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
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
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
AVOIDABLE
2008-08-24 08:08:00 (Read the poem)We are all walking these streetsUnder our own abysmal verdict.Frequently we hear that we’re facedby avoidable contamination. We’ve heard it before,that we must breed our skin apart from those othersuntil our masks are solid and chaste,irremovable, useless. Force the skin’s hue down,imprison our colors on the nomadic streets.We need be single-minded to form our faceinto the perfect color of a perverted truth;this evolution is ugliest now,storming its infection across the world.We’re walking the streets, the roads,the twisting spheres bending away; humanitybegging we refuse this council, this deception. Onestride on this earth, one long, delightful use of man;animal, dying now, ready to live. Our fuel’s the bloodUnder our skin, our reckless mind, the contagion.Understand this; our progression has long commenced.We cannot forgo its breathing revolution.We cannot, from its rise, ourselves remove.O! It will thrash our sticks and stones,and turn its heaven away fr...
BLACK OAK TREE
2008-08-21 17:44:00 An Ode to Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones (See the montage and read the ode)(A Poetic Justice Photomontage) Democratic U.S. Rep. Stephanie Tubbs Jones, the first black woman to represent Ohio in Congress and a strong critic of the Iraq war, died Wednesday after a brain hemorrhage. (More...) Stephanie was a “…fearless friend and unyielding advocate…” Barack Obama. They gazed in awe at the black oak treestanding tall above their many ashen faces.She smiled upon them with lustrous teeth;a majestic peace formed of its own will.In the day she offered them her shade,in the evenings,the soothing light of her moon.The warm curve of her skin embraced them,spoke with them,arcing her limbs in benevolent dance.When the people would fix their eyes upon hershe kindly offered mother, sister, friendand her grace touched them, as it does now,in their search for an equally dazzling poem…© 2008 mrp/tpmRolling along "I"...I Was Just Wondering - Ice Station Tango - If I Was God I'd Cry... More About: Black , Tree
SADDLEBACK
2008-08-20 07:22:00 (Expand the post)McCain's Embrace of Judeo-Christian Values(H/T to Crooks & Liars)On a frozen winter evening at a Town Hall meeting in a school in the Manchester, N.H., suburbs, John McCain expressed surprise and irritation with an intelligence report downplaying the threat of Iran’s nuclear program.At the end of a long list of reasons to be suspicious of the Iranians, McCain declared: “And they sure don’t share our Judeo-Christian values.”It seemed at the time to be an odd thing to say about a Muslim country. After all, even if there were no nuclear program, no oil, and no rabble-rousing president, Iran still wouldn’t have Judeo-Christian values. And it’s troubling to wonder if that alone would be a reason for suspicion.~And to make matters worse, the cat is out of the bag on the nature of John McCain and Rick Warren’s true relationship. They have just announced that they've been working on a film together for the past two and a half years. (A Poetic Justice Pho...
KAKASHI (scarecrow)
2008-08-17 22:00:00 READ THE POEM +/-What have you done to this time of ours?What mix of stinking wretchedness have you left us?What in the bedraggled bottom of hell were you thinking?You, with your godforsaken pride and lifeless eyesWith soiled thoughts planted like a rock garden,The weight of the next idea holding down the last.You don't understand your deplorable sins upon humanity,You with your excuses pinned under stones of hatred.Goddamn you. It is too late for your trite regrets,Our hopes scrape the granite of immovable statuesLike moments in a famished dream of peace without end.We call to thee to look back at your wanton wreckage,To acknowledge this; our complicit suffering,To grieve with us, our countries bereavement.The martyrs of your making are built with straw,Like the unholy kakashi, arms spread like Jesus,Prepared for nothing but a murder of crow.Death is the bitter fowl scraping at your sockets,The harbinger tearing through your thankless nightsLike deadly shrapnel scurrying across yo... More About: Kakashi
ONE NATION (MOVE ON)
2008-04-22 06:51:00 The following piece is my Move On.org Barack Obama Video Contest entry.If you like it please follow this link and vote. While you're at it, and while you're on the vote page, you will see the video html emed code and the link code, please place the link code on your site for your visitors and if they are inclined to vote for it they can do so via the page that follows and it will count extra toward my video's chances of winning. There are 1,100 videos entered in the contest! Yikes! By the way... the incredible artwork you see in the video was rendered by none other than my dear friend and associate, Ben Heine.Thank you,Mark (thepoetryman) More About: Nation
HIDDEN MESSAGE (4/21/08 head-lines)
More articles from this author:2008-04-21 07:00:00 (A Poetic Justice Photomontage)(click on montages to enlarge)Obama readies 'swift boat' defenseThe Bay Hap River, a swift boat,The banks of the Tran Thoi village.A dry day, no rain.A Viet Cong soldier, a rocket,Lt. Kerry fires his weapon,Ba Thanh is slain.A six year old smiles at his mother.Rice in Iraq, violence surges after Sadr threatShe entered with the moorings of night,Staggered to find that she’s unwelcome-Not one flower. Message Machine: Gitmo- The Pentagon’s Hidden HandThese are the criers, the aged and brassy men of warringThat congregate in Cuba, charting the king’s defense.They only know the one breed of war. A House of a Different ColorThe mournfully blue shutters hug the sunriseAnd the pale reflection evaporatesGiving rise to a new color.Report: Mogadishu battles leave 81 deadThese two days of an unleashed dying!Who are these many unclimbed soulsThat bridled my wish?Teachers' strike could shut 1,000 schoolsBefall a splendid melody, teacher.Become your worth in... More About: Head , Lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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