First Nations (Native American Appreciation Day)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: NATIVE AMERICA

First Nations

 

Arapaho Cherokee Standing Rock Sioux

Laid claim to this land before me and you

Apache Hopi Cheyenne Hoh

They planted seeds that we should sow

Comanche Paiute Seminole Cree

If you cannot help then let them be

Lakota Iroquois Navaho Crow

Let the spirits rise and the four winds blow

Mohawk Inuit Huron Osage

Remember all the wars we waged

 

Their numbers followed the buffalo

Twelve million to 235 thousand

From Columbus to near extinction

There are no sides to genocide

 

But the buffalo is still alive

Along with Turtle Island’s tribes

Their way of life is still here

Like the earth mother they hold dear

 

Our first nations are owed a debt

We cannot rest until it’s met

So give respect and give again

What is the price of original sin?

 

(Today is Native American Appreciation Day)

 

 

Finding Gratitude

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GRATITUDE

Finding Gratitude

 

If there is no hunger where you live

Be grateful to the earth that gives

If you’re not exposed to a wind that roams

Be grateful for your sturdy home

If you have friends and ones you love

Be grateful to the stars above

If you smile and laugh in ample measure

Be thankful for the simple pleasure

If you have a warm family circle

Be grateful for the ties that bind

If you’re blessed with common courtesy

Be grateful for a world that’s kind

 

No matter what and where we are

We can always be grateful

We should thank our lucky stars

We have not become hateful

 

For there is love in all things

And there are those who care

And the one above does not

Give us troubles we can’t bear

 

Hard times tell us what really matters

Lesser things will fall and scatter

 

(Happy Thanksgiving to all!)

Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  END TIMES

Abyssinia (Ethiopia)

 

A scourge has come to Abyssinia

Rebellion on the plains of Eritrea

An explosion of deadly virus

A plague of locusts

A swarming mass of refugees

On the border of Sudan

On the horn of Africa

The birthplace of modern man

Become a place of misery

Surrounded on all sides by war

Hunger famine hopelessness

A land of genocide and hate

A land ravaged by drought

Where failing crops are consumed

By hordes of hungry insects

 

An ancient timeless land

Where the four powers of the earth

Converged in times forgotten

Where the world’s enduring religions

Collided in blood and fire

Where legends sprang from the well

Of a long lost land of sorrow

A land become forsaken

 

The Swedish Experiment

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Swedish Experiment

 

It was never herd immunity

But something like

They did not ignore the virus

But they hid it from sight

 

At first there was promise

We held out for hope

When it turned for the worse

They could no longer cope

 

So they’ve locked down the nation

They will let no one in

They are searching their hearts

For a new way to begin

 

Too many have died

There can be no doubt

Now they must find

Another way out

 

If there is a lesson

Perhaps it is this: 

You can’t fight a virus

With hope and a wish

 

 

Carriers

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Carriers

 

They bear no ill intentions

They live and breathe the open air

If they bring death and suffering

It’s not because they do not care

 

They are the carriers of a disease

In which they do not believe

Until their loved ones are stricken

Then they pray and grieve

 

All of you who will not wear a mask

Listen to my desperate plea

Would you give your child a life jacket

For a journey on the sea?

 

We know you care about your elders

You care about all those you love

We hear you care so very much

You often pray to God above

 

So how is it you do not see the truth

When it comes to a viral disease

You could take preventive measures

And you could do it with relative ease

 

Losing our Democracy: After the Storm

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

After the Storm

 

Remember every bit of this

When we survive the storm

Every solitary crack in the system

Every violation of the norms

 

A fool’s last testimonial:

It won’t happen again

Bad and evil always lose

The righteous always win

 

They said it twenty years ago

When we were wounded to the core

The wise and righteous warned:

Beware the curse of Bush v. Gore

 

So now we’re forced to realize

How easily the republic falls

Our revered institutions depend

On the faith of one and all

 

We need to take real action

We need to pass new laws

Or the glory of our republic

Will become a sad lost cause

 

Poverty in a Time of Pandemic

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Poverty in a Time of Pandemic

