Civility

 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

 

 

The Crook

 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.) 

 

Honest

 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

 

The Evil Within

 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

 

Fire Wind & Rain

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

 

Glimmers of Light

 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

The Streets of Protest

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  GEORGE FLOYD SERIES

The Streets of Protest

 

The streets of protest

Are lined with the blood of martyrs

From the slave uprisings of ancient Rome

To the storming of the Bastille

From the modest Boston Tea Party

To the Haymarket Labor Riots

From the Freedom March on Washington

To the suffragettes for women’s rights

From the Free Speech Movement

To the Vietnam sit ins

From the global challenge to the Iraq War

To the George Floyd upheaval

The pages of history are marked

By the rising of the Left

The cause of humankind

 

Throughout the course of time

Liberty Freedom Justice Equality and Peace

Have always depended on Free Thinkers

From the Left

Never from the Right

The reactionary Right has always

Stood against the march of progress

Always

 

So when the Right cries Freedom!

We answer:  Freedom for who?

For the oppressed white men?

For the overprivileged class?

 

So when the Right comes to the streets

Of protest with their arms and helmets

Their riot sticks and bullet proof vests

Do not mistake them for liberators

Do not pretend they stand for order

They are the insurgents

They are thugs and bullies

Hungry for power and ways

To wield it

 

The Proud Boys

The Klan

The Secret Society

By any other name:

They are the enemies of the people

Enemies of America

Enemies of all we hold dear

 

Gone

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Gone

 

Remember what you cannot recover

The mist of a Pacific storm

The fog of a redwood forest

The scent of blooming passion

The wisp of a loved one’s sigh

 

Seize them by the core

Breathe them in and never let go

Store them where they’re safe and warm

Let them comfort and ease your soul

 

Gone now are the late night runs

Gone the endless nights till morn

Gone are the moonlight drives

Gone the way of carefree lives

 

We look back now with yearning

The inner fire no longer burning

Wondering where the passion went

The lifeblood of longing spent

 

We live our lives never knowing

Our true feelings never showing

Here today and gone tomorrow

Holding back our love and sorrow

 

When we spend more time

With what has been

Than we do with what will be

We’ll know that life

In all its humbling mystery

Has passed us by

 

Proper Propaganda

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Proper Propaganda

 

I am not against propaganda

Gandhi was a proper propagandist

Paine and Jefferson wrote proper propaganda

Honest wise and virtuous

 

But our president and his sycophants

Are not proper propagandists

They deal in heavy handed subterfuge

Falsehoods deceptions and lies

 

With great irony and conviction

They give us the opposite of the truth

Truth without negation

Truth without truth

 

Climate change is (not) a hoax

Democrats will (not) destroy democracy

Democrats (do not) want anarchy and upheaval

They will (not) burn your homes

They will (not) take your women

They will (not) traffic your children (really?)

 

We will (not) give you good jobs

We will (not) provide healthcare

We will (not) guarantee social security

 

The opposite of truth

The truth sans negation

Truth without truth

 

They are (not) men of honor

They are (not) well intentioned

They are (not) well informed

They are (not) the hope of our nation

They will (not) make America great

They will (not) liberate the world

 

The truth is not the truth

As long as they are in power

Patiently we await

The reckoning hour

 

The Light

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

The Light

 

Pray for forgiveness

Pray for second sight

End this madness

Follow the light

 

For we have lived too long

Suffered too many lies

Cried too many tears

Sacrificed too many lives

To hang our weary heads now

And give up the good fight

Find your courage and

Follow the light

 

For I have witnessed darkness

And I have seen its face

It always pretends to care

As it fills our empty space

But we reject their message

As we stand for the right

Stern your resolve

Follow the light

 

For we have dwelled so long

In the caverns of darkness

Even the thought of light

Delivers palpitations of the heart

Our eyes close in fright

As if thought alone

Could damage our sight

Discard all distraction and

Follow the light

 

