RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING
Blood Moon
Blood moon springs from a fire sky
Blood water flows in the canyon
Coyotes run and eagles fly
All hope here abandon
What more can we do or say?
How might we atone?
Would you have us bow and pray?
Will you leave us now alone?
Blood moon in a sky of gray
Streaking through the valley
Haze chasing back the day
Hiding in the alleys
What more can we say or do?
On whom can we depend?
Change our course from false to true
The beginning of the end
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE
Blowback Ukraine
You thought you could attack Ukraine
With absolute impunity
Missiles in the capital
Bombing in the community
Now the bombs come back at you
Now you pay the price
For the madman in the Kremlin
Who will never stop to think twice
About the killing of civilians
Or the bombing of the schools
But turn the bombs around and
They begin to look the fools
Now they’re taking bombs in Russia
And their people wonder why
Putin told them they were safe
Now bombs are falling form the sky
Tell your leaders to desist
This war has gone too far
If you have to fire missiles
Why not shoot them at the stars?
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS
Enemies of the Earth
Once there was a highest court
That cared about the air and water
The planet was our mother
The water was her daughter
But now the court is dark and grim
Guided by the holy dollar
The prospects of the planet dim
They care little for the land
As we stand before them pleading
The justices demand:
How much are you worth?
Bow down before your betters
The enemies of the earth
We bring a plague of shadows
We breathe a curse of hell
Our evil hearts begin to show
Sound warnings, ring the bells!
Who cares if skies grow darker?
What counts a million lives?
We’ve passed another marker
As corporate profits rise
To a generation of mutations
We will inevitably give birth
The future will remember us
The enemies of the earth
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS
Necessary Changes
Change does not come from magic
Change does not come from wishes
Change that is not worked for and earned
Comes from a constant wasting away
Foundations crumble from neglect
Machines rust and seize up
Institutions do the same
Necessary change must be planned
Necessary change must be plotted
Evolutionary change from revolutionary thought
The rest is only disintegration
Do nothing and watch it rot
Organize and watch it grow
We cannot be something we are not
Evolutionary changes are slow
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: TRUMP
Redemption
They say he is redeemed
He was a man of sin
But he has bowed before the lord
He is not who he has been
He has yielded to temptation
But now he stays the course
But you cannot have redemption
Without remorse
He acknowledges his sins
But that was in the past
Would he do it all again?
How long would it last?
He pleads for his redemption
Now that justice is on course
But you cannot have redemption
Without remorse
He is obsessed with vengeance
His mind is filled with grief
He is willing to show sorrow
But it defies belief
The threat of years in prison
Is a powerfully moving force
And you cannot have redemption
Without remorse
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY
International Democracy Alliance (IDA)
The coup is a scourge on the world
A disease that destroys international order
A virus that kills indiscriminately
An invitation to the war machines
A peaceful transference of power
Is the antidote to perpetual struggle
An alternative to violent overthrow
An end to the endless chain of civil war
Form an alliance of civilized nations
Dedicated to representative government
An attack on the institutions of democracy
An attempt to impose autocracy
Or any other form of authoritarian rule
In any one member nation would require
all to respond in kind
When democracy is the rule of order
We can begin to end the weapons trade
We can begin to end mercenary armies
We can begin to end the legitimization of
securing power by violent means
We can begin to end corruption by
uprooting its causes
Democracy is under international assault
All principled nations must band together
in defense of democracy
Only when democracy is established on
all continents can we work together
toward a lasting peace
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: RIVER SERIES
The Rhine (River Series)
Among the most glorious rivers of Europe
The Rhine courses through six nations
From its birth in the Netherlands
It traces borders dividing Switzerland and
Lichtenstein, between Austria and Germany
It defines much of the French-German border
The magnificent Rhine graces the grand cities of
Cologne, Duesseldorf, Rotterdam and Strasbourg
Combined with the Danube it fed and fueled
The Holy Roman Empire
To know the Rhine is to know much of the
History of Europe
A history of triumph, conquest and tragedy
For civilization follows the path of the great rivers
Wars are drawn to their boundaries
Fates are determined by their bounty
The Rhine is the glory of Europe
And yet may mark its decline
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: PUTIN
A Killer Kills
The Wagner boss is dead now
And no one is surprised
When you cross the man in power
You know you have to die
A liar lies
A tiller tills
A wise man why’s
A killer kills
How many have to die?
