Poetic Justice (Don\'t burn the flag. Wash it!)Poetic Justice (Don\'t burn the flag. Wash it!)A political poetry blog. Original poetry, video and artwork. A dissenting verse. 
Articles
DISTORTED WINNING (3/08/09 Head-Lines)
2009-03-08 07:00:00 US 'not winning in Afghanistan'The useful truths, which are now dead,Had something more to offer.They held something greenerIn a land overwrought with war,Hemorrhaging of empire’s lance,Crawling with the decaying carcass of liberation.Authors Warn That Many Textbooks Distort ReligionOur gods, like the books we consume,Often convey our red imaginings,Others bring joy to a solemn dayWhile others convene gray death.It is the same of modern history;Written, and rewritten, by mortals.Economic News Continues To SourO hopeful and poorAre the future stewards;Their appetite for a new landShall only be eclipsed by their starvation.Study: Widows 'forgotten victims of Iraq'The center of these women, where astonishing energiesof things like the savor of love, the curl in their child’s hair,the way rain drops upon a roof and how the rivers smell,and the way their men so easily touch upon their dreams,has forever changed.© 2008 mrp/thepoetryman More About: Head , Lines , Winning
Interview with Blogger...
2009-03-06 09:10:00 I was recently honored by The Pakistani Spectator with an interview. More About: Blogger , Interview
DRIFT (3/4/09 Head-Lines)
2009-03-05 04:23:00 (A Poetic Justice Photomontage) What motivated a Florida gunman to open fire on Latino exchange students? It’s hard to tell, but, rest assured, it was not for the same reason That fog drifts out over the bay like a creeping thought Or that sleep puts her lips upon the offspring of all living things. Finally! Karl Rove and Harriet Miers agree to testify under oath before Congress. Well sort of. Like a caged and unfed dog that builds a church in his howling, Or a sleepy guardian of stars that leans her head against the universe, This oath is the only decent pledge, or truth, they’ve ever known. Pants Saggin It stands to reason that All we know comes from the past, But the tree covered in ice can’t grow Until it shakes itself free of the load Or cries out while it severs its reach, Yet a bird snatches its fallen seeds And skillfully ascends into the offing skies. What clothes should we put on when we talk about brotherhood... or war? © 2008 mrp/thepoetryman More About: Head , Lines , Drift
A Fool, His Dance and His Laboratory (Blog Head-Lines)
2009-03-02 01:05:00 ~"Man of the People - O'Reilly dumps on kids then dismisses job creation ad"Remember the ice-lined anguish of this fool;A wolf that licks his lips mopping up a grave deception,With an ivory-grinned treachery nods its own approvalAnd eats the less fortunate. A fool riding a protracted tailUpon airwaves choking from the misuse of a tender flesh.~Why Trees Dance For the same reason that exploding flesh seems to travel in slow motion.For the same reason that a starving child's tenterhook eyes collapse inward.For the same reason that despair’s overcome in the desert by a watery mirage.Question is, when will our dancing commence?~Israel Treated Gaza Like its own Private Death Laboratory How have we gone astray?We were not the thing we murdered,We were the slayer within our occasion;An experiment that from its beginning required slaughterLeaving us blind to the wounds we’ve always had.So what reason do we have to change?© 2008 mrp/thepoetryman More About: Blog , Fool , Head
STILL AFLUTTER (Head-Lines 2/24/09)
2009-02-24 18:27:00 (A Poetic Justice Photomontage)Gabon’s Vast Rain Forests at RiskIf you looked hard enough you could see their wings on the rainCoordinated with the wet leaves.Within a single year they will have flown such a great distance.Everywhere, but upright and green.They shall speak but briefly as they’re lifted away, making suchAwful noise underneath the ground.They’re not the first trees to scream in flight of man’s want…Yet they could well be the last.A Letter From Ali Shafeya’s SisterO! No one upon this earth stays long-To heft such sorrow on the chest; death,is wrong.To spray the body like some liquid wallWith the red and brown and blood of menAnd without so much as causeis sin.Dispatches From The Front Lines Of Economic CrisisAround our giant orbThere will be no breadTo share, nor child sparedIn crimson misery hereAs all is dust and spentAnd only those few leftmight say,What a wonderful thing was man.Robert Gibbs vs Talk RadioBoom! Boom! Boom!Bang! Bang! Bang and a rat-a-tat... More About: Head
IMAGOTRY
2009-02-20 07:50:00 (A Poetic Justice Photomontage)-click to enlarge-Paper apologizes over Obama cartoonThe shooting of slack-uttered reason,The silent image of bullet-hole bigotryFor what the truth is, and its color and loveAnd their view of racism, and adoration of animal,And to cry and to breathe and to die,They do not know, they do not care to know,But we do… and we’re ready for the task;Hoping for its whirling beast to drown.Nato 'can't allow Afghan failure'The futile bay of houndsIn the sand and the valley,In the mountains and the sky,Do we wait for its fadingSo we might fall off contented?Nearly 5 million Americans drawing jobless benefitsIt is huge inside of this; emptiness, penniless, haplessMarching alongside the people in their tattered forms.Tall and razor-edged, rainbows of wretchedness.In this dark floodIt weeps to screamAnd work again.Killer of Va. Officer Is ExecutedBellow and wail in the wood,Cry and shudder in the air,The hideous eye of an eye,Looks back at us.Racial Profiling ...
