviors with stories told

Sunset dreams in velvet skies

 

Ghost shadows hide in my head

Running circles in an empty lot

Remembering what someone said

Finding reasons for battles fought

 

There is someone watching over

There is someone you love

There is someone watching over

Someone in the stars above

 

Someone whispers this is the place

A singer sings I see her face

Hear the mothers of children cry

Lost our way we don’t know why

 

In the crossing of blue moon light

Standing guard all through the night

Hand of kindness brings us down

Landing us on solid ground

 

There is someone watching over

There is someone you love

There is someone watching over

Someone in the stars above

Old Joe Goes Overseas

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Old Joe Goes Overseas

 

Old Joe goes overseas

To affirm our bonds with allies

As Beijing is locking down

Hiding state sponsored lies

Meantime Moscow is feeling bold

Sending out a team of spies

Democracy is on the wane

Dictatorship is on the rise

 

It’s a war of basic values

It’s a battle of the mind

One side seeks human rights

The other is flying blind

 

Xi Jinping enslaves minorities

Acceptance is your fate

Oppressing all his people

Imposing an Orwellian state

You will suffer harsh oppression

If you dare to deviate

 

Mr. Putin is little better

Though he plays a better game

To his political opposition

Their fate is much the same

He flaunts his techno power

His hackers put ours to shame

Old Joe must drop the hammer

Holding Vlad himself to blame

 

America is on the move

We’re getting back on track

Flexing our economic muscle

Ready for the next attack

So watch out all you autocrats

The Free World has what you lack

Freedom and individual rights

Democracy is coming back

 

Blank Slate (Tabula Rasa)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  POEMICS

Blank Slate (Tabula Rasa)

 

Wipe the slate clean

It must be done

The system has turned

The fruit is rotten

Throw it all out

Begin again

 

A nation gone astray

Contamination of the whole

A people grown afraid

A poisoning of the soul

 

Wipe it clean

Submerge it in disinfectant

Kill everything that breathes

Except the children

Spare the innocent

Eliminate the rest

Except the parents

Who care for the children

And the animals

Who bear no blame

And those who have no names

And those who meant no harm

Who only went along

Because they didn’t have

The guts or the strength to say no

 

Wipe it clean

Take no prisoners

Show no mercy

Throw it out with the trash

Before it builds a tower

To the moon

And back again

 

Wipe the slate clean

Tabula rasa

Or at least pretend we did

And start all over

With fresh eyes

 

Mexico City Blues (Killing Candidates)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Killing Candidates in Mexico

 

In Texas they rig the ballot box

In Georgia they bring back Jim Crow

In Arizona they count until they win

They kill candidates in Mexico

 

No matter how bad it may seem

All we do and do not know

As bad as it is in Michigan

Things are worse in Mexico

 

Did they think no one would notice

When so many turned up dead

For the crime of failing to follow

Where corrupt leaders have led?

(for the nerve of failing to swallow

what the cartels have fed?)

 

You cannot blame el Presidente

At least he tries to help the poor

But democracy cannot survive when

The system is rotten to the core

 

I know we think it’s only Mexico

Things like this just happen there

But this is exactly what can occur

When the people no longer care

 

Crash and Burn

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Crash and Burn

 

America is a diverse nation

Divided we have always been

Divided by race and color

Divided by religious creed

Divided by regional loyalty

Divided by philosophy

 

But we the people

Have not been divided

On the question of democracy

Since the birthing of the republic

Since the debate in Philadelphia

Since the election of 1800

Since the rejection of aristocracy

 

A question echoes like hollow voices

In the empty chambers of my mind

It rattles through the halls of congress

Shakes loose the ties that bind:

 

When will we ever learn?

Not it seems before the towers

Of power crumble crash and burn

 

What then?

A Putin-style authoritarianism?

The people have no rights in Moscow

No first or second amendment

No bill of rights

No civil liberties

No free press

No right to gather in protest

No right to free speech

No free and fair elections

They have only hope

Like America circa 1776