As I Grow Old

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

As I Grow Old

 

As I grow old the less I know

The more I understand

As I grow old the knowledge

Gathered over years of hard toil

Crumbles like sandcastles at high tide

Knowing this I understand that knowledge

is a temporary state of certainty

It falters over time

It trips on mounds of inquiry

It rusts for lack of care

 

As I grow old the less I know

The more I understand

The ceaseless march of science

Bends knowledge to its knees

What once dwelled beyond all doubt

In the land of holy grails

Enlightened and revered

Like saintly signs of ecstasy

Forgotten and verboten

Discarded in the wastelands

Where fallen angels weep

 

As I grow old the less I know

The more I understand

There are those among us

Who dare to rise above

Who doubt the very essence of

the center of our being

Who challenge every platitude

Who bring the towers to extinction

Who build a new foundation

To give birth to greater glory

and live to tell a story of decline

 

As I grow old the less I know

The more I understand

 

El Gran Dolor de Mexico

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

El Gran Dolor de Mexico

 

I know we have not been a good friend

to Latin American democracy

For far too long we favored military

strongmen over elected leaders

In far too many countries we interfered

to overthrow or undermine democracy

From Mexico to Nicaragua

From Venezuela to Argentina

We betrayed our own principles

 

What a pity it would be if

after all this time and misery

When we stand strong for democracy

Mexico stands opposed

 

How ironic it would be

after all this blatant hypocrisy

After you defeated one-party rule

you founded a new autocracy

 

Fair Mexico you need to know

Dictatorship from the left is no more

Virtuous or acceptable than

Dictatorship from the right

 

Dangerous World

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Dangerous World

 

The world is splitting into factions

One side believes in human rights

The other is willing to sacrifice

One side believes in freedom of speech

The other believes in a unified voice

One side protects a free press

The other eliminates dissent

One side believes in democracy

The other believes in the nation

 

The world is splitting down the middle

Russia, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia

All of Europe, the US and Canada

All nations are compelled to decide

Which side are you on?

With which side will you ally?

On which side do you belong?

Which side of the great divide?

 

No one wants a global war

Yet it is coming to the fore

At the worst of all possible times

We will crack the earth to its core

 

We know which side is just

We know which side is right

We know the people always lose

When all we do is fight

 

War Must End

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

War Must End

 

This war must seek an end

If the end is to be just

The Russian people must lend a hand

To stop their brutal leader

A message they must send

The propaganda no longer works

The blood of war is clear

There is no justice

There is no righteousness

There is no grand destiny

There is no patriotic glory

There is only thirst for power

There is only self-aggrandizement

There is only egocentrism

When your ego is put to rest

The cause for war disintegrates

Like the dewy mist of morning

 

This war must seek an end

Before the twisted needs of one man

Supplant the well-being of humanity

Before the poison of war spreads

Throughout Europe, across Asia

To the four corners of the globe

Before the blood of war becomes

A torrent, a waterfall, a river of remorse

This war must end and all those

Responsible for its perpetuation

Must be held to stern account

 

China vs. Chinese

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

China vs. Chinese

 

I have a problem with China

I have no problem with the Chinese

I have no problem with the Asians

They have no problem with me

 

Asian Americans are rightly proud

For the things they have achieved

They have a right to say it loud

When cut do they not bleed?

 

China is a wayward nation

Our adversary in many ways

They oppose our basic freedoms

They block the path to a living wage

 

The Chinese government is oppressive

Chinese Americans are not the same

They’ve worked hard for what they have

For China they’re not to blame

 

Land of Plenty

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Land of Plenty

 

Hunger in a land of plenty

How can this be so?

The more they feed us propaganda

The less the people know

 

They tell us we are prosperous

We’ve more than we can use

But once we’ve paid our daily bills

We’ve nothing left to lose

 

Hungry in a land of plenty

We blame our president

You gave us something for our pain

But who will pay the rent?

 

We’re working after hours now

We’ve got those hunger blues

When our kids are going hungry

What else can we do?

