International Connections (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

International Connections

 

We are not alone in the world

What happens in Ukraine

Can foreshadow what happens here

As it did when Putin unleashed

His propaganda machine in Kiev

 

The year was twenty thirteen

Putin ran a puppet regime

Enlisting his team of paid hackers

Like a virulent stream of trackers

To flood Ukraine with misinformation

False and misleading accusations

But the local press responded quickly

And Putin’s lackies shriveled sickly

Shot down at every turn

Had we been listening

We should have learned

What happened to them

Would happen to us

Our democracy tossed

Under the bus

 

In this world we are not alone

We are all in this together

If we form a solid free alliance

There is no storm we cannot weather

 

Common Cause (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

Common Cause

 

A difference between democracies

And authoritarian nations

One has only the government

The other has civil organizations

 

We may grow tired of solicitude

We have only so much to give

But organizations that serve the cause

Will enhance the lives we live

 

Find a cause that feeds your soul

Be as generous as you are able

When it all comes to a head

You’ll have a place at the table

 

If you cannot give your money

Perhaps you can give time

We are so much stronger together

Your hands linked to mine

 

The Third Wave (Return of the Zombies)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

Third Wave (Return of the Zombies)

 

It is shutting down Italy

As it sweeps from east to west

They opened up too early

Now they face another test

 

And it’s batten down the hatches boys

The storm is on its way

The virus is determined

To find a home and stay

 

The second wave was deadly

The third is deadlier still

Its mutations are evolving

To find new ways to kill

 

So take your cover now

Don’t wait for that fateful day

The more we are prepared

The less we’ll have to pay

 

Turn back from all the naysayers

And look them in the eye

You may say what you will sir

It is not my day to die

 

Remember

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  LIFE SONGS

 

Remember

 

We remember in our hearts

We remember in our bones

We remember in the words we choose

We remember in the choices we make

We remember in each step we take

 

I cannot help but wonder

What others may remember

A hundred years from now

 

Will they remember your smile

Preserved in an ancient image

Reflected in a loved one’s phrase

Captured on a poet’s page

 

Will they remember your love

And how you gave it so freely

Will they remember your generosity

Will they remember your empathy

 

Will your spirit still exist

In the consciousness of others

Will they rise to your memory

And raise a toast to your living soul

 

I believe they will remember

Though they may not have a name

For that strange sense of wonder

That lifts us from our shame

 

For we live forever

Not only in the heart and mind

But in the air the trees the soil

The misty ocean and the tides

 

I will remember you

As I hope you remember me

For time is but an illusion

In a vast and endless sea

 

Yemeni Genocide

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Yemeni Genocide

 

They bomb hospitals don’t they?

Blockade the ports and block the airways

No food no hope no medicine

No basic means to survive the plague

 

Yemen is the latest field of play

For global power games

In terms of moral righteousness

Both sides are just the same

 

It’s the people who suffer in this war

As the people always do

They don’t care which leader rises

They don’t care which god you choose

 

And here we are again

Stuck in a bottomless pit

Taking sides in someone else’s war

A horror we cannot quit

 

It is time to stop the killing

For reasons we dare not say

For every bomb and every bullet

There is a price that must be paid

 

The Bridge

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

The Bridge

 

You’re young and healthy

(at least you think you are)

If you believe you can jump off a bridge

Without harm to yourself or others

I’m fine with that

Live free or die

Do what you will

Go your own way

Dance to your own music

 

But don’t go berserk

If I won’t do the same

Your freedom does not include

The right to bully me

Your rights do not trump mine

 

I must admit the fact that you endanger

Others with your recklessness

Bothers me

 

It drills into my consciousness

And triggers my rejection

 

Do unto others is my creed

(I thought it was yours)

I thought we were all in this together

Until we weren’t

 

So go ahead

Jump off that bridge

Just don’t take anyone with you

 

Accumulation

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Accumulation

 

We are all that we have ever been

We are every moment of doubt

We are every breath of affirmation

We are what we are without

We are the love our mother gave us

We are the strength our father drove

We are an explosion of anger

We are the spirit of resolve

We are that awkward haircut in the seventh grade

We are the underdog who overcame

We are the hand that helped a stranger

We are the times we turned away

We are the music and the dance

We are the stumble and the fall

We are everything we ever thought

We are everything we ever saw

We are everything we ever felt

And everything we ever dreamed

We are fantasies of pure illusion

And everything they seem

We are that for which we are not proud

And that we should not have said out loud

We are everything we have ever done

We are joyful laughter and endless fun

We are the thoughts we take to bed

We are all that rambles through our heads

We are everything we’ve thrown away

We are the place we chose to stay

 

We are an accumulation of all things

Within our sphere of understanding

And beyond

The Royal Bloodline

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

 

The Royal Bloodline

 

The royal family has decreed

The royal bloodline must be pure

Should any prince plant a seed

Immediate expulsion is the cure

 

The royal house of Windsor

Goes back a thousand years

The queen upholds tradition

And commoners hold her dear

 

The darker side of aristocracy

Is race discrimination

The goal of every royal wedding

Is genetic purification

 

The royal family through the ages

Is white as purest snow

Is all the pageantry necessary?