Mr. Obama, please...
2009-02-19 21:52:00 Taking personal action is a poem in and of itself... More About: Obama
TREMBLING LOAM
2009-02-18 17:29:00 Another poem culled from the past (with updated links)...O spindling reason, close thy soiled and gruesome jaw’s Surging rationale like a thimble of water to thirst; We’ve no blood left to drip our cheerless dreams!Dreadful is our cresting obsession with greed,Horrible is our pale service to the lords of deathAnd monstrous our empire’s approaching fury!The waters flow with the slake of our wickednessAnd these vile works speed the thunderous fortunesOf the sacred beasts come to change what we would not... O why can’t we see that our indifference to rigid aweHas the world’s doorways strangled with skeletonsAnd unearthed the creatures quivering wings? Like a mother in the shadow of night we can, if we choose,Erect a grand temple from out of our bosomed courageAnd quell this; our trembling loam of mounting death!
THE WRIT
2009-02-17 07:58:00 A writ of habeas corpus is a court order addressed to a prison official (or other custodian) ordering that a prisoner be brought before the court for determination of whether that person is serving a lawful sentence and/or whether he or she should be released from custody. The writ of habeas corpus in common law countries is an important instrument for the safeguarding of individual freedom against arbitrary state action.And it is that Habeas corpus can also meanThat an imprisoning authority of an alleged murderer‘Should have the body'! Yes! Should have the bodyTo prove there’s been any such murder at all!You should have the bodies stacked up high,Above your neck the fallen amassed and toweringToward the gray-thrown sky where their facesLook alive once more with the sobbing of battle.You should have the tortured hands and backsBear them to the cavern of your limbless,Eyeless scourge as the conqueror’s honor;The due reverence to your lifeless carnival.You should have the tremb...
PATHS TO FOLLOW (Head-Lines 2/16/09)
2009-02-16 07:44:00 This Week: In MemoriamTo the vast red glow that strikes the solemn stonesWe are destined to turn our consideration.They seem more like warnings than flesh and bone.Crash plane 'dropped in seconds'Behind the story, like the panicked thump of the heart,Comes the expected statistics- numbers, velocity, cause.This comes as no comfort to those who’ve yet to fall.Japan economy in biggest dive since 1974The rumbling shorelines are coupled by the seasAnd the waters are joined in their long and joyous swill.We are slow to see ourselves in these realities.In a Likely Obama Pick, Some Find Hope for a Shift in Drug Policy“Drug”, like “war”, has such a piteous and putrid sound.Perhaps we should not fasten the two together like we do;“War on drugs”, “drug war”,Too often they’re waged against an erroneous foe.Guantanamo Cases' Fate Must Be DeterminedAs the truth’s of the air are everyone’sSo are the fates awaiting their paths to follow.But the lie’s of the air that sha... More About: Head , Lines
THE SHATTERING OF WAR'S CHILD
2009-02-15 10:38:00 Small brown rodents scurry across the shell of the span. A broken and weeping child lies upon the makeshift bed, And at the shattered window next to the door, the slumped Tears of a torn fabric drop in the wind. Soon the door to that other noisy time will thrash and split And the barrels of the sun will enter without knocking And demand of them a fresh, uncluttered room. (Surely the wave of fabric will startle them.) After a rather lengthy and determined conversation, The barrels will find reverie in their clatter And breathe a sigh of relief at their escape. Across the alleyway a woman seizes her bread and her child And runs frightened into the abandoned street. Looking up toward her sister’s shattered casement, She calls out to her. The sky rolls in its troops and the moon calls forth its howl. A new landscape moves in as the rodents groom their nails And hone their teeth for a grand feast upon the streets. Tonight will be no different than the last; the dark queen Will issue h... More About: Child
HANDS
2009-02-14 07:00:00 (A Poetic Justice Photomontage)Michelle,I sought a peace and a grace as bright as this world's beginning, as astounding as nature’smight.I sought a truth hidden away and stayed for it to kiss my ready mouth.I sought the lover’s song with its pursed and famished lips; I wandered the earth for herlairLike an angel in search of brilliant wings to pin upon a lungful of air.I looked where I thought angels dwelled, hoping to glimpse their hands opening up thesky,I even peered into those spaces where I knew an angel would never fly.I heard their enchanting music; bells ringing ever so quietly in that dimness of anotherworldWhere I imagined us soaring forever in a multicolored sky of birds.I sought a love and a soul as bright as imagination, as astounding as the world’s redDawn.I sought a veiled truth and lingered there for it to kiss my ready jaws.I wandered down the streets and the alleys in search of the key to unchain forever’sdoorLike some weary worn god scouring universes to ... More About: Hands
Actionable Resistance
2009-02-13 10:43:00 There are around twenty actions to takeon the new APJ blogActionable Resistance !
