This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Sprung from Grief”
Down in the Dirt, v184
(the June 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn
I hitchhiked across the USA
Started in Salt Lake City
Where my greyhound bus pass
Was stolen
The station manager
Could have helped me
But refused to do so
Threaten to call the cops
When I grabbed my bags Without the stolen tags
I said
Go ahead
But I am so out of here
Wondered about Salt Lake City
Went to a bar
Found I had to buy my booze
Next door
And they would mix it for me
Had to order food too
After a bloody Mary
And a burger
I walked about town
Saw the Mormon Temple
Finally about 3 pm
It was time to hit the road
Did not look back
Ended up in Cody Wyoming
Got a room shower
Steak beer
Using my rapidly depleted cash Spent 25 dollars
Money really went far
Back in those days
A band of professional
Communist agitators
Gave me a ride
To Des Moines
Lots of weed, booze
And politics later
Got off the road
Slept outside
Next day
A beautiful woman
Drove me to near Chicago
In a red mustang
Might have been
The girl in the song
Took it easy
Digging her vibe
She invited home
But was not sure
If her estranged husband
Would welcome me
So, I am being foolish
And inexperienced with women
Did not go to her place
And always regretted
That I had lost
My chance that day
Then on to Chicago
Several rides later
Visited friends
Hit the road again
A series of uneventful rides
With truckers
And others
And a week later
I ended in New York City
Slept along the way
In cars
In truck stops
In high way rest stops
Always moving
Always going
Non stop talking
And lots of free weed
And beer
And conversation
One more memorable ride
Occurred outside Albany
On my return to Chicago
A middle age creepy looking man
Picked me up
In a brand-new Cadillac
He was he said a dynamite deliverer
For the Mafia
Went to various places
To blow up shit
He hated a lot of people
Particularly hippies from California
And Jewish people
Looking at me to confirm
That I was both
I told him that I lived in New York
And had never been to California
And although I might have looked Jewish
As I what was called back in the day
A “Jewfro”
I was not Jewish
Many years later I discovered
That I am indeed part Jewish
But then I did not know
And I felt a bit of strategic information
Might keep me alive
Then I realized that he was just jiving with me
And we relaxed
And he pulled out some weed
And beer
And we mellowed out
But I believe that he really was with the mob
Perhaps not a dynamite dealer
A real made Italian made mafia member
By Chicago
I had enough
I called my Dad
Told him what had happened
Wanted a ticket home
And he sent me a ticket
And 500 dollars
And I went home
I told him I would tell him
My tales some day
But never did
I learned so much
About my fellow Americans
And the strange vibe
That was 1975
And now it is too late
But I wanted to finally
Tell the world
In India, several years ago
A man falsely claimed his brother
Was dead so he could inherit the family assets,
The dead brother had to fight
To be declared legally not dead
And contest the will.
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Became a movement
Of thousands of people.
For in India apparently,
It was a thing to declare
Your relative is dead.
While reading Charles Bukowski poetry
On the metro ride home
Listening to Buddha bar music
On my oh too hip IPod
I begin to see myself as I was
Over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
A minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem
A wild young underemployed intellectual
Hanging out in dismal bars and dives all over Asia and California
Hanging with disreputable women and drunks and drinkers
And characters out of his kinds of haunts
A mad poet bard of the underground
A drunken poet in a drunken bum show
That nightly played in his head
Then one day I met the women of my dreams
And went down a different path
A long slow path to respectability
And now 30 years later
I am no longer a wild man
I am still a poet at heart
But I am now also a bureaucrat
In a button down suite
Doing the people’s business
Working for the Government
I’ve become the Man
Sometimes I wonder
Would I have been better off
Going down that another path
Would I have ended up
Somewhere else
Doing something else
Would I have been as happy
Would I have been as successful?
