Democracy Endures

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Democracy Endures

 

“Democracy, while weapons were aimed

at your breast, I saw you give birth to

immortal children…, saw you with spreading

mantle covering the world.”

 

Walt Whitman, By Blue Ontario’s Shore

 

 

Democracy is much maligned (and wrongly so)

by would be tyrants who wish to bend the

world to their desires

 

Democracy endures

and she will always endure

for she is stronger than any tyrant’s will

She is greater than any brute force

She is fairer and far more appealing

than any false promise of prosperity

 

The beast will always wear the mask

of serene and gentle kindness

He will call you to his side

He will feed your barren pride

He will soothe and comfort you

He will promise you the sun the moon

and the myriad stars

But he will always throw you under

He will always betray you

He will always steal your last dollar

to further his own interests

He will offer your soul in place of his own

He will demand of you your sacrifice

before the altar of his throne

 

Democracy is the first last and only

defense against the triumvirate of tyranny:

the autocrat, the dictator and the king

She calls to you in times of trouble

and you the people must always rally

to her call

 

Incursion (The War Comes Home)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: UKRAINE

Incursion

 

The war comes home

The inevitable consequence of aggression

The war comes home

Every action has its reaction

The war comes home

The bombs and missiles that once fell

Like the wrath of angry gods at war

On the homes of innocent civilians

Now fall like the devil’s vengeance

On the homes of your own people

 

The suffering you have wrought

Now comes to bear

The tears of mothers mourning

Now answer: Do you care?

 

There is a cost for your aggression

There is a price to pay

The destruction you have rained on others

Comes home to you today

 

Teasing Armageddon

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Teasing Armageddon

 

A near collision of mammoth warships

In the southern China Sea

An adolescent game of courage

A near cataclysmic tease

 

How far can China push us

Before disaster strikes?

The brink of Armageddon

Is this what you would like?

 

The Chinese think they own the sea

And all that lies within

The sovereign nation of Taiwan

Is where the war begins

 

We cannot play this horrid game

The grown-ups must hold sway

With the planet in the balance

We must find another way

 

Canadian Wildfires

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CLIMATE CHANGE

Canadian Wildfires

 

The smoke of Canadian wildfires

Rides the wind to the great northeast

The numbers run higher and higher

As the gods of destruction feast

The warnings so urgent and dire

The climate becomes the beast

 

When we cannot breathe the air

Without a mask to cover our face

You would think we’d agree everywhere

We are losing the climate change race

We don’t know how much we can bear

As we lose at an incredible pace

 

We know that the fires will spread

Each year as the temperatures rise

More and more of the land is dead

More and more of the wildlife dies

All because our future is wed

To a past of industrial lies

 

Train Wreck in India

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CATASTROPHES

Train Wreck in India

 

Twisted metal like sardine cans

Or bundles of aluminum foil

The wreckage piled over human bodies

The smell of flesh and oil

 

Heat beats down on rescue workers

Who labor through the night

A race to pull survivors out

While hope still holds the light

 

Bodies wrapped in sheets of white

Lain carefully on the ground

A grim and horror-stricken sight

We hear the mourning sounds

 

A woman cries for loved ones lost

A man releases swollen rage

A catastrophe at such a cost

A disaster for the age

 

Myanmar (Military Rule)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD DEMOCRACY

 

Myanmar

 

Myanmar is under military rule

The people live in utter fear

Every time they call for democracy

The generals circle and draw near

 

Human rights have been struck down

They may not rise again

Like the ship that’s run aground

It is not what it has been

 

The hope of their republic

Was beaten battered and crushed

Civilian rule was tossed aside

And scattered in the dust

 

Now poverty and bloody violence

Becomes a certain path

A cycle of grim destruction

As all sides take their wrath

 

The lesson of this war-torn state

Is as sad as it is true

Once the military seizes power

It does what it will do

 

Mohammadi & Hamedi

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL JUSTICE

Iran: Mohammadi & Hamedi

 

Mahsa Amini lost her life

For sporting a forbidden style

Now the reporters who covered it

Are being brought to trial

 

Accused of being foreign agents

Working for the CIA

But they are only journalists

Reporting the news of the day

 

Imprisoned eight long months ago

How they’ve been treated we don’t know

Held in solitary confinement

The wheels of justice turning slow

 

That they don’t deserve such treatment

Is a fact beyond all doubt

We can only hope the outrage

Will turn Iran about

 