LOPPED AWAY
2008-11-24 08:26:00 (Poetryman Videos)Everyone of us on the wounded ground,limbs left under, eyes,minds,lopped away. See what we have made? We’ve molded ourselves into his shape, aided a liar and murderer,and all those that came before. See what we’ve done? We’ve shaped ourselves into their casualty,Our country. How did we let it happen?"USA! USA! USA!" (Enough. Goddamnit. Enough!)How did we land here, puffed-up with pride, withered of truth? How did we let this happen?We know. We damn well know.We share in the shame, we’re all so miserably guiltyand bleedingand hemorrhagingand limbless.(Reach out. Reach out. Reach out!) © 2008 mrp/tpm
ABEED AL-BEIT
2008-11-20 04:35:00 CAIRO, Egypt — Al-Qaida's No. 2 leader used a racial epithet to insult Barack Obama in a message posted Wednesday, describing the president-elect in demeaning terms that imply he does the bidding of whites. The message appeared chiefly aimed at persuading Muslims and Arabs that Obama does not represent a change in U.S. policies. Ayman al-Zawahri said in the message, which appeared on militant Web sites, that Obama is "the direct opposite of honorable black Americans" like Malcolm X, the 1960s African-American rights leader. In al-Qaida's first response to Obama's victory, al-Zawahri also called the president-elect _ along with secretaries of state Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice _ "house Negroes." Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term "abeed al-beit," which literally translates as "house slaves." But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as "house Negroes." (More...) Terror’s teeth lunges for the leather whip that cracks ...
Monday November 10th HEAD-LINES
2008-11-10 18:35:00 Scar Tissue and the F bomb Rage’s pretty white child has lost its teddy bear, It whose lips he knew and who hugged him tenderly. We’ve been witness to this foxtrot under the dimness of fear. Heard him cry “O! How I do love thee, my wooly god!” Heard him screech of the emptiness pounding his ears When no one thought to challenge the lopsided score. Throngs of emotion have dreamed of him Wished his razor-sharp word would pierce their skin, The frowned face caked atop their melancholy mug As the cold flesh of emptiness left its unique scar. Now his followers madly grimace as truth tumbles down Upon the soft rear of indifference… and babies cry. Rise up tender child! Bravely swim back to us Through the red water and bone! Back to the asylum! Secret Order – Attack al Qaeda in many Countries Coming in low, over the streets, over flesh, Coming to free their bandaged minds of such rumbling, Terror plummets down as savior and Christ! Obama Plans to Close Gitmo To do now ... More About: Head , Monday , Lines , November
ODE TO CHANGE
2008-11-05 09:32:00 This poem is for President Elect Barack Obama... and hope.How is it possible-that, in an age of such a shredded foundation,that, in an age of such unprecedented warring,that, in an age of such unequaled corruption andterrible sadness, a moment as this could come?How is it possible-that, after such machinations of greed and hubris,we have the power to have witnessed this;the moment now bending its light upon us,directing us forward to our better selves?How is it possible-that we now proceed with this stunning milestone,that we march onward in the footprints of revolutionthough the course is not curved of our choosingand the strident shriek of the dying covers our skies?How is it possible-that we have stumbled to our rightful place of account,wandered in on such lustrous and cheerful promisestanding now before our grasp, yet still untaken,unused, and ready for our hands to shape into our art?How is it possible-with the end written before the bright and new beginning,with our expectati... More About: Change
BARREN SPEECH (poem & photomontage