There is no answer that satisfies
The longing in my heart
For that wild thing
That still lurks beneath
It’s civilized cover
And I know that I am still
A mad poet at heart
Railing against the injustice of the world
As I work day by day in the belly of the great beast of State
I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
“Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night”
Playing out in my head and nightly dreams
In the true American Upper class patrician tradition
I close the book and look out the window
Get off the train, and walk slowly home
And realize I had no choice
But to take the path that I’ve trodden on
And so I put aside my misgivings
And say goodbye to my “Bukowskian”desires
For another night of domestic contentment
Was it worth it all to take the conventional path
And not take the bohemian road to hell and back
I look at my wife and realize
I had no choice, had no choice
But to follow her to the ends of the earth
And beyond by her side as we walked our path
Of shared destiny
Goodbye Charles Bukowski wherever you are
May I meet you in a bar in the next life
And figure out where we should have gone
This writing was accepted
for publication in the
108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “Prayers and Bullets”
Down in the Dirt, v181
(the March 2021 Issue)Order the paperback book:
If you’ve been around
If you’ve been around
As much as I have
Decades of memories
Fill up your brain’s hard drive
Remembering the dead
Misremembering the living
Seeing the past fly past
Everywhere you go
Thinking about things
You did and did not do
As your life begins to fade
Sinking into lost worlds past
Seeing the ghosts
Of all you knew
Whispering Soon you will
Be joining us
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and probably drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR-15 the choice
Of the serious gun men everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
Before putting the gun down
And fleeing
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
is more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
Of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
Note: I wrote this a year or so ago. This morning there was another mass shooting, this time at Brown University. Yesterday at Bondi Beach in Australia. The Australian Government promises to enact even stricter gun laws in response, in the US nothing but talk about prayers and thoughts for the victims, nothing can be done the politicians say. THe price of freedom is the occasional mass shooting according to the NRA.
My name, it is Nobody
No one cares who I am
I am just a nameless clone
In the cold unfeeling bureaucracy
Just one of the army
Of civilians who flood into and out of the city
Every day
A non-entity,
A ghost
A govbot
A cyber
A spook
A faceless automan
A bureaucrat
Just a grey suited cog in the machinery
And no one cares
No one knows who I really am
And I am legend
Everywhere and nowhere
Just the way this modern world
All shred of humanity
Crushed beneath
the cruel wheel of society
In the cold harsh world
There is no room anymore
For true human feelings
We are just robots,
clones, machines
And so I go to work
Put on my mask
And no one hears
my inner screams
And no one will ever care
My name, it is Nobody
No one cares who I am
I am just a nameless clone
In the cold unfeeling bureaucracy
Just one of the army
Of civilians who flood into and out of the city
Every day
A non-entity,
A ghost
A govbot
A cyber
A spook
A faceless automan
A bureaucrat
Just a grey suited cog in the machinery
And no one cares
No one knows who I really am
And I am legend
Everywhere and nowhere
Just the way this modern world
All shred of humanity
Crushed beneath the cruel wheel of society
In the cold harsh world
There is no room anymore
For true human feelings
We are just robots, clones, machines
And so I go to work
Put on my mask
And no one hears my inner screams
And no one will ever care
Order this writing that appears
in the one-of-a-kind anthology The Flickering Light
the Down in the Dirt Jan.-June 2019
issues & chapbooks collection book
(learn about this book, and order from Amazon online)
get the 366 page
Jan.-June 2019 Down in the Dirt
issue & chapbooks 6″ x 9″ ISBN# paperback book:
I like to start my day with a hot cup of coffee
I pound down the coffee
First thing I do every day as the dawning sun
Lights up my lonesome room
Yeah, but not just a simple cup of java Joe, but a God damn snarling sarcastic smarmy cup of coffee