Uganda

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Uganda

 

Prepare for a flood of refugees

For refugees there will be

From crimes against humanity

From acts of cruel barbarity

 

This comes of tribal warfare

This comes of primeval thought

Blaming woes on moral failures

You reap what you have wrought

 

Uganda you will feel the pain

You seek to bring on others

For you will bow your head in shame

For crimes against your brothers

 

All of us have equal rights

We cannot thrive on hate

Those nations that discriminate

Must face the cruelest fate

 

Prague Spring

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WORLD HISTORY

Prague Spring

 

I remember Prague Spring

The Velvet Revolution

Such a beautiful thing

Of human evolution

Let the bells of freedom ring

Imagine a solution

And sing

 

I remember the student rebellion

The streets of Paris sixty-eight

The Champs-Elysees barricades

A defiance of the state

A reboot of idealism

A challenge to our fate

 

I remember the Summer of Love

San Francisco flower child

Peace love and happiness

Free spirited and wild

Questioning the way it is

The establishment defiled

An alternative way of life

With dignity and style

 

I remember the Harlem Renaissance

Cultural birth of civil rights

Cotton Club and Langston Hughes

Redefine the stereotypes

A celebration of the spirit

And everything that’s right

The darker shades are beautiful

The colors of the night

 

I remember the Beat Generation

In the city by the bay

A town of artists and poetry

A movement made of clay

Kerouac and Ferlinghetti

Heroes of the day

They came for the spirits

For the love they stayed

 

I remember Tiananmen Square

The courage of conviction

The day the people dared

State sponsored dereliction

On display everywhere

Their acts of disobedience

Demanded that we care

 

I remember the Stonewall Inn

The assertion of gay pride

The march to Central Park

The day passivity died

They would no longer cower

They would not stand aside

They sent a message clearly

To places far and wide

 

I remember the Chicano Moratorium

In the heart of East LA

A peaceful protest against a war

That planted many Chicano graves

They killed Ruben Salazar

To silence what he had to say

They sacrificed themselves

To show us all the way

 

These moments of great promise

Echo through the halls of time

They renew our sense of dignity

As our history unwinds

 

Memorial (on Memorial Day)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Memorial

 

My father we remember you

You fought the war in your own way

A prizefighter and a military policeman

We remember you on this special day

 

My mother we remember you

You also served in your own way

Joining the workforce far from home

We remember you on this special day

 

My brother we remember you

You stood against an unjust war

One of many soldiers of conscience

Your cause was worth fighting for

 

My sisters too we remember you

Who served each in her own way

The ones who sacrificed all you had

We remember you this special day

 

War and Warriors

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: WAR

Warriors and War

 

To the warriors of World War II

So long ago and so far away

Your numbers now are quite few

But the elders among us remember you

For the courage that you showed

On that fateful day in June

The dark side of the moon

When you landed on that forlorn shore

The stuff of Hollywood and lore

We bow our heads in admiration

The pride of a grateful nation

 

To the warriors who fought in Vietnam

Not quite so proud and true

We offer you our deep respect

May we always honor you

As we remember those who fell

From them we ring the solemn bell

And promise not to make again

The mistakes we made back then

The warrior we should never blame

For the war the fought in our name

 

To the warriors of Afghanistan

Once again we honor you

Though the cause was less than true

You did what you must do

You answered a mourning nation’s call

The young and able, one and all

To fight a shameful terrorist attack

They hit us hard, we hit them back

But soon enough they spun around

And sent you to Iraq

 

To the warriors of Iraq

We owe you our apology

We sent you far across the sea

To fight against an enemy

That never did our people harm

And yet we took up arms

So many lost their lives

In a war that was not wise

We honor and remember you

For being strong and true

Possibilities of Being (re: Heidegger)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Possibilities of Being

 

We are not confined to what we are

We are what we are yet we are also

what we were and what we might

have been and might yet be

We are ourselves and all possibilities

of being ourselves

 

If we fully understand our state of being

it is always and forever changing

with the constant flow of possibility

yet its essence remains the same

 

There is that which is possible

and there is that which is not

If that which is theoretically possible

would alter the very core of being

it exceeds the boundaries of possibility

and falls into the realm of mythology

 

We are what we are including all

possibilities of what we may have

been or might still be yet those

possibilities are not without limits

in this world or the next

 

(re: Heidegger)