Posted on

Blessings, Damnations, and Woes

Blessed are the protesters
In peaceful assembly
Demanding justice and equality
For yours is The Dream made real
Mahatmas one and all
Standing before Nirvana
On the Road to Shambhala
Yet You lack one thing to enter
You must shed your violent alter-self
You can not harbor violent souls
And cross the gates to the peaceful happy land
Though the price of peace may be your life
Unyielding while bearing your cross
As all the martyrs that came before you

Blessed are the peace officers
When they live up to the term
Protecting and serving the people
For yours is the Badge of Honor
When you protect the people
Nurturing them under your shield
Of peace, and prosperity, and equality before the law
Yet one thing you lack to stand before The Judge
You must purge yourself of the wolves
Hiding themselves in your ranks
You must cast aside their violence
Before it destroys your flock
Or they drive you into the wilderness

Damned are the troublemakers
Hurling insults and bricks
Setting fires and looting
Your anarchism nullifies the voice of the people
You doom the saints that are actually bringing change
To another round of violence
Your bile drowns the discussion
And poisons the fields before they ripen
Your harvest is nothing but ashes
Repent before you are consumed
Broken shards of glass and flames
Become your funeral pyre

Damned are the cowardly bullies
Who instigate events
Demanding people respect their authority
And choking out innocent life
Simply because they can
Using guardian positions to prey upon innocents
Your black-hearted hypocrisy dooms you to failure
As the people rebel against your evil empire
Your anger and cowardice besmirches your profession
Repent or suffer the fate of the wolf and rabid dog
That must be put down
In order to save the flock

Woe to those in authority
Who abuse their power
Making themselves and their friends rich
On the backs of the people
Using crony capitalism and politics
To keep the people divided and
Inflamed with daily tragedies
To distract the people from the fact
That you are robbing them of their future
By poisoning their present
You do whatever is necessary
To hold on to your positions
And enjoy the succulent feast
While the people languish in misery
Repent and turn from evil
Before the greed in your calloused heart
Fans the flames of street protest
Into your Thermidor

Woe to the Cassandra prophet poet
Who sees the present in the past
Augers the future through discernment
And knows that the voice crying out from the wilderness
Is seldom heard and understood
Because the heart of the people
Is based in primordial violence
And even in an advanced state
Relies upon tribal fealty
Like troops of monkeys
Fighting over the best fruit trees
To clearly see the pathway forward
Knowing it won’t be taken
Is perhaps the worst punishment of all.

Posted on

Humanity (choose your own adventure)

Rescue

Can we reach our better side
bringing hard work to new visions
or are we only fight or flight?

Thoughts and prayers sent up the flue
papering over our divisions
all the hate we thought was through

We are made of contradiction
making peace is part of us
but fighting wars is our tradition

We are conflicted, we are still one
a little hope would be a plus
it seems so long ere the day is done

We can act with malice and spite
or press forgiveness to our hearts
fighting upwards to the light

Isolation in a divided nation
our brains are made for social smarts
stewing in our own frustration

All alone in our four walls
will our future be secure
drifting sadly through drafty halls

Turn to the very last page
willful pique or mindless cure
will it be peace or curdled rage?

Posted on

Philosophy More than Poetry

Gate to Seoul
This is not a poem to glorify war
Though it may seem that way
To those who do not know
What we know
(Oh, what we know!)

This is not a poem to praise America
Though it celebrates an idea
That once was
And can be again
(Liberty Enlightening the World!)

This is not a poem to castigate anyone
Though it may burn
And stick in the craw
Of many who read it
(Ruminant fiber for our system!)

This is a poem about the lethargy of excess
And the revolution it spawns
In the belly of the hungry
Because inequality breeds contempt
(Desperate people doing desperate things!)

This is a poem asking people to wake up
And understand what is happening
As binary politics and policies
Rip us apart as a people
(Divided electorates are divided and conquered)

This is a notice that we are in a psychological war
For the soul of what it means
To be a People, United
Americans
(The City on a Hill!)

