pop's poetry

Category: politics

  • revolution

    Fear is not a reason to decide
Resolve makes for better choices
Both personal and collective
I will not be afraid:
As a person
As a husband
As a father
As a leader
As a follower
As a friend
As a lover
As a voter
As a human
I resolve:
To support change for good
To love my neighbor
To have no enemies
To honor truth
To embrace equality
To walk in justice
To seek humility
To practice mindfulness
To abolish fear
Resolve removes fear
Resolution feeds revolution
both personal and collective

  • the choice

    It’s not a choice
Between good and evil
The deep divide is
On what is good
And what is evil
These are debated
Unendingly, not finding
A common ground
A sense of truth
A path to follow
Belief is not knowledge
True faith is not fact
In history, religion has
Traded evil for good
And good for evil
Endless debates continue
Church and State
Black and White
Right and Left
Good and Evil
We’ve become bipolar
No middle ground
Against each other
Hate your neighbor
And your enemy
The red we see
On the street
In the station
At the battlefield
It’s the same shade
Not good nor evil
It flows in us all
And the fact is
We all share DNA
99.9% the same
The world is small
As are many minds
Growing smaller
With dog whistles
In our ears
Sounding the call
To ruin us all
Not just here
But everywhere
Our beliefs touch
The good
The evil
Also
Share
DNA

  • country

    I grew up country
We lived out on a dirt road
Where I road my bike every day
Where I drove my first car into a ditch
But being country wasn’t about where you lived
It was about who you were
Being country meant you learned to look a person in the eye when you shook their hand
Being country meant your word was worth more than all your cash in the bank and being called a liar brought on a fight
Being country meant you didn’t have to agree, but you did have to respect people no matter their station in life, where they worshipped or how they voted
Being country meant you worked hard and loved deeply; your God, your family, and your Country
I grew up country
I still identify as country
I live 20 miles from where I was raised
I married the sweetest country girl that lived a mile from me and it’s been 42 years and counting
I can still bust out a Willie Nelson song on my guitar
Though I drive a Tesla, I’ll take a back road any day over a freeway
Being country still means you look people in the eye, but now you bump elbows
Being country still means your word is worth more than your stock portfolio and being called a liar will bring on an angry reply on facebook
Being country still means you don’t have to agree, but you do need to respect, no matter your race, who you love or how you vote
Being country still means you work smart and love deeply; whether you believe in God or not, whether you have a family or not, and whether you’re red, blue or no color at all
I grew up country
My road is paved now
I ride an electric bike
I try to keep my car between the ditches
But being country isn’t where I’m from
It’s who I am

  • break the pendulum

    seek to understand, then be understood
how long will that take?
how patient can we be?
how do you understand racism?
who can understand ignorance?
it’s a prayer of the ideals of St. Francis
it’s a maxim from the mind of Covey
a good thing under normal circumstances
but change doesn’t happen with understanding
real change only happens with revolution
systemic racism is an evil virus
infecting weak minds and family values
passed on by weakened immune systems
carried by political rhetoric 400 years old
that melanin creates value, less is more
4 years of stupidity has lit a 400 year old fuse
that needs to finally set off a political bomb
to direct the right and the left to True North
snapping the pendulum, changing the course
and ridding the nation of anything but truth
in the aftermath of chaos, change is the only option
not a swing of the pendulum from right to left
we need a compass, 360 degrees of choice
choose a better path, not binary, but polynary
whether race, politics or gender, we will
choose to love, choose to accept, choose to lead
lead the revolution by changing the status quo
your status quo, what you know, what you believe
this is not a zero sum game where equilibrium reigns
the balance of power needs a fulcrum adjustment
it’s time to push out the supremacists in power
let the compass needle spin like a top
breaking the pillars that hold the blue/red line
open the nation and eventually the world
to a new day where the sun shines equally on us all

  • one day of peace

    The noise is unbearable
I cover my weary ears, which doesn’t help at all
Every source is switched off
Yet the ceaseless sounds of war still rage on at will
This isn’t about guns
Though the sound of rapid fire wont dissipate
It’s not just politics
Though the endless voices won’t ever hesitate
A still small voice
Inside us all that is drowned out by the clutter
Can only be heard
When peace is found with who we call the other
One day of peace
That’s all I ask so that to the presence, we can open
One day it will come
But I fear it will be when there is no one left to listen