Tyranny in Tennessee

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Tyranny in Tennessee

 

There is no tyrant in Tennessee

You cannot silence a dissident voice

There is in name democracy

You must honor the people’s choice

 

You value guns above free speech

You pick and choose your Bill of Rights

You mandate what your schools will teach

You favor those whose skin is white

 

This is not the Tennessee I know

The bulwark of equality

Were you only putting on a show?

The essence of hypocrisy

 

There’s time enough to change your act

Open your eyes and see the light

Admit you’re wrong and take it back

Reverse your course and make it right

 

(Note: Tennessee legislature expels

Members for sympathy with protesters.)

 

Stealing Children

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Stealing Children

 

What sort of depravity is this?

Stealing thousands of children

From their homes and families

For cultural re-education

In an enemy nation

 

What sort of inhuman mind can

Conceive of such depravity?

 

We can only assume they wish to

Recruit soldiers to serve in their

Invasion forces when their own

Citizens refuse and the mercenaries

Exceed their resources

 

The beast of the east wants Ukrainian

Children to fight Ukrainian soldiers

Their own parents and relatives

Their own friends and neighbors

For the pride of Mother Russia

 

It will not work

It cannot work

The world will not stand by as

The most depraved monster

Of the twenty-first century slips

Below the threshold of fundamental

Humanity

 

Loss

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Loss

 

The loss of one that never was

Has the power to take us under

Remember the love that guides us

The grace, the beauty and wonder

 

We rage at how this happens

To those who are good and true

But there are no answers coming

There is little we can do

 

The loss of something dear to us

Must serve to bond our hearts

For everyone must suffer thus

Before we can depart

 

Please know that love surrounds you

Every moment of every day

We feel the loss as you do

Though it is difficult to say

 

This too will pass in time

The mark we wear on sorrow’s face

Will slowly lose its bind

And joy will take its place

 

Endurance of the Soul

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Endurance of the Soul

 

Grant that each individual is unique

Let us call that uniqueness the soul

Grant that the soul exists within the

living spirit of each individual being

Grant that something which exists in

time and space cannot cease to exist

It must endure though it be transformed

 

We have arrived at the most basic

promise of all the world’s religions:

That the soul lives beyond our death

What we have not and cannot resolve

is whether the soul retains its form as an

individuality within a larger body or

it absorbed into the collective soul

This is a question that is beyond science

Subject only to deeply spiritual inquiry

 

Let each man and woman decide for him

and her self and let us call this: faith:

A complex web of internalized beliefs

that mirrors the essence of the soul

 

Faith is a choice: Choose wisely

 

House of Saud

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

House of Saud

 

They rule by royal bloodline

Their people are enslaved

They smile and share the wine

And laugh over our graves

We treat them with esteem

But it’s not the way it seems

We’re titans to their gods

The royal House of Saud

 

With the price of oil rising

The dying in Ukraine

The east and west colliding

Allies only in name

I find it most surprising

The Saudis have no shame

The west will not applaud

The royal House of Saud

 

The Saudis aren’t our friends

But on their oil we depend

How long must we pretend?

How long must we defend

The sponsors of jihad

The royal House of Saud

 

The Arraignment

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Arraignment

 

Lord knows it took a while

The squeaky wheels of justice turn

The former leader goes to trial

The flames of payback burn

 

The man no one could ever touch

Who always skated ‘round the law

His confidence was way too much

His manners much too raw

 

But time runs out for everyone

The proudest and the best

The slumlord’s spoiled little son

Did not survive his latest test

 

He can’t believe what’s going down

How can this world be so unfair?

I’m the man who sold this town!

Sorry Donald, no one cares

 

The Year of Warming

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

The Year of Warming

 

The year of warming has arrived

The year when everything changes

The year when diehard skeptics awaken

The year tornado alley became an expressway

from California to New Jersey

The year the Midwest became a wasteland

on the trail of mass destruction

The year the south became a cemetery

The year no one could escape the ravages

of global climate change

The year deniers were denied

 

We mourn the dead and suffering

We can no longer look away

The time for warning is over

The change is here to stay

 

(From the news: A swarm of tornadoes

hits eleven states, taking over 30 lives.)

 

Ironies

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Ironies

 

The irony is

Poverty hits hardest those who

don’t believe in helping the poor

 

The irony is

Global warming most victimizes

those who deny its very existence

 

The irony is

Homelessness comes to those

who least expect it

 

The irony is

Those who condemn sins most

loudly are most likely to be tempted

 

The irony is

Those who cry injustice are often

those who are most unjust

 

Life is filled with ironies

There runs a steady stream

On the daily news

In our daily lives

In the lives of those we know

In the lives of those we don’t

 

In a world of the extraordinary

The extraordinary becomes ordinary

 

Ironic, isn’t it?