 

Dehumanization

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Dehumanization

 

Dehumanization begins with

The delineation of classes

Be it royalty or wealth

The division of the masses

Into higher and lower beings

Enables cruelty and neglect

To those of lesser means

The undeserving of respect

Born to serve their betters

Those of higher pedigree

Those of wealth, the jetsetters

Those who brandish their degrees

From institutions of privilege

Harvard, Yale and Trinity

 

They’re simply better than the ones

Who sweat for their next meal

The ones who live by their hands

The ones who often beg and steal

Won’t they ever understand

By the turning of the wheel

They’re simply cruder, lesser than

The ones who carry the great seal

The royal bloodline of the grand

 

Within the circles of the few

Who speak in whispers soft but sure

There is nothing we can do

To ease their suffering

We are the chosen, wise and pure

While they are something more obscure

Dare I say (something less than human)

 

Brave New World

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Brave New World

 

The brave new world came and went

Before our fascination spent

We rallied to the cry: resist!

They took their shot and missed

 

The people here are not so lame

Our wilder spirits cannot be tamed

With medicines or other pills

That sap and shape the force of wills

We are as we have always been

Individualistic women and men

Who worship at the sacred tree

Fight long and hard for liberty

 

We play our separate roles

We’ll never lose our separate souls

Nor sacrifice our sanity

To your dystopian vanity

We know we have our flaws

There are too many laws

That tell us what to think and do

That try to sell us something new

Something bigger brighter wiser

No more greed no more misers

No more worries no more cares

We’ll all have our equal shares

No more loneliness or sorrow

A promise for a new tomorrow

 

We will fight it to the end

On that you can depend

 

(re: Aldous Huxley)

 

Resistance to Change

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Resistance to Change

 

There is a natural aversion to anything

and everything different than what is

and what has been for a thousand years

or so it seems to me

 

In every field of endeavor from the science

of microscopic etymology to the art of

esoteric architecture there is a stubborn

resistance to change

 

So it is in art and poetry, philosophy and

psychology, religion and mythology,

physics and ecology, quantum mechanics

and sociology

 

When presented with new and challenging

ideas that break the mold of our thoughts

we resist with all the strength we can gather

for as long as our dams will hold

 

Little wonder that when the dams give way

the waves of destruction engulf towns and

cities, nations and civilizations, entire

disciplines and cherished schools of thought

vanished in the fog of time

 

Ever wonder what happened to the alchemists?

 

England and Europe: Breaking the Bond

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL AFFAIRS

England and Europe

 

“Someday we shall have to choose

between England and Europe.”

 

-- James Joyce, The Exiles

 

Brexit marked the end of a unified Europe

The English in their wisdom

Severed the bond that held the promise

of a bright and prosperous future

It seems the English have always seen

themselves above the continent

Not so for Ireland, Scotland, Wales

England casts her lot with America

The mighty land across the sea

The land that tore itself from Britain’s

royal bondage

The land that to this day speaks its

variations of Shakespeare’s tongue

The Irish form their own bonds across

the channel and the sea

The Scottish and the Welsh have

their own independent notions

Dependence on the British is at an end

They saw it coming long ago

The disintegration of the monarchy

The fraying of the isles

We see it coming still

In a world of great uncertainty

We see it with good will

 

Another Year of War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Another Year of War

 

On the other side of the world

The war continues unabated

Putin’s horrors are unfurled

As if it had been fated

 

We would change it if we could

We would bring it to an end

We would lock away the madman

And all his brutal friends

 

What more can we do but let

Our leaders know we care?

Send our aide and best wishes

Make it easier to bear

 

Make the oligarchs pay the cost

For Putin’s war of cruel attrition

Let him know his cause is lost

Cut off his ammunition

 

In our part of the world

The wars are only metaphors

The battle for democracy

A trail of horrid storms

 

We know life could be harder

We know it could be worse

Our storms are free of missiles

We still think of ourselves first

 

But we swear we’ll not forget

The many hardships you endure

This world is ever smaller

Of that we can be sure

 

The Angry Planet

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING

The Angry Planet

 

Planets don’t get angry do they?

Yet they behave as if they do

We would do well to heed the warnings

We have so much to lose

 

Planet earth is angry

Best believe that it is true

She is raging like a banshee

Time to pay our overdues

 

We’ve abuse her far too long

Little wonder she’s upset

If we don’t amend our ways

Soon enough we will regret

 

All the poison that we spewed

Into her soil water air

She will take her due in blood

And we will learn to care

 

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