Times of Confusion

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN HISTORY

Times of Confusion

 

Back in 1965

We were on the edge of something new

We didn’t know what it was

We didn’t know what we’d do

 

But the old world was rapidly fading

Something had to take its place

We reinvented living in the world

We reconstructed the living space

 

Based on giving what you had

And taking what you needed

They were times of great upheaval

The revolution had been seeded

 

We were riding in the Magic Bus

They tried to send us off to war

When we said no they spit on us

And kicked us out the door

 

They were times of great confusion

Times of wonder and of shame

We rallied to the cause of peace

We found someone to blame

 

Those times live on in each of us

In a thousand different ways

They shaped the road we traveled

Made us who we are today

 

We are a nation twice divided

Once by race, once by culture

When we look at the American way

Some see hawks, some see vultures

 

We are many things at once

We are war and we are peace

We are rich and we are poor

We are hunger at a feast

 

We are everything to everyone

And nothing to a few

When times are rough in Kansas

They’re hard in San Francisco too

 

The Multiverse

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Multiverse

 

In one life you’re a beauty queen

In another you’re dark and mean

 

The multiverse is infinite

There are no limits to the dream

We fly we swim into the depths

We make oceans out of streams

 

In one world you’re a genius

In another world you’re second best

 

The multiverse is vast and wild

It takes you on a thousand quests

You find a mask you want to wear

You pass the stiffest test

 

Welcome to the multiverse

You travel east, you travel west

You journey to the end of time

You settle in a robin’s nest

And there you find your truth

You kill a man named Booth

 

The multiverse is quite the place

It’s message is its mystery

A simple twist of time and space

Can even alter history

 

If you don’t like who you are

Change your voice, change your car

Welcome to the multiverse

Come aboard, we will go far

 

re: The Russian People

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

 

re: The Russian People

 

We are told the people love you

(they do not know and never did)

We are told that they believe you

(they don’t but they won’t tell)

We are told they think as you do

(we are not that cynical)

We are told they have your back

(they are ready to abandon you)

 

The truth about the Russian people

Is more complex than we are told

When a dictator has the power

To imprison you for words

To lock you up for speaking them

To hold you without trial

To hold your family in contempt

To punish every gesture of dissent

They will never speak the truth

Not to you or anyone

 

The people who have taken to the streets

Who have gathered in city squares

Who have spoken their minds

In public or private settings

Are courageous beyond words

They are the ones that will rise

They are the ones who will stand

When Putin finally falls

 

West Bank Genocide

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL JUSTICE

West Bank Genocide

 

And so it begins

Empower extremists from the far right

Strip the judiciary of their lawful authority

Wait til the world is distracted

And launch an offensive in the West Bank

A policy of genocide under cover of constraint

Take their lands, take their homes,

Take their livelihoods, take their lives

 

Where is the Israeli press?

Where is the law of nations?

Where are the people in the streets?

 

If Russian aggression cannot stand

How can Israel be allowed the same?

 

If Putin is a pariah and a war criminal

A scourge on the human race

What then is Netanyahu?

 

If brutality and aggression against the

People of Ukraine is an outrage

How is it not an outrage when the

Victims are Palestinian?

 

Stop the outrage

End the occupation

Stop the brutality

End the genocide

In the West Bank, in Ukraine

And everywhere

 

Letter to Putin II

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Letter to Putin II

 

You have lost this war

You have lost on the battlefield

You have lost in the forum of world affairs

You have lost economically

You have lost strategically

You have lost historically

You have lost philosophically

But what you do not understand

Is that you will lose even if you win

Never again will you be welcomed

In the community of nations

Never again will your friendship be valued

Or your allegiance desired

You have joined the pariahs of the world

You have taken your place in history

Among the despised and hated

You will live out your reign in isolation

Like Lady MacBeth no amount of

Cleansing can erase the stain

You have secured an indelible place

In the eternal book of infamy

 

Letter to Vladimir Putin

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Letter to Putin

 

You can’t turn back the clock

Time doesn’t work that way

You attacked a sovereign nation

A price must now be paid

 

Now Finland will join NATO

Sweden will soon join too

You wanted a Russian empire

They opposite will come true

 

No one trusts the Russians now

Not even you best friends

The days of your ascension

Have come to a shattering end

 

You are a war criminal now

You bring disgrace to your nation

The world you sought to build

Faces imminent disintegration

 

It’s not too late to reverse course

Recapture a sense of humanity

Put an end to this inhuman war

And its inherent insanity

 

The Fight for Democracy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

The Fight for Democracy

 

Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel

Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua

Viktor Orban in Hungary

Recep Erdogan in Turkey

 

The fight for democracy

Takes to the streets

Spread the word of truth

To everyone you meet

 

From Budapest to Istanbul

From Jerusalem to Managua

From Tallahassee to Tbilisi

From Atlanta to Kiev

 

The enemies of democracy

Growing bolder, growing strong

We’ve set off the alarm bells

We’ve seen it coming all along

 

The brazen warnings in Taiwan

The crackdown in Hong Kong

They want to crush free press

In every way that’s wrong

They want to curb the right to vote

They’re pushing hard and strong

 