In one man’s quest for power?
For none will ask him why
This is the killing hour
A painter paints
A miller mills
A fainter faints
A killer kills
He shot Prigozhin out of the sky
Like a duck on a frozen pond
Putin wears an expression wry
As he waves his killing wand
A sinner sins
Attorneys make wills
A winner wins
A killer kills
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS
Babble
They do not speak my language
They listen with their ears
But my words never quite form
They tell me I’ve lost my voice
They say they know how to find it
But they do not know me
They do not know where I come from
They do not know my language
I try to learn their words and syntax
But they carry a foreign sound
They will always sound strange
A sound less than genuine
For they do not speak my language
And I do not speak theirs
We speak across one another
We listen and nod and take it in
But we know it does not belong
Our hearts and souls reject it
Like the babble of ancient lore
We are of different tribes
We come from different ways
Our words rattle in other voices
Our ways cannot find home
Someday we will find a bridge
Someday we will find connections
That remind us we are one
Until then we can only nod
And pretend we understand
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS
Fallen Souls
Remember when the end of time
Was an amusing notion?
Remember we pretended that
Love came in a potion?
Little did we know that we
Would live to see revealed
The end of everything we love
The secrets we concealed
We are not evil people
We are not fallen souls
We have lost something sacred
We need to make us whole
We look back with rueful fondness
On the days that came before
Before the darkness, before the storm,
Before the latest war
We wish we could go back there
Before it all began
To when we were the chosen
The leaders of the band
We are not ill-intentioned
We’re not without our charm
We never wanted hurtful things
We did not wish you harm
Those days that we remember
Were not the way they seem
The days of simple innocence
They happened in a dream
Where everyone was happy
Where no one went to war
Where everyone we knew
Shopped at the local store
We are not evil people
We are not fallen souls
We have lost something sacred
We need to make us whole
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING
Fleeing the Fires
(for the people of the Canadian Northwest Territories)
Fleeing the fires of human neglect
Midnight past the waiting hour
The brave rise, the cowardly reflect
What more can we do but cower?
A storm travels a long, lonely night
It screams of boom thunder quaking
A sky of calm darkness filled with light
The planet is gradually awaking
The creatures of the forest know
The wolf, the hawk, the silent owl
They search for safety high and low
Grim visage is out on the prowl
We fight, we pray, we scream and shout
We call out to the gods of all wonder
Reveal to the innocent a pathway out
Before it takes us all under
But the gods can only shake their heads
In deep sympathy and fool sorrow
The vengeful monster has already been fed
No power in heaven can alter tomorrow
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS
Deliverance
We don’t need words that tickle the senses
But fall short of coherent message
We don’t need poetry that dances on
Starlight but never touches the core
We don’t need magicians that conjure
Silken roses from puffs of thin air
But never pierce the boundaries of thought
We need words that hit hard as fists
That move the passive soul into action
We need poetry that rides the waves of
Passion to a destination of outrage
We need conjurers to transform the silent
Masses of the uninformed and unengaged
Into dedicated armies of change
We need artists with a social range
Writers who will open doors of power
Voices that rattle the tallest towers
Leaders who rise to the critical hour
People who deliver times of change
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL WARMING
Killer Flames
The curse of Prometheus is upon us
The light of the heavens
The warmth of the gods
The greatest gift ever bestowed
Become the destroyer of man
Once we knew how to control the flames
We employed them to cook our food
To warm our homes
To bring light to darkness
To mold metals into useful form
But that which once served humanity
Has now become our enemy
A killer of our people
A destroyer of our abodes
We must learn again how to use fire
We must learn how to control it
We must learn how to defend our homes
Our schools and buildings
Our towns and cities
From the devastation of runaway flames
We must work to balance the forces of
nature – wind, rain, fire and ice –
or the forces of nature will work
together to destroy us
