Triumph and Tragedy

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Triumph & Tragedy

 

When one triumphs we all triumph

When one falls we all fall

 

When Jimi Hendrix touched the sky

with his soaring guitar riffs

When Billie Holliday made us cry

as heart and soul ran adrift

When Kerouac channeled On the Road

When Steinbeck gave us old Tom Joad

What Twyla Tharp did for dance

as Pablo Neruda for romance

When a gifted athlete reaches out

and claims a victory over doubt

we feel his awesome pride

we are all on the same side

 

Though they speak for one they gift us all

When they reach the top we stand tall

 

Those who do not understand this truth

will always be alone

In crowds or on their own

Profoundly and perpetually

Alone

 

Killing Journalists (in Mexico)

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Killing Journalists

 

They kill journalists in Michoacán

Like they do in Moscow and Hong Kong

Like they do in police states

Like they do in places of corruption

Where criminal gangs and cartels

have more persuasion than government

and more authority than police

They kill journalists where officials

answer to criminals

and sicarios do not fear

 

They kill journalists in war zones

Where human bodies are commodities

Where poverty and drugs cheapen life

Where truth is just an afterthought

Where justice is a nightmare

and only peasants go to jail

 

They kill journalists in towns and cities

Where civilization has declined

And order has been lost

 

Where journalists are insecure

Where they can be killed with impunity

There is little hope for democracy

Little hope for human dignity

Little hope for society

Little hope for law-abiding citizens

Little hope for common folk

like you and me

Stupidity

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Stupidity

 

Stupidity is something you’re born with

Like intelligence or ten toes

It just is like a mountain of granite

It doesn’t fade and it doesn’t grow

 

It’s not something to be proud of

Nor should it give you shame

Thing is if you know you’ve got it

You just might want to restrain

 

From voicing your views out loud

On subjects you know nothing about

A little modesty might be in order

Or some modicum of doubt

 

When it comes to election time

You might swallow your stupid pride

Listen to the ones you trust

And let the smarter ones decide

 

King Sycophant

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: POEMICS

Bannon: King Sycophant

 

There is something fundamentally sick

About a self-serving egotist

Submitting himself to the will of

Another self-serving egotist

 

He bows down before the aged one

The one who used to be Donny Diamond

But is now only a bitter old man

Fighting dragons of his own creation

Sending commands form the mountain top

Demanding fidelity at all costs

Bending grown men to their knees

 

The man who would be kingmaker

Is the king of all sycophants

He takes his place among the supine

And from his soiled throne he rants

 

Internal Affairs

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Internal Affairs

 

China proclaims the right to be free

From other nation’s interference

In the internal affairs of state

 

Let it be clear:

No nation has the right to commit

Crimes against humanity

Behind the curtain of national borders

No nation has the right to oppress its

Citizens on the basis of religion

Race or ethnic background

No nation has the right to submit

Its people to torture under

The guise of education

No nation has the right to punish

Individuals for exercising free speech

No nation has the right to imprison

Dissidents or protesters

 

The inherent rights of humanity

Do not stop at national borders

The march of human rights and

Human dignity will continue

Despite the cruelty of power hungry

Despots, dictators and tyrants

Claim what rights you will

Human rights trump all

 

The Great Dictators

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

The Great Dictators

 

Putin and Xi to a large degree

Are the greatest threats to global peace

Xi thinks nothing of forced labor

They are no worse than their evil neighbor

Putin is busy rattling his saber

All hail the great dictators!

 

Putin claims a righteous cause

Abusing borders and flaunting laws

He did the same in Belarus

Denied the people a right to choose

Between freedom and democracy

Or a life ruled by hypocrisy

Putin is a miserable satyr

All hail the great dictator!

 

What can be said of Chairman Xi?

How horrifying can one man be?

Suppressing protests in Hong Kong

We knew where he stood all along

He sees democracy as the great threat

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Tibet

Genocide: Can we turn our backs?

Tiananmen Square you’re on track

Is there anyone who’s greater?

All hail the great dictator!

 

Woah Canada!

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: CORONAVIRUS SERIES

Woah Canada!

