Political Poetry Corner

[Martin Eden]

Post your poetry here --

any rhymes or rants railing against right wing rats!!!

here's my own creation:

The Blind Patriot

Do not criticize
My country, right or wrong.
True patriots believe the lies
So join the chorus and sing along:

Oh say, can you see
Through the hype and the spin?
If you can
Then you must not want us to win.

Rally 'round the flag, boys
No matter who does the waving.
Blind obeisance
Is something worth saving.

Don't question the president
about WMD.
Just believe what he says
And thou shall be free.

You're either with us, or against
The red, white, and blue.
Watch what you say
Or we'll investigate you.

Be a good PATRIOT
And clean up your ACT.
If you don't think the RIGHT way
Your computer will be hacked.

Only a traitor
Would protest this war.
Your freedom of speech
Is what we're fighting for.

So shut your mouth
You liberal fag.
Just close your eyes
And wave that flag.

[Sporadicus]

1. Epitaph on a Tyrant

Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after,
And the poetry he invented was easy to understand;
He knew human folly like the back of his hand,
And was greatly interested in armies and fleets;
When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter,
And when he cried the little children died in the streets.

W.H. Auden, 1939

[Sporadicus]

2. The Hand That Signed the Paper

The hand that signed the paper felled a city;
Five sovereign fingers taxed the breath,
Doubled the globe of dead and halved a country;
These five kings did a king to death.

The mighty hand leads to a sloping shoulder,
The finger joints are cramped with chalk;
A goose's quill has put an end to murder
That put an end to talk.

The hand that signed the treaty bred a fever,
And famine grew, and locusts came;
Great is the hand the holds dominion over
Man by a scribbled name.

The five kings count the dead but do not soften
The crusted wound nor pat the brow;
A hand rules pity as a hand rules heaven;
Hands have no tears to flow.

Dylan Thomas

[Fenris]

3. I posted this in GD earlier, but no one cared.

I come and stand at every door
But no one hears my silent tread
I knock and yet remain unseen
For I am dead, for I am dead.

I'm only seven although I died
In Hiroshima long ago
I'm seven now as I was then
When children die they do not grow.

My hair was scorched by swirling flame
My eyes grew dim, my eyes grew blind
Death came and turned my bones to dust
And that was scattered by the wind.

I need no fruit, I need no rice
I need no sweet, nor even bread
I ask for nothing for myself
For I am dead, for I am dead.

All that I ask is that for peace
You fight today, you fight today
So that the children of this world
May live and grow and laugh and play.

-- Nazim Hikmet

[Sporadicus]

4. Millennium Prayer

Lord make me an instrument of the war against evil,
Where there is vandalism against Thy creation
Let me campaign to stop it,
Where there is sabotage of Thy genetic ordainings,
Let me fight like hell to prevent it.

Where there is conspiracy to dominate Thy world with boardroom greed,
Let me join with others to wage an unremitting struggle to oppose it.
Where giant political forces combine with money makers and pocket liners
to assume control of community concerns such as education, health,
commerce, banks, law and order and work,
Let me be quick to affirm the overriding need for such matters to be restored
to local community life so that Thy moral laws may prevail.

Where there is passivity, deference and conformism to the powers of
darkness which are degrading society and its individual members, let me be
a powerful witness to oppose them.

Divine master, grant that I may not so much seek to live a quiet life as to be
in the vanguard of those who would enhance life, not so much to grab as to
give, not to evade my social obligations as to shoulder them, not to be afraid
of power as to be imbued with courage with others to control it for worthy ends.

For it is in striving to act with love that we affirm love, and in devoting ourselves to noble causes we are redeemed, and in giving ourselves utterly to the service of truth, love and beauty in shared, fully democratic communities we rise to the life immortal.

John Papworth, 1999

[realisticphish]

5. haiku

Young Man With A Sign
Wanted Peace, Got A Baton
Dead Man With A Sign

[Mnemosyne]

6. REPLY TO ALL!!! BEAUTIFUL WORDS! THANKS TO ALL!!

:grouphug:

:yourock:

:cry:

:hi:

:toast:


O8) O8) O8) all!

[Martin Eden]

7. Thanks

Anybody got more?