Leverage

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Leverage

 

We have a lot of leverage over Ukraine

And little over Vladimir Putin

If Ukraine wins the war Putin is lost

A pariah in the world

A criminal confined to his borders

If Putin wins Ukraine ceases to exist

 

So when the big bully says

He will end the war in days

You do not have to wonder

What he means

 

He’ll give everything to Putin

And next to nothing to Zelensky

He’ll ask one thing of the Kremlin:

A Trump Hotel in Moscow

Perhaps a golf course and resort

 

This is why Putin will not give ground

This is why Russian soldiers die

So that Putin can extend the war

Until his asset-ally in Washington

Assumes the American throne

 

This is what rides on the next election

Not just the health of the planet

Not just democracy in America

Not just the rights of women

Not just the carnage on our streets

Not just equal treatment of minorities

Not just an equitable economy

Not just the future of healthcare

But the balance of world power

And the independence of Ukraine

 

A Hundred Thousand

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

A Hundred Thousand

 

A hundred thousand people die

We shake our heads and heave a sigh

A hundred thousand people dead

We turn it off and go to bed

 

A hundred thousand have no names

Our hearts are numb; we have no shame

A hundred thousand far away

A hundred thousand yesterday

A hundred thousand isn’t real

We have no tears, we do not feel

Another time, another place

A hundred thousand has no face

Has no mourners, leaves no trace

 

But a neighbor or a second cousin

Someone you once knew

A teller at your local bank

The singer with the two-tone shoes

A tender at the bar you drank

A teacher at the old school

A person with a name and face

Touches you in the very place

You live, you mourn, you grieve

 

You feel the death of one

As you will feel the deaths to come

But the death of thousands

Leaves you untouched and numb

 

Remembering Mama

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Remembering Mama

 

We remember you most every day

Your smile, your voice, your special way

Of giving sound advice

You would not tell us twice

Once was all you needed

Your values firmly seeded

They grew along with us

We built a sense of trust

You would never lead astray

We remember to this day

 

You taught us what it was to love

Sometimes a gentle shove

Would put us on the track

We could never pay you back

For all the love and kindness

You knew how to unwind us

To lay us gently down to rest

Feeling warm and loved and blessed

You were always smart and clever

We’ll remember you forever

 

[Mothers Day 2023]

Talkover at CNN

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP DAZE

The Talkover at CNN

 

The big bully doesn’t have conversations

He runs over you like a bulldozer

Like the bully that he is

And if you dare try to stand up to him

If you dare try to get a word in

He calls you nasty names

He holds you in contempt

And places you beneath his majesty

 

He has his narrative of fantasy

He sticks to his talking points

Everyone who disagrees with him

Everyone who interrupts his flow

His constant flow of sacred words

His golden jewels of wisdom

Is on the take of the elite

Under the influence of haters

Drunk on the manna of media madness

 

He alone can set you free

He alone can end the madness

He alone can restore dignity

He alone can lead the world to peace

He alone can give women want they want

He alone can make America great again

He alone can put people in their place

He alone is the genie of all genies

You know it, I know it

Everybody knows it!

 

The insurrection never happened

January 6 was a walk in the park

America has gone to hell

The Proud Boys are heroes

Stand back and stand by!

He’s got a job to finish:

Ending democracy in America

 

A Dying Art

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

A Dying Art

 

I’ve always been attracted

to the dying arts

The arts for which society

no longer has a need

The arts that do not give

(they say) but only take

The arts that are sustained

by the generosity of patrons

The arts that have lost all relevance

in the modern techno world

 

Those who presume to know

The vagabonds of culture

The vultures at the door – but

never on the stage – have proclaimed

the death of the theater since

the time of Moliere

The holders of the poison pen

who have so often tried and failed

in the artform of their choosing have

declared in good time and bad faith

the end of the short story,

the death of the literary novel,

the demise of romantic verse,

the extinction of free-form poetry,

the inevitable decline of the written

word itself in all its transmutations

and yet the arts are still here

 

The theater has survived

a thousand slings and arrows

Poetry has survived the dumbing

down of the spoken word

Literature has thrived by paving

new avenues of expression

 

As Sam Clemens famously said:

Rumors of my demise are

greatly exaggerated

 

The arts in all its varied forms

will live as long as civilization exists

 

Fear (re: Martin Heidegger)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Fear

 

Fear is a state of mind that

Overtakes our conscious reason

Fear is a raw instinct that

Proclaims the arrival of a threat

To be fearful in a dangerous world is wise

To be fearful without cause is foolish

Fear enables our survival

But it can also paralyze

To live in constant fear is hell

To live without fear lacks drive

I am because I fear is twisted

I am because I do not fear is something

Less than human

Fear is a constant in our lives

We live with fear

It accompanies us like a shadow

It exists beneath the surface

Ready to rise and guide us through

The crises of our lives

But fear cannot overtake us

It would destroy us from inside

It would consume the essence of our lives

Acknowledge fear, embrace it

But hold it in its rightful place

 