For we have breathed this toxic air

So long we think it’s healthy

When others have nothing

Having something seems wealthy

And we have sought our comfort

In shared grief and mourning

So long it sings us goodnight

Stand up stand strong

Reach out for the light

 

Come now the light will guide you

Into our mother’s loving arms

And it will make you whole again

And it will make you strong

Let it raise you to its lofty height

Find your strength inside

Come home to the light

 

The Longest Hours

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

The Longest Hours

 

From the hours of the deepest night

To the hours of early morn

When sleep no longer comforts

My thoughts become forlorn

 

I wonder if we cannot do

What destiny demands of us

I wonder if we cannot see

What history commands of us

 

Are you and I accountable

For this collapse of reason

Our failings to this point in time

May fall just short of treason

 

In the hours of the deepest night

To the hours of early morn

My musings chase the darkness

My nightmares are reborn

 

Relativity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Relativity

 

The truth is not the truth

But a momentary flash

One man’s treasure trove

Is another’s pile of trash

Like a drunken revelation

Like a phantom divination

Like a crack in the nation

At the core

 

Objectivity lost

Like a quiet in the storm

Like presidential scorn

Like a riot in a dorm

Reach for it and watch it fade

Like a vision that was made

With smoke and mirrors

 

The laws of physics are suspended

Fact and substance are dependent

On the bias of the backers

Trolls and Russian hackers

Take the money and go away

For tomorrow is today

And players do not play

Everything is relative

We Will Survive

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR:  CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Survive

 

A rolling spectacle of misery

The loneliness of isolation

The scourge of homelessness

The prospect of destitution

The hopelessness of prostitution

The stain of human bondage

The glorification of violence

The deification of criminality

The universality of suffering

A failing will to stay alive

Yet do not worry little ones

We have not lost our drive

We will survive

 

The western world on fire

A raging mother earth

Prophecies most dire

Pray for what it’s worth

The sound of towers crashing

The cry of souls in pain

Slaves receive a lashing

Tears like pounding rain

Yet do not worry little ones

Though hard times have arrived

Be strong and keep your head

We will survive

 

The Bitter End

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

 

The Bitter End

 

In this long life I’ve seen it all

Monsters rise and virtues fall

On this sad fate you can depend

We’re heading for a bitter end

 

The endless hours are unrestrained

The human race has gone insane

There are no crimes we can’t defend

Welcome to the bitter end

 

We hear preachers spinning riddles

Accompanied by fiddles

Screaming in the hollow nights

No relief within our sight

Sorrow’s message they do send

Welcome to the bitter end

 

We see four horsemen on the rise

Terror burns in desperate eyes

They have no helping hand to lend

Welcome to the bitter end

 

We stand strong and defiant

We will become self-reliant

Will not break though we may bend

Though we meet the bitter end

 

Purgatory

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: VISIONS

 

Purgatory

 

There is a place on earth

Between heaven and hell

Where the land is on fire

Where the senses rebel

Where the air smells of smoke

Where the leader laughs

And calls it a joke

 

There is a place on earth

Where the frozen tundra melts away

Where caution runs and folly stays

Where homes burn to the ground

And the land runs dry

Where grown men break down

And strong women cry

 

This is a land of prophecy

A dying breed

Where one world ends

And another takes seed

 

The Gateway

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR

 

The Gateway

 

They stormed the gates of the Bastille

They stormed the gates of Brandenburg

They stormed the gates at Buchenwald

They stormed the gates of hell

 

Whenever change is needed

Wherever people are bound

Whatever hand oppresses

A gateway must be found

 

We are known for building barriers

We are famed for building walls

But a wall without a gateway

Is a wall that must soon fall

 

A way to bend both time and space

A gateway to beyond

A path to save the human race

And build a stronger bond

 

We are trapped within an endless maze

Desperate to escape

We are searching for a gateway

To take a leap of faith