Africa Spared

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Africa Spared

 

It is the great mystery of life

Why some are touched by nature’s strife

The fortunate are left alone

The reasons why remain unknown

 

The continent that has suffered much

Through famine, drought, and war

The virus that has ravaged many

Largely stopped at Africa’s door

 

Some say it is the way of life

They spend much time outside

Some say their very constitution

Allows them to abide

 

We know that their good fortune

Bodes well for the planet earth

It should be studied carefully

For all that it is worth

 

We may never know the reason why

Some were spared while others died

We wonder at the mystery

And pray our own will survive

 

Ethiopian Civil War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Ethiopian Civil War

 

At a time of global crises

The viability of the species in the balance

Instead of uniting against a common threat

Instead of forming bonds to benefit all

We divide in mutual distrust

We divide with an ancient grudge

We call each other liars

Pointing weapons of blame and fire

 

Instead of setting aside our grievances

Instead of declaring a temporary truce

Instead of negotiating a tentative peace

We rattle the swords of defiance

We proclaim our undying enmity

We close the peacemaking door

To engage in civil war

 

A leader of the western world once mused

How all our earthly animosities would

Vanish with a threat from the stars

 

He was wrong

 

All our common enemies

All our existential threats

Only serve to fuel our fires

To build our immortal debts

Enrage our vengeful desires

Enflame our will to harm

Until we build our towers of arms

Knowing we will never learn

Until our homes have burned

Leaving everything in sorrow

A curse upon tomorrow

And tomorrow

 

Cuba Llorando

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Cuba Llorando

 

You cannot stop the rain falling

You cannot stop the people calling

For a free and democratic voice

Here them cry out loud for choice

 

We cry for you dear Cuba

We understand your deep frustration

America has long betrayed

Your rights as a free nation

 

We stood by you all these years

In hopes you would progress

From a well-intentioned autocracy

To pass the democratic test

 

But alas you failed to listen

To the voices of the people

You are a nation without direction

Like a church without a steeple

 

It is not too late to change your ways

Let the majority decide

For you cannot stop the river running

And you cannot fight the tide

 

Austrian Lockdown

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Austrian Lockdown

 

What is happening in Austria

May come to Indiana soon

The unvaccinated are in lockdown

For all of Europe it is high noon

 

The virus is rising up again

Seems it never really went away

As the winter winds sweep in

We bow our heads and pray

 

If this can happen in Western Europe

Where precautions were surely taken

What hope is there in the heartland

Where so many are forsaken

 

There are protests in Vienna

They are “fighting for their rights”

But the virus keeps mutating

Turning days into long lost nights

 

Fight back if you can

Take care if you will

For the next wave is coming

And it’s ready to kill

The Last Dictator

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

The Last Dictator

 

The last dictator can never be

For there will always be another

A son follows his father

A monster succeeds his brother

 

How egotistical to proclaim oneself

The last of a dying breed

For where there is money and power

There is always a place for greed

 

There comes a time of destiny

For all who worship power

Mark it on your calendar

Down to the date and hour

 

You are not the chosen one of God

You are just another man

Who desires more than he deserves

Who devised an evil plan

 

Your days are coming to an end

The writing is on the wall

The people will rise to celebrate

Their despicable tyrant’s fall

 

(for Lukashenko of Belarus)

 

Post Reality

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Post Reality

 

Read the writing on the wall

To see where this is heading

A world of one’s own creation

Time event and setting

 

They may call it virtual reality

Call it whatever you will

Designed to titillate the senses

And deliver you a thrill

 

Find the world you’re living in

Less than what it could be?

Plug in to your chosen sphere

See what you want to see

 

We always win the trophy

We never landed on the moon

Don’t like the heat of August?

Let’s pretend it’s always June

 

The world is what you make of it

A dream inside a dream

Discard all uncomfortable facts

Your life is what it seems

 

Belarus (The Puppet)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Belarus

 

Like the Cherokee on the Trail of Tears

Like the Navajo at the End of the Trail

The Islamic migrants in Belarus

Are rounded up like stray cattle

Shuffled to camps at the Polish border

Trapped between two armies

In perpetual displacement

 

We know the hand behind this treachery

This crisis of human decency

It is not the puppet Lukashenko

It is the puppet master

Behind the wrought iron curtain

 

As if to prove his relevance

As if to demonstrate his power

Vladimir pulls the levers

And his Belarus puppet dances

 

It is a warning of things to come

A shot across the bow

The emperor readies for action

We may not know when or how

 

Troops gather at the Ukrainian border

A threat of severed oil looms

The future is looking bleak

For some it may bring doom

 

The Enlightenment

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Enlightenment

 

There was a time when young people

Enrolled in universities

To become enlightened beings

To study the renaissance

To understand art and literature

To engage philosophy and psychology

To expand the universe of thought

To uncover the workings of the inner mind

 

Now it seems young people go to

Universities to acquire employable skills

To the learn the ways of algorithms

To apply technology to enterprise

To join circles of common interests

And common points of view

To determine an uncertain future

 

One day the arts will disappear entirely

From the university curriculum

Museums will become gathering halls

For gamers and techno wizards

The arts will go underground

Take cover for a hundred years

Only to be born again

Stronger and more valued than ever

 

Honor the Warrior

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Honor the Warrior

 

Honor the warrior hate the war

The warrior never knew what for

 