We the people have been sold
As an offering
Fattened Cattle
On the altar of prosperity
(Lambs to the slaughter!)

In our national capital and statehouses
They gerrymander away
Our Freedom, our Voice, our Future
For profit and power
(Litigious society in chains!)

On the newsroom floor they package infotainment
Having nothing to do with keeping the people informed
Better to keep them enflamed
So that money keeps pouring in
(Ignorance makes the chains feel lighter!)

On their “smart phones”, the people play games
Content in complete ignorance
Watching gladiators in the arena
As Rome burns around them
(The Republic becomes an Empire)

Barbarians at the gate, look on in approval
As the empire consumes itself
Rome’s “Crisis of the Third Century”
Alive and well today
(Where is Marcus Aurelius, our philosopher? Vegetius our reformer?)

Army marching victoriously to battle to battle
Winning with great violence
Unchallenged at sea or in air
Yet losing war after war
(Strategy that can’t survive an election cycle is no strategy at all!)

Trapped by Thucidydes against all comers
Active foreign policy everywhere
Stretched beyond our means
Undermined by friend and foe
(The strong do what they will, the weak suffer what they must!)

And so it comes full circle back to We the People,
Who revel in our ignorance
And allow our politicians to poison us with bad policy
Putrid meat flavored to tastes like honey
(Buying up our favor with scraps of cake)

Unless we awaken from our slumber
And take back our birthright
First will come the Revolution
Then the Thermidor
(Our vanity a bonfire, Liberty Enlightening the World)

Posted on

Of Forges and Fates

National Cathedral

War is the crucible of humanity

Where heat and pressure burn away the dross

Transforming society.

 

The experience might forge a new society

As a rare and valuable alloy

Useful in its blending of elements;

Or,

It might just as easily,

Leave a brittle weakened state,

With poor metal in its spine,

Ready to shatter under the pressure,

Fragmenting in to shards of itself.

 

The nation that welds its various components,

Into one blade upon the forge,

Under the hammer beats of history,

Through in the fire of tribulation,

Tempered with a quench

Of Humanity and Humility,

Shall always win the day.

Posted on

Columbia Appearing

Gate to Seoul

On the banks of a river at the edge of a storm,
I reflected on how the past gives the present its form;
How the sun and rain in close cooperation,
Allow the fields and farms to feed the nation.
On far away mountains, abundant ice and snow,
In spring and summer make the rivers to flow;
Then a trickling brook can a mighty torrent make,
When storms and erosion cause a levee to break.
Soon floodwaters rise and a harvest is lost;
Because the natural balance became tempest tossed.

As from a dream, a mythic visage then I spied-
On clouds Columbia, Goddess of Liberty, personified;
Dressed in Phrygian cap and star-spangled gown,
Carrying sword and laurel she made her way down.
With eyes full of sorrow and a contemplative sigh,
She opened her mouth to speak as she drew nigh.
Though the storm tried to silence her with thunderous roar,
She held up her sword and prepared for the war.
Lightning flashed as the gale blew from the left and right,
Columbia stood firm and still, displaying her might.

Then her voice a chorus of millions caused the storm to abate
As the judgment against her namesake she began to relate.
The politicians and partisans from the left and the right,
Through unending struggle for power created a blight.
Their turpitude and greed, as a source of division,
Could not go unpunished for failing to maintain her vision.
Liberty and Freedom require compromise and equanimity,
The battles of partisanship leads to slavery and inequality.
Then she struck down the villains and started anew,
Governance for the people both balanced and true.

Then she gave a gave a promise before returning to the skies,
That it is up to the people to determine if Liberty lives or dies.
If governance for the people by the people is to be our goal,
Then compromise and cooperation are what makes us whole.
As nature itself models the governance of our nation,
Yields its best fruit with balanced moderation.
So too we must balance against our own selfish fate,
The values of others, and the needs of the whole state.
Every individual must dutifully do their full part,
To prepare Columbia the room to live in their heart.