If we want to keep our freedom

If we want to keep our rights

We will have to grasp reality

We’re in a long hard fight

 

No one said it would be easy

The struggle never ends

Self-government will survive

If only we defend

 

The people’s right to speak

The people’s right to choose

As long as we hold strong

The people cannot lose

Florida Sleeps

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Florida Sleeps

 

They complain about being woke

I don’t know what they mean

They feel oppressed by our progress

From everything I’ve seen

 

They don’t like those kids in Parkland

They want guns in every home

They despise the ones who dance

And those who wear a darker tone

 

While the nation marches forward

They’re enamored with the past

While others push to get there first

They’re determined to be last

 

They don’t care about our freedom

They don’t care if mothers weep

While the rest of us awaken

The state of Florida sleeps

 

Corday

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: HISTORY

 

Corday

 

The nights were long and trying

The world was strange and cold

The order of things was dying

Like a cartwheel grown too old

Upon this scene a ghostly shadow

Who found each footstep trying

As the days gave way to nighttime

As the nights gave way to day

There came the spirit of a deadly thing

Her name was Charlotte Corday

 

They let her pass the city walls

Let her through the city gates

I’ve come to serve the cause, she said

I’ve come to seal my fate

The night was eerie strange and gray

The hour dark and late

She paused to take the moment in

But the moment would not wait

 

Who are you? said Marat

Through his fever twisted mind

Have you come to give me comfort?

Are you a spirit soft and kind?

I’m not that kind of spirit

I must ask you: Are you blind?

I come with dagger hidden

This moment to unwind

It is you Marat I’ve come to slay

What ghost is at my side? he asked

My name is Charlotte Corday

 

I’ve seen the bodies of the dead

I’ve seen what you have wrought

I’ve seen a pile of severed heads

Is this the world you’ve sought?

You’ve left us with no mystery

I’ve come to play my part

My name is etched in history

A dagger to your heart

 

A century or more from now

They’ll remember this fateful day

A fevered madman named Marat

An assassin named Corday

 

(regards to Peter Weiss & Percy Shelly)

The Putin Caucus

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

The Putin Caucus

 

They walk the sacred halls

As if it is a game

But they answer to the call

Of someone else’s name

 

They are the Putin caucus

They serve his want and need

They answer to the Donald

They answer to his greed

 

They are American in name

They are Russian by their deeds

They want to sever fair Ukraine

And plant there Russian seeds

 

It is time to send them home

As our democracy demands

We’ll have no foreign agents

Who follow enemy commands

 

The days and weeks ahead

Will tell us where we stand

Are they but few and scattered?

Are they the leaders of the band?

 

Ukraine is in the balance

Their freedom and their fate

Abandon our alliance

They become a Russian state

 

The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

The Summit of Knowledge (Revised)

 

We are a unique species

Unique to the experience of life on earth

We are driven in the pursuit of knowledge

We have invented language to that purpose

We have invented writing and the printing press

We have invented science to reach higher

in the quest for understanding

We have invented the arts and philosophy

to reach beyond the limits of science

We have invented computers and

advanced technology

We have invented and invested in institutions

of higher learning

We have pushed and prodded the depths

of human comprehension

Higher and higher and higher we reach

until at last we have breached the very

summit of all knowledge

and we have come to this conclusion:

We know nothing

We have always known nothing

We will never learn for there is nothing

to learn beyond the simple facts

of life and death

We are here and then we are gone

We are alive and then we are not

We may choose to be good to each other

or we may choose to be cruel

It is better to be good. 

 

Europe Welcomes Zelensky

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Europe Welcomes Zelensky

 

Zelensky takes his rightful place

Among the European nations

That still believe in the enlightened

To lead the world to its salvation

Once again Putin miscalculates

The alliance will not fold

He thrusts his bare aggression

His brutality clear and bold

But Europe stands united

While Putin suddenly seems old

You will not claim this victory

Your failure becomes clear

Disgrace will be your legacy

The end is drawing near

 

Viva Lula!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Viva Lula!

 

Viva Lula de Silva!

For doing what is right

Bolsonaro fled the country

Like a fugitive in flight

Brazil now protects the Amazon

From poaching and rogue miners

The end of forest clearing

The lowdown dirty whiners

Whose only faith is greed

They took all they could take

Without regard to need

They stole the nation’s resources

Gave the government a share

If they had their dirty way

They’d sell the water and the air

Now Brazil can forge ahead

As a defender of the earth

An end to massive exploitation

Show the world what they’re worth

 

Birth of the Nation

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Birth of the Nation

 

Two hundred forty-seven years ago

We founded a new nation

Rich in ideals and principles

Poor in integrity

Crippled with hypocrisy

 

For two hundred forty-seven years

We have advanced and retreated

Fought for a better world

Yielded to degradation

Fought for justice and equality

Fought for slavery and genocide

 

We have expanded the electorate

We have pulled it back again

We have enshrined justice for all

But withheld it for minorities

 

We were born with great promise

For all of humankind

To not know we have fallen short

One would have to be blind

 

The greatness of our nation

Is that we always push ahead

We acknowledge our shortcomings

We pay tribute to the dead

 

We may never find the answers

But we will always find a way

To improve the way things are

To ensure a better day