 

We think of you as our weaker

but more sophisticated sibling

Canada: Land of the educated

Land of the enlightened

Land of the peaceful and kind

 

We are shocked to see thousands

gathered on the streets of Ottawa

bearing swastikas and yelling obscenities

urinating and spewing degrading epithets

taking a stand against vaccination

 

We have long considered our northern friends

a kinder gentler more civilized breed

Have we infected you with our crudeness?

Have we implanted a hateful seed?

 

Woah Canada! Please say it ain’t so

You have not joined in the crazy race

taking sides with the spread of disease

losing touch with civility and grace

 

We need your sane and steady hand

We need your reasoned sanity

to calm our sometimes frenzied madness

to counter our wayward vanity

 

North Wind

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

 

North Wind

 

Storm upon storm batters the north

Like an angry Nordic god

The wind the rain the icy chill

Brings bridges down as towns stand still

Fallen trees and flooded streets

No end to this destruction

The biting wind the snow the sleet

This monumental disruption

 

Hide away the elder folk

Hide away the girls and boys

This storm brings endless chill and fright

A bitter end to days of joy

 

The dark of winter will not lift

It hangs on like a curse

And when we finally glimpse the light

It hammers us much worse

 

We wonder at the things we’ve done

To deserve this horrid storm

We huddle by the fireside

And hold on to the warm

 

Alas the sunlight breaks the day

And lingers from the morn

But we will long remember

This endless winter storm

 

The Equation (Putin's Gambit)

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

The Equation (Putin’s Gambit)

 

To war or not to war is an equation

In the minds of leaders of nations

Thirst for war is like a contagion

Give the order begin the invasion

 

The people follow like herded cattle

The least provocation to the first battle

Hatred comes easy to a people at war

Killers and rapists are at the door

 

A nation at war will rally support

Like the underdog in a popular sport

When a leader loses his hold on power

Mark the assault to the day and hour

 

The equation now is in Putin’s head

Recalculation before he goes to bed

Heads is war and tails is peace

The dogs of war nip at his feet

 

He calculates the gains he’d make

Support at home the land he’d take

To make his Mother Russia proud

The one true leader who never cowed

 

He calculates his costs of war

Seized assets making Russians poor

How much will his people suffer

To create a fictional power buffer?

 

What if they took his personal money?

Do his enemies possess that much cunning?

You can bet they do and yes they will

So stop the drums of war from drumming!

Russians Rise Up!

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

 

Russians Rise Up!

 

From Moscow to St. Petersburg

From the Urals to the Baltic Sea

From the Volga to the Arctic Circle

From Eastern Europe to Siberia

 

Rise up and be counted!

Rise up in the name of freedom!

Rise up for your own independence!

Rise up for the people of Ukraine!

Rise up against the Great Dictator!

Rise up for Alexei Navalny!

Rise up for a brighter future!

Rise up to demand a change!

Rise up for prisoners of conscience!

Rise up for all the journalists

and dissidents who gave their lives

so that you might live in freedom!

 

The people of Mother Russia

do not deserve a life of oppression

any more than the people of Ukraine

or the people of Georgia

or the people of Albania

or the people of Romania, Poland

Bohemia, Slovakia and Belarus

All the peoples who have known

the iron fist of Soviet brutality

 

Rise up!

March on the streets of protest!

Once more in the spirit of liberty!

Once more in the spirit of equality!

Let the dictator know his days

cannot endure the hour!

The world cannot live in peace

while people are subjugated

in any nation anywhere!

 

Rise up children of Mother Russia

and let him know his reign of terror

has come to a merciful end!