2008-11-01 23:04:00 (A Poetic Justice Photomontage) On the dusty floors of the barren house Rats eat their weight in stale crumbs. Straight talk pushes through a musty air, Moving with untold illness. Restless, Frantic voters, march, plead. Useless, Their freedom’s song Pulsing against their teeth. The country groans, Wretchedly pleading of liberty; Words of hope feel oily, Staining the tongue. The rats scurry over the boards In the empty home. © 2008 mrp/tpm More About: Poem , Speech
WHITE NOISE NEOCON
2008-10-15 19:10:00 (Motion Picture Politics)© 2008 mrp/tpm More About: White , Noise , Neocon
REMEMBERING... again
2008-09-11 08:32:00 Remember it well.(Me? I remember it.)Not the day, the date, or the event. This moment.(The anniversary. I remember.)No. The moment’s passing.(This day, five years ago?)This. This. This moment. This one.(I do. Of course I remember this day.)No. No. No.(Of that moment the shutter snapped slowly. I saw it all.)Not the pictures. Not the continual loop. Now.(I hold them inside me.)No.(Yes. Probably a reflex.)Not the tears. The dread. The flying flesh. This moment. Now.(I was in shock then, but I remember the planes and the death.)This moment! This! This! This! This one! Now! Terror! Now!(I knew we had changed and I remember the dead.)Now! Now! Now!(Yes! 9-11 is etched in my mind! I remember this day!)Are you an idiot?I am talking about this moment now! Two-thousand and eight!Not the moment of impact!Not the moment of plummeting!Not the moment of being unable to breathe!Not the excruciating video of the jumpers!(Jumpers? I don’t recall. Really?)I mean this moment! This one, as we spea... More About: Remembering
I SERVED MY COUNTRY IN FOREIGN LANDS...
2008-09-08 07:58:00 At whose behest?Were they certain of your brilliance and aim,assured that your bullet would find its flesh?Who sent you there with gun and grenade?Did they know that you were a skilled assassin?Who brought you to such hunger?A profound reverence for the motherland,or payment for her freedom's wonder?Can you even recognize her, is she the sameas before you sent another soul to grave?Who moved you to it?Some grand leader, father, teacher, God?Did they too have your hardy thirst for war?Did they follow you there, to the foreign pit,into the fray, ready to exterminate their foe?Who sent you to kill?Did they ready your legs for such a slaughter,prepare you to painfully die for your country?Did your victims go staggering alone into the swillor did they put their filthy mouths to the lips of war?© 2008 mrp/tpmThe Hollow Men... A tip of the hat to Crooks and Liars.Rolling along "S"... S.T.i.T.P. - Sabbah's Blog - Sans-Culotte - Sasha Undercover - Seeking Higher Solitude - Shadow of the ... More About: Country , Foreign
MOVIE POSTER
2008-09-06 08:21:00 (A Poetic Justice Photomontage) More About: Movie , Movie Poster , Poster
WE MAY HAVE ALREADY...
2008-09-05 18:45:00 (Read the poem)Loved everything and everyone worth hatingAnd hated everyone and everything worth lovingRecognized everybody we’re ever going to knowWith a sideways glance in a dime store trench coatMemorized all the arrogant words to our country’s anthemForgetting how to say “thank you” and “you’re welcome”Neglected to learn the golden lessonsShared by the old whore’s toothless humFound new enemies easier to makeThan keeping old friends along the wayBecome invisible under our own skins(Within a cubicle is no place to expect miraclesWe’ll find God in a sandbox, breathing in the oil that holds us there)Succumbed to freedom’s aneurysmWrist sliced open like a vanilla skyOn a September morning's baptismFallen, flailing to the ashen groundLike a Raggedy Ann dollTossed out the mouths of a pair of tall clowns“Is that a bird?” “No! It’s a child dropped from God’s hand!”“Move along, folks. Nothing new to see here.Move along now. Next stop- Disney Land!”Die...
