RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
Power of Spite
Can spite and malice grab the chalice
That enables four more years of power?
Can the power of spite fill hearts with fright
That extends this nightmare another hour?
What twisted thoughts run through his brain
Like a man in a flood who prays for rain?
What next awaits our horrid fate:
The entire nation in a desperate state?
There is no answer to metastasized cancer
We await the song like a forlorn dancer
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Herd
Immunity
Survival of the best and brightest
(at least the richest)
Genocide of the poor
(the old and sick)
Winnowing the herd
(eliminating the slow and feeble)
Sacrifice the common masses
(the nameless horde)
Let the weak and useless go
(who needs artists actors poets?)
Call it population control
(like China’s one child policy)
Throw the dice and let it ride
(you can run but you cannot hide)
What’s a few million or more?
But who decides who lives and dies?
The con man and the hustler?
The man of infinite lies?
Who decides who dies and lives?
The man who admires dictators?
The man who never gives?
We think not
We’ll take our chances
With good old Joe
And science
Good old science
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Damage
A flat tire can be fixed
A friendship can be revived
An old car can be replaced
A leaky roof can be patched
A scratch on a wall can be forgotten
A bad experience a broken chair
But a damaged nation is hard to repair
Like a façade in a local play
The nation stood on shaky ground
Its healthcare system strung together
With chicken wire and duct tape
Its poor falling into homelessness
Its rich growing richer
At the expense of all others
Its military engaged in endless war
Desperation at the door
Now we teeter on the edge
Of absolute collapse
A runaway contagion
Two steps from a Great Depression
Thousands dead and thousands dying
Democracy imperiled
It’s getting harder to bear
I must wonder: Do we care?
One false move and all is gone
To our children it’s not fair
A damaged nation is hard to repair
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Cataclysm
The guy with the shifty eyes
Tells lies all the time
Lies to hide his evil crimes
Behind the splendor of his office
Inside the smile of his disguise
Behind the curtains of his show
Inside the secrets of his rise
The cataclysm is upon us
The great destruction has begun
Hope hangs on by a thread
Two hundred thousand people dead
We are the decimation nation
Our leader is out of order
We have lost our first world status
With our obsession at the border
The entire world is crying
How did it come to this?
We did our best it seems
But there’s something that we missed
We forgot about empathy
We forgot how to care
When others suffer we protest
It’s just too much to bear
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
The King
When asked what kind of nation
The founders had secured
A wise man said: A republic
If a republic you can keep
Then the people went to sleep
And waited for a civil war
To expand the voting franchise
To men of dark complexion
And men of lower means
Then we slept again for a century
Before we let the women in
Another century of sleep goes by
While we allow minority rule
Let the senate play us for fools
Let the wealthy buy the party
Blocked the sound that freedom rings
And sanctified a king
The angels have no wings
Our divas do not sing
Democracy has lost its zing
Jay-Z without his bling
America has crowned a king
Pardon me dear friends
Is this but a dream:
The election has been cancelled
By our self-anointed king
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
For What it’s Worth
The taste of fresh clean water
A sparkling stream
A moonlit sky
A drive along the coast highway
Hearing Santana for the first time
Jazz on the Coltrane
A walk in Central Park
Laughter in a canyon
The smile of a stranger
A celebratory birth
The things we take for granted
For what it’s worth
A fine Beaujolais at dinner
Fresh ale at the end of a ride
Visions of an eagle’s flight
A dance of muses
Botticelli’s masterworks
A magic bus to the heavens
A dive to ocean depths
The crisp high mountain air
Kids on a playground
The miracle of birth
The things we take for granted
For what it’s worth
Tracking down a long fly ball
A kite on the wind
The scent of cinnamon pastry
The immortal soul of Billie Holiday
A floating white cloud
The mourning cry of a dying sun
The song of a rising moon
The glory of Crazy Horse
A warm fire on a frigid night
Life on planet earth
The things we take for granted
For what it’s worth
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
The Soul
Have I spoken to you of the soul?
Have I spoken of the center of life?
Have I spoken to you about that
Which remains when all else fades?
Have I spoken to you of the soul?
In the spring of life
When the body blooms
And draws to earthly pleasures
Like wildlife to a fertile garden
When desire is everything
And heartbreak takes its toll
There is no need of soul
In the summer of youth
When the mind opens to a world
Of endless possibilities
We step out of our safe confines
To explore the open road
In search of adventure and awe
Seeking secrets of our yearning
We wonder what it’s like to grow old
We discover the hidden soul
In the autumn of our journey
We seek the knowledge of elders
And the wisdom of vision seekers
Our thoughts turn to darkness
We become aware of Death
That powerful and mystic friend
We don’t want our lives to end
Before we learn and know
The contents of our soul
In the winter of our descent
We seek calm and peace of mind
We seek to pass our knowledge on
To those in love we hold
We have reached our lifelong goal
We have uncovered our soul
Have I spoken to you of the soul?
Have you found your place in life?
Have you located the meaning
That makes your life whole?
Have you asked what I’ve learned?
Would you like to know?
Have we talked about the soul?