I mean, – we are talking about an alcoholic, all speed ahead, always hot, always fresh, always there when I need it, angry, attitude talk to the hand Ztude, bad, bad assed, beats breaking, beatnik, bluesy, bitter, bitchy, bombs away, capitalistic, caffeinated up the ass, cinematic, communistic, Colombian grown, Costa Rican inspired, Cowabunga to the max, crazy assed, devilishly angelic, divine, divinely inspired, dyslexic, epic, extreme vetting, evil eye, expensive, erotic vision inducing, Ethiopian coffee house brewed, euphoric, freaky, freazoid, foxy, Frenched kissed, French brewed, funkified, foxy lady, graphic, GOD in my coffee, with Allah, Ganesh, Jesus, Kali, Buddha, Christians, Durga, Hindus, Mohamed, Jesus and Mo and their friend, the cosmic bar maid, Sai Babai, Shiva, Taoists, Zoroastrians, drinking my god damned coffee in Hell; growling, gnarly, happy, hard as ice, Hawaian blessed, high as a kite, hippie, hip, hipster, hip hoppy, hot as hell yet strangely sweet as heaven, jazzy, jealous, Kerouac approved, kick ass, kick my god damn ass to Tuesday, kick down the doors and take no prisoners, grown in the Vietnam highlands by ex-Vietcong, Guatemalan grown, kiss ass, illegal in every state, imported from all over the god damn world, insane, lovely, loony, lonely, lonesome, malodorous mean old rotten, motherfucking, nasty, narcotic, never whatever, never meh, never cold, not approved by the CIA, not approved by DHS, not approved for human consumption by the FDA, not your daddy’s sissified corporate cup of coffee, NOT DECAFE coffee, not your Denny’s truck driver weak as brown water cup of fake coffee, not your establishment friendly cup of coffee, Not your FBI coffee, Not FAKE Herbal coffee substitute, but a real cup of coffee, not your farmer brothers dinner crap, not made in America for Americans, not safe for work, not your Starbucks average expensive overpriced crappy corporate chain cup of coffee, Not pretentious, Not White House approved, not State Department safe, nuclear, Not Patriotic, operatic, Peets’s coffee approved, paranoid, pornographic, psychotic, pontific, politically aware, rapping, rhyming, right here, right now in River city, rock and roll up the Yazoo, sad, sadistic, sarcastic, sassy, satanic, schizoid, shitting, silly, sexy, smarmy, smelly, smooth, snarky, snarling, stupid, stinking, sweet as honey, sweat inducing, symphonic, Trump can’t handle this coffee, vengeful, Wagnerian, wicked, with nutmeg and cinnamon swirls, with a hint of stevia, with a hint of vanilla, with a hint of rum, with a hint of whisky, with a hint of cherry, with a hint of fruit overtones, with a hint of drugs spicing up the coffee, spendific, speeding, splendid, superior accept no substitutes, survived the Vietnam war, the Iraq war, the Afghan war, the first and Second Korean war, World War 11, the war on poverty, the war on drugs, the war on black people, the sexual revolution, Soulful as a summer’s night in MOTOWN- James Brown approved, TOP approved, Berkeley approved, the coffee that Jimmy Hendrix drank before he died, the coffee that Elvis drank on his last breakfast, the coffee that Barry White crooned as he drank his cup of coffee – and the coffee that made the white boy play stand up and play that funky music, the coffee that made Jonny B Goode play his guitar, and made Jonny bet the devil his soul after he drank his morning cup of righteous coffee and the coffee that make the Rolling Stones Rock and Roll, the coffee your mother warned you against drinking, the coffee that Napoleon drank when he became the Emperor of all Europe, the Coffee that Beethoven drank when he wrote the Ninth symphony, the coffee that Mozart drank as he wrote his last symphony, the coffee that Lincoln drank before he was killed, the Hemingway drank before he killed himself, the coffee that started the 60’s, and ended the 20th century, the coffee that Lenin drank as he plotted revolution, the coffee that Hitler and Stalin drank with FDR as they divided up the world after World War 11, the cup that JFK drank before he was blown away, the coffee Jerry drinks while driving in cars with random celebrities and political figures, the coffee that Jon Stewart drinks before he goes on an epic take down of some foolish politico, the cup of Arabic coffee that Sadaam drank the day he was executed, the coffee that GW and Cheney drank when they bombed Baghdad, the Indian cup of coffee that Bid Laden drank before 9-11 and just before the seals blew his ass to hell, the cup of coffee that Tiger Woods drank with his mistresses while playing a 3, 000 dollar round of golf at Sandy Lane golf course in Barbados, the last legal drug that does what drugs should do, the cup of coffee that Obama drank when he became President, Vietnamese, Vienna brew, wacky, whimsical, Whisky Tango Foxtrot, wild, weird, wonderful, WOW, Yabba dabba doo! Yada Yada yada Zappa’s favorite cup of cosmic coffee, and Zorro’s last cup of coffee, Good to the last drop rolled into one simple cup of hot coffee
As I pound down that first cup of coffee
And fire up my synaptic nerve endings with endless supplies
Of caffeine induced neuron enhancing chemicals
I face the dawning day with trepidation and mind-numbing fear
I turn on the TV and watch the smarmy newscasters in their perfect hair
Lying through their teeth about the great success the government is having Following the great leader’s latest pronouncements
I want to scream and shoot the TV and run out side Shouting
“Stop the world.