GRAND SPECTACLE
2008-09-04 06:31:00 (View the photomontage and read the poem)(A Poetic Justice Photomontage)250 Protesters Arrested, Including Amy GoodmanLooking from the opposite side of this other worldWondering what it is that they must truly think of usThe mind awakens to their jarring ovationAnd thoughts swoop in like dark winged beastsI see them calling, “God damns you to hell!”They shouldn’t tell peacekeepers that their voices can’t soarThey shouldn’t try breaking those who see the ugliness of their fearsThey shouldn’t damn an outstretched hand while offering raging teethin exchangeAnd smile as they bring such reckless blades to neckBecause we will not kneel down and waitLions charging across the plainsFeel their razor claws as they seek the fearful groundAnd thrusting wild boars come crashingA victim’s quivering lips that have turned their hearts paleOf cradling fear held up like a frozen handAnd their god will return to find them this way© 2008 mrp/tpmRolling along "P"... Paranoia or Schizophre... More About: Grand
SKY CHURNED RAGE
2008-09-02 17:22:00 (View the photomontage & read the poem)(A Poetic Justice Photomontage)It was foretold that a redeemer would come with ice under her wings! It was saidthat we’d bow to her charge, to her spellbound occasion and her frozen loyalty.She came at the behest of the old man’s superiors, shaking the waters with her wing.I have heard of this legend in books from a simpler time, back before the battle,Before the ice came, after the storm of the century when this land was asleep.Back when ghosts bumped along the tundra like herds of muskox, and the humanswere timid and easily gunned down by noble hunters with time on their hands.Ghosts stalking ghosts, wandering pickpockets in a land that never again moved.Sky-churned rage pushed by the rousing-deep and talonsOf blind eddies crept closer, carrying their god-awful devotion,Pawing greed and desperation over any miserable wretch in their way,Screeching “America is here!” and then severing her unfolded appendages,Splattering their power ove... More About: Rage
THE SOLDIERS WERE THERE...
2008-08-31 21:36:00 ...tattered rows of drained bone, hanging flesh,Wounded limbs, lifeless eyes, all staggered with rage.They lined the granite path that led to his appointed throne,Not a word was spoken; the hush was violent enough.He was not prepared to meet such blistering wrath,The cracked and unsmiling faces, all with such dripping loss.He was ill equipped and unready for their bony grief,So he did the only thing he knew, he splintered a dreadful grin,You’ve done America proud. You’ve served your country with honor.The road was long, the fight, arduous, but you are home now andWe will honor you for your hard-won accomplishments.The crow of death no longer waits on thee.The granite was quite under the push of their bodies,Their silence floating in the air like an old dog slumpedFrom the beatings of a gutless master. Warriors,Whose illustrious hues were bleached from airless days,Caught him unawares with such gruesome stillness.As he sat, pondering the moment upon his throne, Their vacant rumbl... More About: Soldiers
TEMPEST
2008-08-29 16:17:00 GOP considers delaying convention Tropical Storm Gustav is forecast to hit U.S. next week as hurricane Republican officials said yesterday that they are considering delaying the start of the GOP convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul because of Tropical Storm Gustav, which is on track to hit the Gulf Coast, and possibly New Orleans, as a full-force hurricane early next week. The threat is serious enough that White House officials are also debating whether President Bush should cancel his scheduled convention appearance on Monday, the first day of the convention, according to administration officials and others familiar with the discussion. For Bush and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Gustav threatens to provide an untimely reminder of Hurricane Katrina. A new major storm along the Gulf Coast would renew memories of one (of many) of the low points of the Bush administration, while pulling public attention away from McCain's formal coronation as the GOP presidenti... More About: Tempest
THREE HEAD-LINES (8/28/08)
2008-08-28 06:52:00 (Read the Head -Lines )Russia Faces Fresh CondemnationThe truth is never easy and it’s often ugly.Beyond this, and the scripted condemnation,sits an eyeless monster solemnizing the eagle’s perch.Democrats Make Historic Pick: It's ObamaIn the land of the free and home of the brave.Yes. In the land of the huddled masses yearning,white eyes have at last measured the slow turn of equality.Gustav heads for Cuba, leaving trail of deathGustav’s eye seems to wink, gazing downas if to say, “I’m a tempest of nature, yet manyare envious; resentful my weaponry isn't man made...Such fools.”© 2008 mrp/tpm Rolling along "L"...Lair of the Blue Bear - Left In Aboite - Left In East Dakota - Left in the Heartland - Left of Center - Left of Centrist - Liberal Avenger - Liberal Catnip - Liberal Common Sense - Liberal England - Liberality - Life on the Run - Life's Journey - Little Bang Theory - Little Country Lost - Little Purple Fooshballs - Lose the Noose - Lost Paradise - Lydia Cornell
SHRIEK
More articles from this author:2008-08-26 10:03:00 When the bodies need countingFall upon your knees, lift your eyesBeyond the stars, the universe,and plunge your fingernails into your sidesand howl! Howl above the red sidewalk!Then stand up and shriek at every loveless thing.© 2008 mrp/tpmWatch Shriek - a poetryman videoRolling along "K"...Karmalised Katrinacrat BlogKing of ZemblaKommandos Project 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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