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR
Vengeance
The path of vengeance
Is not easily taken
But when the nation
To its core is shaken
We must act in accord
With conscience
There is a line
We dare not cross
Lest we sacrifice ourselves
In our souls we sense the loss
Our compass on a shelf
Our enemies are great and strong
And morally bereft
They pull us where we don’t belong
We fear there’s nothing left
There will be no vengeance taken
Not today not tomorrow
We’ll suffer through the madness
And exorcise our sorrow
Tomorrow will be better
Better still the day after
For we will find the key to hope
in faith and in laughter
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR
Words Flow
Words flow
Like the wind blows
In a tropical storm
On a raging sea
What can it be?
What can it be?
Thoughts course
Like the river goes
Through a granite canyon
On a millennial run
It has begun
It has begun
Emotions follow
Like a child’s growth
In the teenage years
When the heart explodes
Where does it go?
Where does it go?
Dreams float
Like the sky snows
In Sierra winters
On an open road
What does it show?
What does it show?
My mind opens
Like a clear blue sky
When a drifting cloud
Comes floating by
Don’t know why
Don’t know why
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Find your Bliss
When days are dark and hazy
When waking is a chore
When at your best you’re lazy
When every nerve is bored
Take stock of all you know
And just remember this:
Find your bliss
The death toll keeps on ringing
The impulse is to weep
The sirens keep on singing
Our leaders went to sleep
Do not become forlorn
Think of what you’d miss
Find your bliss
Every cloud a silver lining
Every fall a rise above
Cease the never ending whining
Greet worry with a shove
Start the day with a kiss
And remember this:
Find your bliss
(In memory of Joseph Campbell)
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Endure
A ladybug on a leaning tower
Tips the balance of global power
The awkward smile on a villain’s face
Propels the world to a tragic place
A cough a sneeze a careless choice
Distorted judgement a loss of voice
A series of unfortunate events
Hastens civilization’s descent
A dust storm on Mars an alignment of stars
A collision of cars a shot from afar
We are at the mercy of random chance
We cannot retreat and cannot advance
As if frozen in time
We have lost our rhyme
We stumble and fall
Cannot answer the call
How long can we endure
We cannot be sure
One thing and another
Dividing sister and brother
At the end of the line
We throw it in and resign
No and no again
We cannot give in
Surrender is sin
We will overcome
Before this is done
And the age of the virus is over
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
Civility
Hatred and rage thick as mud
We don’t talk about it anymore
We all know there will be blood
We are divided to the core
We don’t have to agree on things
We don’t even have to get along
Just a measure of civility
Common decency makes us strong
For we have come this far together
Though our differences have been
And we will find the common cause
That makes our nation whole again
It’s not the politician’s scorn
It’s not the flag we wave
It’s in the interest of everyone
To find acceptance and behave
In the end we will reject the madness
Though we go our separate ways
And we will join in unity
To welcome new and better days
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
The Crook
There’s a crook in the White House
It’s headline news
He doesn’t pay his share of taxes
Whatever can we do?
We’ve had crooks before
Tricky Dick comes to mind
But this man would steal coins
From a beggar deaf and blind
It’s not that he’s in debt
To every bank who’s loan he carried
It’s to whom he owes the money
To the oligarchs he is married
We may never know the whole story
But this much we know is true
If he thinks he’s in trouble now
Just wait for the other shoe
(Note: NY Times releases a report
on Trump’s taxes.)
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR
Honest
Never trust a banker
A banker is a wanker
Never trust a broker
A broker is a joker
Real estate is not real
Property is not proper
The products of imagination
Given to pure speculation
A nation is not a nation
That does not know how to share
And does not care
Never trust a man woman
Or child who says:
Trust me
(Trust me not)
Anyone who postulates
If I’m being honest
Is not.
Honest
Fair
Candid
Real
Trust your gut
How it makes you feel
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
The Evil Within
As we grind like churning wheels
Toward an end of this descent
The beginning comes into focus
We the people elected an imposter
To the most powerful office on earth
We the people allowed minority rule
We the people said no no no
To real and necessary change
We the people said yes yes yes
To this pretending fool
I must wonder what great inherent evil
Lurks within the soul of man
That paved this road to madness
That sickened this great land
And I must wonder where we stand
To deserve this woeful fate
Did we fail our fellow man?
Did we act too late?
An evil this profound
Cannot belong to one alone
It sprang from the unspeakable
Within us all
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Fire Wind & Rain
The horsemen ride
The end is nigh
A land of ruins
A fire sky
By fire wind and rain
By gales on wings of thunder
By flood and raging flames
The world we tossed asunder
We call forth all our fears
A quaking of the earth
Mother Mary holds us near
The end calls forth the birth
The planet has fallen
Under a deep dark spell
Sound a thousand alarms
Ring the solemn bell
Dark clouds of mortal ruin
Have descended upon us
Our drinking water is poisoned
Our sky has become jaundiced
We need fundamental change
Something or someone to save us
No more lying boasting politicians
Who only want to enslave us
RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES
Glimmers
We cannot survive the ceaseless dark
We are a light seeking species
We would drive a thousand hard miles
Over towering white top mountains
Across a barren sagebrush desert
Just to taste the ocean air
We will not suffer hate filled fools
Who pose as god’s messengers
Who prey on the poor and fallen
Who raise our darkest instincts
While collecting all our treasure
To build towers of pleasure
Forever and forever
We watch and wait the moment
When the great walls of deception
Come tumbling to the ground
When through the darkened clouds
Glimmers of light spring down
To fill our hearts with hope
Spreading love all around
Amen