I want to get off this fucking crazy planet”
The earth does not care a whit about my attitude
It merely shrugs and moves around the Sun
In its appointed daily run
And I sit down
The madness dissipating a bit
And enjoy my second cup
Of heaven and hell
In my morning cup of Joe
get the 396 page poetry,
flash fiction, prose,
& artwork & photography
collection anthology
as a 6″ x 9″ ISBN#
paperback book:
Stairway To Heaven Bumper Sticker
Found Poem in Medford, Oregon
The fact
There is a stairway
To heaven
But a highway
To hell.
Tells you about
The expected traffic
Strangeness in the Air
There is a strangeness in the air
A sense of cosmic unease
Hangs silently in the purple crystalline sky
America woke up
And decided it was time
To quit following like lemmings
Over the Clift
As the pied piper chants
Stay the course, stay the course
We were like lemmings following him
Dying to save his wounded pride
Today there is that strange difference
In the air
As Americans woke up
And threw off their chains of fear
This writing was accepted for publication
in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# /
ISBN# issue/book “The Gravity
Of Imagination”
Down in the Dirt, v203 (1/23)
The fly on the wallpaper
In the CIA director’s office
Was not a real fly
He was an enemy spy drone
Secretly controlled remotely
Listening to all the secret conversations
Until the director smashed him
With a flyswatter
Then realized that it was a spy fly
He had dispatched to bug hell.
On the night of the blood red super full moon
I sat in an evil, depraved godforsaken bar
Drinking drams of demented, fermented dream dew
Washed down by endless rounds of whiskey
rum, tequila, vodka, soju and of course beer
drinking with my buddies the Jack Daniels Gang
Drinking my way to Hell and beyond
Just as fast as I could
twenty damn drinks too sober
Just an unhinged lunatic
Dreaming of howling at the full moon
Watching the world walk by
Looking at all the fine-looking babes
Walking by the street
Thinking wild, erotic thoughts
Of endless wild libertine passions
When into the bar
That din of cosmic depravity
Walked the most beautiful women
In the Universe
So wild, so free
So wonderfully alive
I did not know what to do
As this vision of delight
Sauntered through the bar
In a skin-tight leather pant
Looked so fine
That my eyeballs hurt
And finally, I had to say something
So, I gathered up my manly courage
And walked up to her
And she looked at me
And instantly bewitched my soul
With a devilish grin
I lost all reason
And became a raving lunatic
Unhinged lunatic
Howling at the blood red full moon
Foaming at the mouth
A wild, free werewolf
Howling at the lunatic light
Of the blood red blue full Moon
Hi there from Scars Publications (this letter is being sent from a bulk email address, so DO NOT REPLY to this Gmail address but to any scars.tv email address)… We wanted to let you know that Scars Publications released a 2025 annual collection book of select poetry, flash fiction, prose, & art from 2025 issues of cc’d magazine and Down in the Dirt magazine. Since your material was chosen from the past year of accepted materials for inclusion in this annual collection book anthology, we wanted to share this brand-new annual collection book, “Signs and Revelations”!
Links to see all the chosen writers and artists (and the titles of their work) in “Signs and Revelations”: https://scars.tv/2025collection/Signs_and_Revelations.htm
This is where you can also find out what material of yours appears in this annual collection book.
You can find this book online at scars.tv in multiple locations. Right now, it is linked on the main page at https://scars.tv, and it appears near the top of the list of choices on the books link (the book link is one click away from the main page, or also directly at https://scars.tv/books/) as well as at the “CD Books Sale” link with new releases at the top of the listing (direct link https://scars.tv/sale/) at Scars!
Also, by the end of the business week, or by Friday night CST, your writing in the writings section online will have a link to this collection book, so people can find links to this collection book on your writing pages in the writings section of http://scars.tv (at https://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers)...
Links for ordering this collection book appear on all of the links above, and will also appear in the writings section, so any of your writing in this collection book will also see a link to this collection book in the writings section!