 

Day of Fools

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Day of Fools

 

This is the day of fools

A day to tip your cap

To those who broke the rules

Just to make us laugh

They helped us get through school

By giving us a grin

That often lasted days

When laughter was a sin

We learned another way

And it was all okay

 

This is the day of fools

A day to turn it upside down

The kind becomes the cruel

A smile becomes a frown

The day will someday come

When horses will be hounds

The loud will be struck dumb

The fool will wear the crown

And all will be made well

The stories we will tell

 

It is the day of fools

Who speak in cryptic rhyme

Who always keep their cool

In the best and worst of times

They will always make us think

With wonder in our minds

What is the missing link?

What have we left behind?

So tip your cap and drink

To fools always be kind

 

(Happy Fools Day!)

 

Tornado in LA

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Tornado in LA

 

The Cubs will win the pennant

The mime has something to say

Peace comes to the Middle East

A tornado hits LA

 

Las Vegas outlaws gambling

The slots will finally pay

McConnell becomes a Democrat

When a twister hits LA

 

Moscow will honor justice

Vampires inhabit the day

China will pay fair wages

When tornadoes come to LA

 

The bullies will be kind

The wanderer will stay

The fiend will leave it all behind

When a twister hits LA

 

The rich will pay their share

The jerk will change his ways

The meek will inherit the earth

When tornadoes come to LA

 

Out of the Madness

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Out of the Madness

 

Out of the darkness ceaselessly soothing

Out of the madness calm as the waves

Out of the sadness endlessly moving

Out of the storm clouds end of the day

 

We are as normal men and women

Unfit to lead this wayward sphere

We march like lemmings to the sea

Never suspecting the end draws near

 

Out of the garden into the mire

Out of the wasteland into the maze

Out of the sunshine into the fire

Out of the jungle into the haze

 

We have the sense to end this mourning

We have the dream to show us the way

We have the means to heed the warnings

Will we have the will to turn night into day?

 

Out of the shadows dark as the night

Out of the prisons we keep in our heads

Out of the secrets beyond our sight

Out of the fears we take to our beds

 

(Re: Whitman’s Out of the Cradle…)

 

A Trail of Tears (Israel)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

A Trail of Tears

 

Andrew Jackson the Indian Killer

Cast aside the Supreme Court

Denied their fundamental authority

As a counterbalance to executive decree

The result came to be known as

The Trail of Tears

 

Thousands of Cherokees removed

From their native lands

Marched like cattle a thousand miles

To a land the whites did not yet want

 

From that moment we were no longer

A nation governed by the rule of law

 

If a president can decide which laws

To honor and which to discard

Then there is no law

 

The authority of the judiciary is not

An adjunct to democracy;

It is as essential as the Bill of Rights

The balance of powers or

Free and fair elections

 

Those who would deny that authority

Are enemies of democracy:

 

Erdogan of Turkey

Bolsonaro of Brazil

Putin of Russia

Xi Jinping of China

Trump of the USA

Netanyahu of Israel

 

The people have a right to protest

The people have an obligation

Long live democracy!

 

Seven Ages of Dismal Woe

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Seven Ages of Dismal Woe

(William Blake, The Book of Urizen)

 

How long must we wait for an end to

the seven ages of dismal woe?

 

How long must we wait for an end to war?

How long for an end to hunger and greed?

When does a hundred years of peace begin?

When does the nightmare end?

 

We have endured the age of never-ending war

We have survived the age of endless waste

We have witnessed the age of mass destruction

We have suffered the age of pandemic disease

We have observed the age inequality

We have endured the age of mass poverty

 

How much more can there be?

 

The seven ages of dismal woe

Have chronicled all of human history

Why and how we are still alive

Is the ultimate of mysteries

 

Ortega the Oppressor

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Ortega the Oppressor

 

What began as a Bolivarian revolution

Founded in democracy and human rights

Under the fearless leadership of

Daniel Ortega the Liberator

Now stands as a ruthless dictatorship

Founded in autocracy and brutality

Under the fearless leadership of

Daniel Ortega the Oppressor

 

What explains the transformation of a

People’s champion to the people’s foe?

When did his conviction turn to rust?

Why did his discard his love of the working

class to embrace corporate greed?

Can there be any other explanation but that

he never truly held convictions?

He was an opportunist from the start

 

Now he opposes and oppresses all

The pillars of democracy:

The right to free expression

The right to public protest

The right to fair elections

The right to a free press

 

The once proud nation of Nicaragua

Now stands as a disgrace

Its people flee their homeland

Their families and friends

Their livelihoods and dreams

For a long road of hardship ahead

Those who stay behind live

In constant fear