The King

 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

 

For What it's Worth

 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

 

 

The Soul

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?

 

Vengeance

 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

 

Words Flow (Don't Know Why)

 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

 

Find your Bliss

 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)

 

 

Endure

 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

 

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