(re: Heidegger)

 

Migrant Waves

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

 

Migrant Waves

 

They are lined up at the border

Ready to cross over

They’ve waited for the day

When the virus would subside

When the hatred would abate

When the gates of human kindness

would open up to let them in

 

They’ve been told to go away

Go back home where they belong

But they have no homes

No lands that welcome them

They have come from a brutal place

A place of murder and oppression

A place where mothers are raped

A place where children are abducted

A place of crime and violence

 

They are waiting for the gates to open

Knowing that they face discrimination

Knowing that many wish to harm them

Knowing they may be sent away

Or discarded like bags of trash

Or held in chain-link prisons

Yet they come to meet their fate

They come in waves of flesh

to remind us they are human

 

Do they not hope?

Do they not dream?

When you cut them,

do they not bleed?

 

Punishment

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

Punishment

 

We punish the poor for being poor

We punish the weak for weakness

We punish the world with endless war

With misery and bleakness

 

Let us hope we can make amends

Let us bow our heads and pray

When pressed sweet justice bends

Let us hope it bends our way

 

There are times we turn our backs

For no other path will do

The train has sadly left the tracks

There is nothing left to lose

 

But often we can light a fire

And lead the way through kindness

The way is long, we cannot tire

We cannot yield to blindness

 

Bombing Your Own

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Bombing Your Own

 

Only in a world so twisted

Would such a thing be possible

Russians turn on Russians now

And this is what we know

Ukraine did not bomb the Kremlin

The Kremlin bombed its own

 

Conscripts and lowly mercenaries

They fed them to the war machine

They send their young to die there

For reasons not yet known

Ukraine would never bomb Moscow

Moscow would bomb its own

 

They’ve fed their people lies so long

The stench is in the air

The truth will finally rise up

Their cover will be blown

Ukraine did not bomb Moscow

The Kremlin bombed its own

 

They’ve lost the war of words now

The seeds of truth are sown

They’ve sacrificed too many lives

For the vanity of one

Ukraine did not bomb the Kremlin

The Russians bombed their own

 

Hardship (for JFK)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Hardship

 

The road ahead is hard and treacherous

Powerful forces will oppose us

Many will fall by the roadside

Many will break our hearts

But as a great man* once said

We choose this path not because it is easy

We choose it because it is hard

Because it challenges the human spirit

Because it moves us toward the stars

It defines who and what we are

 

There will always be an easy way

The path of least resistance

Let the Russians take Ukraine

Let the rich have all while we pay

Let the garden of earth go untended

Let the waters fill with industrial waste

Let the wilderness be stripped clean

Let climate change and oceans rise

Let the rights of women and workers fall

Let the pain of others not move us

Let us wait and watch and let be

 

But that is not who or what we are

Not who we were meant to be

We rise to the challenge because we must

We meet our adversaries at the gates

We defend others as if they were ourselves

We protect our homes from plunder

We act with honor and with dignity

When pummeled and pushed we fight

We know the way forward is hard

But it is also good and right

That is why we choose it

 

* JFK

Brutality in Paris

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

Brutality in Paris

 

As they labor on Notre Dame

As roses burst into bloom

As Paris blossoms in full spring

As Parisians and gardens sing

The Champs-Elysees explodes in protest

And the gendarme mows them down

With water cannons and riot sticks

The city of dreams and dreamers

The city of art and philosophy

The city of people’s rights and equality

Yields to the spirit of brutality

What price law and order?

What price economic austerity?

The city of lights should not hide in shadow

The city of enlightenment

Should not fear the cost of equity

The cradle of western civilization

Must always stand strong for

Liberty, fraternity, equality

 

When Paris yields to brutal tactics

The grand republic is tarnished

When Paris suppresses the people’s voice

The heart of democracy is stained

When Paris unleashes her vicious sting

Her beauty is diminished

Paris has lost her way before

But she has always found her balance

She has always restored her soul

May she do so now without delay

The world should move toward France

Not the other way around

 

Mississippi Sprawl

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES

Mississippi Sprawl (River Series)

 

They tried to tame the mighty river

To curb its mighty sprawl

But levees break and crumble

And mighty dams will fall

The mighty Mississippi is

The greatest of them all

 

The age of epic tragedy

Comes knocking at the door

Fire rain and thunder

A chain of monster storms

Too late to turn the tide

We watch the planet warm

We listen to her call

The mighty Mississippi is

The greatest of them all

 

The latest floods upon us

The Mississippi sprawl

We scramble to take cover

To make the flooding stall

But levees break and crumble

And mighty dams will fall

The mighty Mississippi is

The greatest of them all