 

The Standing Rock Sioux

Stood up to the oil industry

They fought long and tough and hard

To defend the earth from harm

The people of Standing Rock are poor

Where others offer money and time

The tribe put it all on the line

 

Poor people do not vote

So it is said and too often it’s true

But the time has come to break old habits

Strike out at something new

 

Poor people are sick and dying

Poor people are denied healthcare

Poor people suffer heart disorders

Tuberculosis cancer lung disease

Poor people have drinking problems

Hard drugs and addiction

Because they want to escape

Because they’ve lost hope

Because no one cares

 

When times get hard for all

Some people cut expenses

Some people tap their savings

Some people do without

Poor people become homeless

Jobless hungry desperate

 

When all is said and done

Poverty kills

Poverty in a time of pandemic

Kills ten times quicker

And more often

 

(The poverty rate at the Standing Rock

Reservation is 43.2%.)

 

Let it End

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Let it End

 

I have never been a man of religious faith

Yet I often pray

If it would be of any useful purpose

(and I believe it would)

I’ll bow my head today

 

For I have seen too many suffer

And I have lost too many friends

O lord if you’re listening

Let there be an end

 

We all know it is not over

Sometimes it seems it’s just begun

If the virus was an enemy

Then the enemy has won

 

But this is not a war

There is no ground to defend

O lord if you care

Let there be an end

 

We are filing wills and testaments

We are throwing in our cards

It is testing all our limits

Lord knows it’s getting hard

 

There are no heroes in the mirror

Upon whom we can depend

So lord if you’re willing

Let there be an end 

Space X

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Space X

 

The great mystery remains

The exploration of space

No greater mission of discovery is

Destined for the human race

 

We have tapped beyond the sun’s reach

We have grasped the surface of Mars

We have bent the force of gravity

We have peeked beyond the stars

 

What greater purpose can there be

Than to explore the mysteries of space

To test the depths of understanding

To recognize our place

 

We must always expand our thinking

Set aside our little lives

There is so much to see and know

The goals for which we strive

 

We are better than we have been

We must see beyond our worth

We will see it all with new eyes

No longer tethered to the earth

 

Washita River Massacre

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  INDIAN HISTORY

Washita River

 

Black Kettle remembers the day

The blue coats came to Sand Creek

He remembers holding the white flag

Of peace that the government said

Would protect his tribe

He remembers the thunder of hooves

The onslaught of gunfire

The plunging of bayonets and knives

He remembers trails of blood that ran

From the camp to the creek

He remembers the cry of women and children

He remembers Medicine Woman Later

By his side as they rushed to cover

He remembers surviving to witness

The scene of bloody carnage

Through the reeds by the creek

He remembers the soldiers

Cutting body parts from his people

To become trophies and curiosities

He survives to tell the story

 

The blue coats said it was a mistake

It could not happen again

The survivors moved to Indian Territory

And settled by the Washita River

The blue coats gave him a white flag

That he buried in remembrance

Of those he buried as Sand Creek

They swore it would not happen again

 

It is daybreak under clear skies

When he hears the thunder of horses

With their pounding iron hooves

A sound he has heard before

He looks to Medicine Woman Later

And knows that she knows

Together they sing their death songs

And take comfort in knowing

They will not witness the scene again

Their blood marks a trail to Washita River

Where they leave behind a curse

The white eyes will never forget

What their blue coats did this day

 

(The Washita River Massacre:

November 27, 1868)

Hong Kong

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: DEMOCRACY

Hong Kong

 

The people gathered in city squares

To hold their leaders to their word

A government of and by the people

If not a democracy then something like

A movement toward democracy

Acknowledgement of basic rights

They took away the right to gather

Took away the right to speak

Took away the right to protest

Stripped down the right to privacy

Broke down a free media

Rendered the vote all but meaningless

And America stood silent

The leader of the free world

Is absent without leave

 

Peru

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  DEMOCRACY BETRAYED

Peru

 

Emboldened

The fascists take aim and strike

They are the moneyed class

Who can stop them?

Who can tell them what to do?

