Last Commented Political / Social Poems (810)

THE BROTHERHOOD OF MAN

Why can’t the peoples of the world just learn to get along?
To be the Universal Race to which we all belong.
I don’t care what faith you are or the colour of your skin.
All I know is that we’re all born from the original sin.

Everyone is someone’s love – Father – Brother – Son.
Such hatred in the world today and look at what it’s done.
Some get great satisfaction from planting bombs they make,
And death and devastation follow in their wake.

Families divided, with brother killing brother.
For every bullet they expend they leave a crying mother.
Thousands die for freedom or in the name of God,
And all the rest of us can do is lay them ‘neath the sod.

‘Why does God allow this?’, we cry out in our pain.
But this is not His doing. He has naught to gain.
Each side is certain they are right, and will brook no contradiction.
And that’s when all the slaughter starts, to force a valediction.

Why can’t the peoples of the world call every man ‘My Brother’,
And live in joy and harmony, with love for one another.
Why can’t we choose the ways of peace to forge a bond so strong?
Why can’t the peoples of the world just learn to get along?

im so sick of hearing all the excuses
i grew up in a broken home
i wasnt loved by my family
i was a foster child
why does everyone have to blame something else

have i made mistakes yes
did i have a broken home yes
was i a foster child yes
is this the reason for all my bad choices no

we need more people to be real
we need to stop excepting the excuses
for once we need to take responsibility
our actions are what we choose to do

does having a bad upbringing help no
but you have to be a person and make a choice
if you mess up its not your past that is to blame
if you choose to do something wrong then you are

the past is exactly that the past
you have to learn from it and grow
dont make the same mistakes your parents did
dont do the same things all the others did

if stupidity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results
then why do we keep making the same choice that everyone else does
unless we learn from our pasts and try to change
the excuses will always be the same

Heavy rains spilling out of bursting clouds
Soaking wet feeling is the mood it enshrouds
Past crowded highways when leaving town
Frustrated commuters spreading all around
Such frantic rush
Protesters swarming in the village square
Chanting slogans the greedy better beware
While corks still popping on luxury yachts
Ducks and cavier could care but naught
Someone tell them hush
Crazy neighbors yelling across the street
Like alley cats fighting whenever they meet
TV News anchors speak with heated fume
How doom and gloom are bride and groom
What a bunch of mush
Collasping into my chair I fix my weary stare
Out my rain streaked window a focused glare
Of a streetlamp flickering glow atop a stop sign
Yes please stop spinning out of control crazy world
I'm home at last and it's time to unwind
And take that first sip of wine....

White soldier of a black president
Black criminal in a white man prison
Russian spies the government lies
The only question we don’t ask is
why?

On a porch snapping beans in your old rocking chair
The world spinning around your wizened old stare
Some chores are done and clean is the stable
A good harvest come and there's food on the table
You smile with each sunrise and sigh when it sets
The life of an old mountain woman is as good as it gets
Most city folk think they're all so smart and clever
But little do they know how a quilt comes together
Very soon you must rise and go build a fire
Autumn darkness comes early and its time to retire

It can be the smallest bite to eat
Or the oldest shoes on our feet
We act as if thees things are nothing
Others would do anything for our waste
But thats something we choose not to face
Why cant we tell people the real story
A man can eat a burger and win a million dollars
But that same money can silence a thousand hollars
We need to decide to actually do something
A man is dying in the street and we step over him
If it was your family would you say screw them
This has got to be seen as a national emergency
If our people are hurt overseas we jump to war
Yet people die in our streets and we wont do more
Either we choose to find and fix the problem fast
Or this country we know and love will never last

It was their dream. Cuddley pillows, dimed lights. Living above their means, material wealth in sight. Finally eyes are open, oprah appears on screen. "Her" dream has happen, everything looks so green. Then came the crash; housing and stock market. Banks have no cash; water poured in baskets. Creditors on the retreat, washington responses are strong. Though feeling the heat; can't right this wrong! Retiring for their dream, waking to this nightmare. This nation now screams: how we got here? From bush to obama, the dollar under squeeze. Democrats now take power, americans facing credit freeze! America economy is crumbling. China/india looking on. Americans are now grumbling: look what "they" have become. What was once a dream, has now become a yoke. America for all "it seems"; it's a nightmare and broke!

swirling automn leaves,
on the path,a girl,
long vineyard..

winter,homefires,
full blooming body,
sculptural design..

bitter mild life,
naked streets,
schedule adrift..

waves of blazing mouths,
garden level,
tea pot anthology..

breeze,breathe,
openly negligee desire,
fragrant..