The answer: clearly no

 

Relief

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN POLITICS

 

Relief

 

Sigh breathe take it in let it go

Like shelter from a winter storm

Like fire in a world of snow

At last relief is on the way

To soften hardship’s blow

 

A billion words in Washington

Without a word of common sense

Without a sign of understanding

Without a hint of recompense

 

But in the end the ones

Who have no needs

Gave in to those who do

In the end their willful ignorance

Gave in to what is plainly true

 

The ones who lost their livelihoods

The ones who cannot pay the rent

The ones who live from day to day

The ones whose hope is all but spent

 

Spend an hour in their heads

Know their worries and their fears

No longer would you play your games

If you could feel behind their tears

 

The Pope in Baghdad

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Pope in Baghdad

 

Remember when Iraq was everyday news

Every day a new battle

Every day another casualty

Every day another atrocity

Every day a new horror to endure

 

Now we hardly ever think of Iraq

The nation we destroyed for being there

The nation we designated evil

And decided to possess as tribute

To the never-ending war on terror

 

Now the Pope goes to Baghdad

In a gesture of good will

And I wonder what the Iraqis think

Do they greet him as we would greet

A most holy imam or ayatollah?

Do they hold him responsible for what

The western world has done?

 

This Pope is a holy man

This Pope brings a message of peace

This Pope believes in tolerance

But I wonder I would think

What I would say or do

If I were in Iraqi shoes

 

Walking in Dreams

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Walking in Dreams

 

Floating through distant galaxies

Slowing light speed to a crawl

Exploring inner space and outer limits

Without any limits at all

 

Diving to the deepest depths

Where the liquid darkness concealed

Creatures beyond imagining

Its hidden mysteries revealed

 

Rise above the mountains

Soar across the seven seas

Revisit those who left this earth

And return with a sense of ease

 

We are the gods of our existence

When we walk in our dreams

No adventure beyond our reach

No experience beyond our means

 

Tree of Life

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE

 

Tree of Life

 

I watch the wheel spin round and round

I wonder how we do not remember

I see the towers come crashing down

I think back on that day in September

 

They took a wrong turn

They made a bad choice

They followed a trail of lies

Now they’ve learned their lessons

Now they understand

They bow down before the tree of life

 

We have gone to war

We have fought the fight

To the gods of greed we have sacrificed

We have fought for money

We have fought for pride

We have fought pretending

God was on our side

 

We took a wrong turn

We made a bad choice

We followed a trail of lies

Now we’ve learned our lessons

Now we understand

We bow down before the tree of life

 

We have learned a hard truth

Now we realize

Playing follow the leader

It was never wise

If we want to grow

And we want to survive

We must value the planet

We must value all tribes

We bow down before the tree of life

We bow down before the tree of life

 

Protect your Privacy (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

Protect your Privacy

 

My life is an open book

But nobody wants to read it

 

In the age of the internet

Assume that everything you write

Say think or feel is accessible

To anyone who cares

 

The age of privacy is dead

 

We have sacrificed our privacy

By virtue of the times we live in

 

Reclaim your privacy

Communicate face to face

Write letters to your friends

Establish a personal space

 

In today’s misbegotten world

Know that we are never alone

Support laws to penalize corporations

That violate our personal zones

 

Blackmail and extortion

Are nasty words and deeds

Using personal data for profit

Is the epitome of greed

 

Fight back where you can

Resist where you cannot

Send a message to them all

Our privacy cannot be bought

 

 

Real World Politics (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

Real World Politics

 

A wise person once said

All politics is local

I don’t know if that’s true

But I do know this:

Your sphere of influence is limited

From behind a computer screen

Typing comments and tweets

On social media

Counting hearts and thumbs

 

When the pandemic passes

Go out into the world

Make new connections

March the streets of protest

Attend gatherings

Find interesting people

Talk to them and listen

 

We have been behind closed doors

Far too long

Make it a point to breathe

The sunlit air

Listen to the four winds

See which way they blow

Let others know you care

 

We are travelers on a small orb

Crowded yet alone

We can find common ground

If we adopt a civil tone

 

Cry for a Vision

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

Cry for a Vision

 

Crazy Horse went into the hills

To cry for a vision

I cry with Crazy Horse

 

Crazy Horse received seven visions

He might have received nine

I cry for a vision that is

Mine and only mine

 

Crazy Horse was a visionary

I am all but blind

Yet I have seen my life

In many places

Many spaces many times

 

I have been the coyote

I have been the crow

I have been the wolf

I have been the buffalo

I have been the fire

I have been the stone

I have been the rain

I have been the snow

 

There is nothing in this life

I have not seen

There is nothing in this life

I have not been

 

It is here

It is gone

It is always

It is done

 

When I awake

I will carry my vision

Into the waking world

When I sleep I will return

To the home in my dreams

 

Human Contact (On Tyranny)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: ON TYRANNY

Human Contact

 

In the days and nights of isolation

Disconnected from our fellow beings

We lose all sense of our surroundings

Absorbed by our electronic screens

 

In the silence before the coming storm

We need to gaze into human eyes

To gauge the content of our neighbors

In times of trouble who will rise?

 

Who has rage and looks away?

Who engages to spread lies?

Who tests the limits of your patience?

Who wears a flag disguise? 

 

You may be sure it cannot happen

Not in this time and place

But if the spark becomes a flame

Best be prepared just in case

 

(Inspired by Timothy Snyder's On Tyranny)