Nazi's in Ukraine

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

Nazi’s in Ukraine

 

There are rumors of Nazi sympathy

Rumors of fascist leanings

Be warned this cause will not go far

If that is where all this is leading

 

Let it be known throughout Ukraine

Let it be known in Independence Square

We will never work with Nazi’s

Neither here nor over there

 

We’ve heard it was a necessary evil

When Putin launched his invasion

It may have been expedient then

It will not do on this occasion

 

We will offer aid to serve your cause

If your cause is democracy

But all we give will soon be lost

If you veer toward autocracy

 

The world of freedom is united

In lending you a hand

But the white supremacists must go

If here we make a stand

 

John R. Lewis Bridge

RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GEORGE FLOYD/CIVIL RIGHTS SERIES

 

John R. Lewis Bridge

 

MLK marched on Washington

To assert the rights of all human beings

To live in relative peace and freedom

To buy homes in decent neighborhoods

To receive a quality education

To seek justice in a court of law

To expect decency from law enforcement

To vote in fair elections

 

John R. Lewis marched alongside MLK

Across the Edmund Pettis Bridge

To demonstrate his courage and resolve

They marched on in silence

As dozens of cops with clubs drawn

Stormed the marchers

Beating them down like animals

Trying to end the civil rights movement

Once and for always

 

Until the Edmund Pettis Bridge

Is dismantled piece by piece

Replaced with the John R. Lewis Bridge

We will not be home

We will not be free

Until every last vestige of white supremacy

Is uprooted from blood-stained soil

The cause will not be done

Indeed we will only have begun

 

No Time for War

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

No Time for War

 

We’ve seen the war on terror

Another war without an end

We’ve seen the war on poverty

It paid no dividends

We declared a war on Covid 19

And went merrily on our way

We’re accustomed to the metaphor

But it is not a time for war

 

We fought a war in Vietnam

To our eternal shame

A generation rose up to say

Don’t fight it in our name!

 

Of the long war in Afghanistan

We finally made an end

It was never about terrorism

On that you can depend

 

Our futile war in Iraq

Led straight to the Islamic State

What enriched our war machine

Made half the world irate

 

Our failed wars should teach us

There must be another way

All nations must come together

To impose a price to pay

 

Our sanctions must be binding

And punish to the core

Let all aggressors be forewarned

It is not a time for war

 

War in Ukraine

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: GLOBAL POLITICS

War in Ukraine

 

Is Ukraine an independent nation?

An escalation in weapons and guns

Breakdown in diplomatic relations

The war in Ukraine has begun

 

Amassed on the Ukrainian border

Soldiers missiles and tanks

Disrupting international order

Tension crawls up the ranks

 

The Russian beast has awakened

In a world beset with pandemic

A cold war no longer forsaken

Our problems become systemic

 

We have no patience for war

Between the world’s greatest powers

For a waste of precious resources

You could not pick a finer hour

 

Let there be no more wars

Not today and not tomorrow

Let us answer a soldier’s prayers

Stop the wars, ease the sorrow

Broken Union

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: AMERICAN DEMOCRACY

Broken Union

 

The union is a bond of principle

An agreement beyond politics

An unspoken understanding that

In times of crisis and catastrophe

Natural disasters and wars

We will come together as one people

United in common purpose

It is a promise to defend each other

At all costs against all enemies

Foreign and domestic

 

The union is beyond words

It towers above written laws

It is more than blood relations

It is the circle of family ties

It carries the weight of love

 

Our founders made an agreement

A sacred promise before the eyes of god

Despite all of their differences

Despite envy and jealousies

Cast in iron and stone

That the union of a new nation

Would never have a king

Would never have an emperor

Would never be ruled by the power of one

 

The union was broken once

Over the abomination of slavery

Tens of thousands spilled their blood

On the grounds of civil war

Lincoln died for our sins

And we vowed never more

 

We are at those crossroads again

And the stakes are equally severe

If we break the union now

With democracy in the balance

We may never get it back again

Not in our lifetime

Not in the lifetimes of our children

 

If we break the union now

Our crimes will be remembered

Until the end of time

 

Longing for the Past

 RANDOM JACK POETRY HOUR: LIFE SONGS

Longing for the Past

 

We feel uneasy with the world we see

Though we accept that all things change

In the past we controlled our destiny

Now everything seems so strange

 

I remember well the corner store

Owned by a local mom and pop

They used to greet you by the door

We used to know the local cop

There are no locals anymore

We don’t purchase local crops

We used to gather rich and poor

Before the good times stopped

 

Now all is owned by corporations

We’re a corporation nation

The movie house the restaurants

The stops on our vacation

 

Oh how we long for yesteryear

When our neighbors were our friends

We look back now and shed a tear

For we thought it would never end