“Sawubona”, I see you...
This ancient African greeting tells a lot about homo sapiens sapiens,
We have an insatiable need for acceptance by our kind,
‘Enlightened’ primitive peoples consider ‘invisibility/ridicule/exile’ the worst form of hell,
Ergo the opposite, acceptance, acknowledgement, respect, equals heaven,
The most serious punishment that could be inflicted by Pygmies was ‘invisibility’,
The Inuit, punished thieves with laughter whenever they encountered them,
Some of the ancient Greeks punished murder by exile, rather than reciprocal murder,
As a consequence, homo sapiens sapiens suffers all sorts of insufferable and barbaric initiation rites in order to ‘belong’...

I marvel, then, how ‘ignorant-Africans’ came up with this advanced psychology thousands of years ago,
To “see” their fellows,
No empty ‘hello’s’ here,
But a meaningful “I see you...”,
Implicitly implying acknowledgement, acceptance, worthiness...,
I guess the women folk among us know something about punishment when they employ their lethal ‘silent-treatment’ eh?

“Sawubona”, I see you...
“Ngikhona”, you would respond, meaning:- ‘I am here’...
Intrinsic in this Zulu salutation and in the appreciative response, is the sagacity that until you ‘saw’ me, I didn’t ‘exist’[funny, quantum physics has more or less come to the same conclusion...]. By acknowledging me, you ‘bring’ me into existence. A Zulu folk proverb clarifies this, “Umuntu ngumuntu nagabantu“, meaning “A person is a person because of other people...”
Thus, we are existentially mirrored by our connections to our community and when they really ‘see’ us, they offer a reflection to our inner selves that allows us to deeply connect, to belong...

Try it, look into someone’s eyes and meaningfully say “I see you”, that connection will bring another breadth into your commune with your fellows...

“Sawubona”, I see you...

Sorrow came uninvited to my gathering,
There I was, coasting along, in a semi-hypnotic state,
Blissfully unaware of my unawareness,
When abruptly and without warning,
A teacher called Sorrow came calling.

He rapidly turned my artificial serenity into a raging river of unrest,
This uninvited guest, who came calling at the most importune time,
I wanted him to leave, I begged him to,
I threatened him, but he was stalwart in his purpose.

Resigned, I began to look at him,
Too tired to do anything else,
The deeper I looked into his psyche,
The more I was persuaded that he had a pleasant lesson to teach me.

Seeing that no other options were available,
I became Sorrow’s unwilling student.
I began to realize that without sorrow,
Man’s soul does not much rise above a devil’s...

Sorrow forced me to look at things anew,
This in turn forced me to give up 'hard' habits,
Hard thoughts, hard words, hard actions,
Habits that evilly enslaved me, and made me hard and unbendable...

Slowly but surely through the seemingly impenetrable labyrinth of sorrow,
I began to see light that I had not seen before,
A light that beckoned of softness of heart, softness of thought, softness of action, and softness of word...
Could it be, could it be?

Before Sorrow came knocking on my door,
I was poor in spirit,
Sorrow began to soften my poverty,
And began to show me the road to true riches!

Sorrow lead me, through meditation and silence,
To oases of comfort and understanding and wisdom, and softness,
And to the meaning of authentic love,
And to peace of mind.

Sorrow slowly unmasked me,
I saw sides of myself that I was not aware of,
Good and bad sides,
I began to focus on the good and to eliminate the bad.


Before Sorrow came calling,
Time was fruitless,
And a blur,
Now, time began to have meaning.

I learned from Sorrow,
That neither man nor woman is complete without the other,
The black waters of the Rio Negro, meet the cafe-au lait waters
of the Amazon, deep in the jungle,
They do not mix,
But flow side by side for miles,
Courting each other,
Finally, they blend.

So it is with men and women,
Like two very different rivers we flow side by side,
Resisting the other,
Till, the tide of sorrow softens our stony hearts,
And like willows, we bend and blend,
Oh, how sweet the bending and the blending then becomes!

Dear soul, said I to myself, do not grow weary of waiting,
For one “night” when the lights are low and the shadows long,
You will look into the mirror,
And there beside you, you will see your perfect love,
Shimmering like a chimera,
Coming slowly towards you,
Hands outstretched, inviting you to the sweetness of love...