We learn from when we’re very young

This is how the world is spun

There are those who know better than us

Get on board the duty-bound bus

We owe them unconditional trust

So don’t talk too loud or raise a fuss

 

Honor the warrior hate the war

The warrior never knew what for

 

So the warrior offers up his life

Takes on the terror of endless night

For she believes it is his due

To serve a cause both right and true

We honor her to the end of days

Our flags lowered his image raised

 

Honor the warrior hate the war

The warrior never knew what for

 

To those who think we’re always right

Keep this truth within your sight

Every war has opposing sides

In whom they trust their god confides

The warriors only follow orders

In deference to their god and borders

They don’t decide what’s right and wrong

They only go along

 

Honor the warrior hate the war

The warrior never knew what for

 

Fools Pride

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Fools Pride

 

Pride in who you are is wise

Pride that prevents you from becoming

Who or what you are is foolish

Pride can propel you forward

To great accomplishment

Or pride can hold you back

In fear of failure

 

Pride can lead you on a fools pursuit

Pride can hold you in your place

Pride can make you stumble

Or inspire you to grace

 

Pride can make fools of kings

Pride can give fools the crown

Welcome pride that holds you up

Decline that which puts you down

 

Do not lean on pride too long

For it will not stand alone

Without work and dedication

Fools pride will make you groan

 

Glory

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  LIFE SONGS

Glory

 

Glory is a fickle lover

She belongs to those who claim her

Yet she belongs to no one

 

We dedicate our younger lives

To winning the ultimate prize

Rising above all others

As if our happiness depended

On another’s sorrow

 

We take hold of the winner’s trophy

That proclaims our ultimate greatness

Only to watch it all dissolve

Like crumbling ash in the wind

 

Glory lifts us to the highest peaks

Demands the world’s attention

Declares a singular superiority

Surrounds us with servile sycophants

Delivers a divinity of pleasures

And builds our egos into

Impenetrable fortresses

Before leaving us abandoned

And alone

 

Glory is a fickle lover whose

Greatest gifts are endless tears

Of sorrow and remorse

Beauty

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Beauty

 

Beauty is as beauty does

And beauty is as beauty was

Beauty reigns a love supreme

Beauty lives inside a dream

Beauty walks where others fall

Beauty stands two towers tall

 

We bow down before the gods

Before the wonders of it all

But it is beauty that astounds us

And we must answer to her call

When her majesty surrounds us

And burrows to the core

She is all that we desire

She is all that we adore

She sets our souls afire

Leaves us crying out for more

 

I am speechless in her presence

Struck dumb in humbled awe

Hands are shaking knees are bent

As if she is my lord and law

For I am hers to raise above

And I am hers to leave behind

She is my comfort and my love

She possesses heart and mind

 

New Dawn

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

New Day

 

After so much heartbreak

When so many have gone away

It is time to give thanks

For the dawn of a new day

 

For while life can be a struggle

To keep our feet on solid ground

We must hold on to the blessings

That lift our spirits all around

 

See the joy in children playing

Take the time to understand

For every villain who does harm

There is one who lends a hand

 

Do not linger in the sorrow

When there is another way

Do not hold on to the night

Rise to greet a brighter day

 

For this life exudes pure wonder

From the mountains to the sea

I open up my weary eyes

To take it all inside of me

The River Po

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

The River Po

 

Running from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea

A wide and mighty river

The longest in Italy

 

It feeds the wealth of Turin and lovely Milan

Where da Vinci designed channels

Where poets devised songs

 

It concludes its run near Venice

Where it is populated by eels

Such a very strange phenomenon

To provide Italian meals

 

The great river nearly dried up

Twice in twenty years

That it will happen once again

Fuels our global warming fears

 

The river that turns purple

Like the wines that we hold dear

May one day not too distant

Simply fold and disappear

 

Living with The Dead

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Living with the Dead

 

Down in Mexico they speak to the dead

And the dead speak back

Not just on the Day of the Dead

But every day

The dead live among the living

To guide or obstruct them

As they desire

To whisper sweet dreams

Or inspire howling nightmares

To give comfort or fright

Through the long-lost nights

 

Up north we also live with our dead

Their spirits walk among us

They curse and bless us

They teach and lead us astray

But we rarely acknowledge them

As other cultures may

We keep them in our hearts

We lock them away

And rarely let them out

We know they are with us

But we keep them hidden

In the shadows of our souls

 

The Tree that Held Up the Sky

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

The Tree that Held Up the Sky

 

They plunged through the world

Like three fools who did not care

Let it fly! they told each other

Let it break and tear!

They lit a fire beneath a big broad oak

Just to see if it would burn

They fed the flames

That fueled the fire

(no, they did not learn)

They watched the flames grow higher

They laughed til they grew tired

They never thought

They never cared

They never questioned why

This was the very oak

That held up all the sky

 

They did not make connections

When the sky began to fall

They searched for someone different

On whom to blame it all

That one is dark and that one weird!

On this they all agreed

It was what they always feared

The others did the nasty deed

We cannot tell a lie!

They threw stones and made it bleed

Til it cracked the fragile sky!

 

A man came forth with weary eyes

And cast them on the three

You dare to speak of lies?

When it was you who burned the tree

That held up all the sky!

The fools looked at each other

And released a mighty sigh

You know us friends and brothers!

Even if we tried

We could not burn the tree

That holds up all the sky!

 

Of course it did not matter

For the sky came crashing down

And their foolish fate was sealed

When they hid on open ground