They own the police

They own the courts

They control the banks

They own the media

The people have nothing

But the streets

 

Up north they have their fascists too

Their leaders refuse to leave office

Their elections have no meaning

They cheat and pack the courts

They lie and scheme

They make up the rules

They take want they want

They have no laws

They have no justice

They have no balance of power

They mock their own principles

 

Why should Peru honor the system?

Why should Bolivia?

Why should anyone?

 

The people have nothing

But the streets

 

I Am America

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

I Am America

 

I have had my day in the sun

I have known the glory of conquest

I have suffered the heartbreak of loss

I have experienced delusions of grandeur

I have descended the depths of despair

 

I am but a child and yet I am old

I am strong and yet weary

I am wealthy but impoverished

I am hope and I am destruction

I am your dearest friend and harshest enemy

I am the darkest night and brightest day

I am everyone and no one

I am all and nothing

 

I am America

I was once a shining beacon

Become a dying ember

I have fallen but

I will rise again

 

Untethered

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Untethered

 

We have wandered so far from the ropes

We no longer know where we started

Where we end is beyond the scope

We are untethered unbound adrift

Floating aimlessly on an open sea

 

We have forgotten why we began

This endless journey to unknown lands

Each day we awaken to a new dream

Reality has strayed from our grasp

We reach for it and it slinks away

We dive for it as it turns to dust

We conjure it in distant memories

 

We have become separate and aloof

While our concrete world escapes

We claim the right to invent the

Planets and the stars that reign over

Our waking lives in day and night

Even our dreams are borrowed

 

We were not born this way

The real world once fed and nurtured us

We grew and prospered in its grace

We suffered in stubborn defiance

 

When and how did we lose touch

How and when did we lose hold

When did life slip from our senses

Who cut the ties that bound us

To this breathing pulsing earth

 

We must find our way home

We must plant our feet on solid ground

We must feel the wind and taste the air

We must learn to love our lives again

We must love our gracious mother

In all her teeming splendor

 

A Promise of Unity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: 2020 ELECTION

A Promise of Unity

 

The promise of tomorrow begins today

We clear our sleepy heads in wonder

Was it a dream or will it stay

To cast our fears asunder

 

We wait with guarded optimism

As a divided nation lends its ears

To the newly elected president

Who owns the wisdom of his years

 

Those who brought him to the dance

With affection give him cheers

Others concede to give him a chance

To push back our darkest fears

 

A spirit of unity is born again

After four long years in hiding

Those who walked a lonely path

Are pleased to finally be riding

 

The way ahead will not be easy

We all know that much is true

But we are pledged to understand

What it’s like to wear another’s shoes

 

For tomorrow is another day

A chance to write the story new

We are a nation of true believers

Neither red nor green nor blue

The Year of the Virus

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

The Year of the Virus

 

The year of the virus comes to a close

As we take account the virus grows

The year was lost to severe denial

As mass misinformation went viral

 

The virus did not disappear

Though we would have had it so

It lingered in the background

Until it was time to show

 

We’ve suffered through the first wave

The second is upon us

The third will come will the power

Of Apollo or Adonis

 

Let us hope we have learned a lesson

So the same mistakes are not repeated

If we take the same misguided approach

The virus will not be defeated

 

The Healing

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Healing

 

The wounds of the nation run deep

The death toll is mounting

People are in mourning

Children are confused

The world has turned over and over

Anger blocks understanding

Discussions stop short

 

The wounds of the nation are gaping

Blood flows like canyon water

Emotions explode like cannon fire

There are not enough bandages

To bind our wounds and

Not enough people who care

 

The wounds of the nation are wanting

Time to stop the bleeding

Time to remember our teachings

Care for others as you care for yourself

 

The wounds of the nation are healing

We remember what connects us

A nation of liberty

A nation of justice and law

A nation dedicated to impossible ideals

A nation that unites in times of crisis

A nation that rises to the challenge

 

We remember our brothers and sisters

We remember the battles we fought

The wars we won and lost

We are good people

And we will find our groove again

 

Let the healing begin