These books are available from Amazon in the U.S. & Canada, the U.K., Europe, Australia, and Japan. (The link above is for U.S. sales.)
The Scars Publication book link for what material of yours appears in this collection book, and if you’d like, order a copy today (I hear they make great Christmas gifts)… Again, thank you for being a part of the Scars Publications community!
I am pleased to announce that Synchronized Chaos will publish more of my poetry in their September issue. These poems are a satirical take on the news of the day; any resemblance to real people and events are entirely coincidental and a product of the author’s wild imagination.
🌍 President Al Wilson Reverses Course on Climate Change
MAGA Dreams of the New Golden Age
Bonus -Letter from Concerned Christian Minister Re Cleaning Up the Smithsonian
Bonus Poem – It Can Happen Here
Bonus Poem Are We Living in North Korea?
co-pilot neo-neatnik rap 🌀 Red Tape Ripped in Rhythm
A Found Poem from the August 2025 Cabinet Meeting
🌀 Red Tape Ripped in Rhythm A Found Poem with Historical Echoes
President of the Smithsonian?
President Al Wilson
Not content with taking.
Over the Kennedy Center.
As part of the MAGA movement
Culture war against the communists
Radical left-wing Marxist
Enemies of real America.
Had described that the Smithsonian.
Must reflect traditional American values.
And avoid divisive or anti-American.
Or anti-Christian propaganda.
Therefore, he decreed,
The African American Studies Museum
Must close,
The African Art Museum
Must close.
The American Indian Museum
Must close.
The Smithsonian must be color-blind.
And not to mention race or gender
Slavery or the treatment of American Indians,
And the whole Chinese Exclusion Act
And internment of Japanese Americans
Which was a good thing,
Or the holocaust, for that matter.
End anti-American, Anti-Christian,
Anti-MAGA, cultural Marxism
Radical lunatic left, CRT, DEI
And WOKE programming.
Throughout the Smithsonian.
The African American museum holdings
And the American Indian Museum
And the African Art Museum
Will be sold off at an auction.
So the president decreed
MAGA baby all the way!
RESTORING TRUTH IN AMERICAN HISTORY:
Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order restoring truth and sanity to American history by revitalizing key cultural institutions and reversing the spread of divisive ideology.
President Trump aims to ensure that the Smithsonian is an institution that sparks children’s imagination, celebrates American history and ingenuity, serves as a symbol to the world of American greatness, and makes America proud.
The Order directs the Vice President, who is a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents, to work to eliminate improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology from the Smithsonian and its museums, education and research centers, and the National Zoo.
The Order directs the Administration to work with Congress to ensure that future Smithsonian appropriations: (1) prohibit funding for exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans by race, or promote ideologies inconsistent with Federal law; and (2) celebrate women’s achievements in the American Women’s History Museum and do not recognize men as women.
The Vice President will work with congressional leaders to appoint members to the Smithsonian Board of Regents who are committed to advancing the celebration of America’s extraordinary heritage and progress.
The Order also directs the Secretary of the Interior restore Federal parks, monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.
In preparation for the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 2026, the Order directs the Secretary of the Interior to complete restorations and improvements to Independence Hall by that date.
COMBATING CORROSIVE IDEOLOGY: In the last decade, Americans have witnessed a concerted effort to rewrite American history and force our nation to adopt a factually baseless ideology aimed at diminishing American achievement. President Trump is fighting back by reestablishing truth in the historical narrative and restoring Federal sites dedicated to American heritage.
The prior administration pushed a divisive ideology that reconstrued America’s promotion of liberty as fundamentally flawed, infecting revered institutions like the Smithsonian and national parks with false narratives.
At Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, the Biden Administration sponsored training by an organization that advocates for dismantling “Western foundations” and that taught Park Rangers that their racial identity should dictate how they present history to visitors.
The Smithsonian Institution—once revered throughout the world as a symbol of American excellence—has recently promoted divisive ideology that American and Western values are harmful.
The American Art Museum currently features an exhibit that purports to address how “sculpture has been a powerful tool in promoting scientific racism” and claims that the United States has “used race to establish and maintain systems of power, privilege, and disenfranchisement.”
The National Museum of African American History and Culture has proclaimed that “hard work,” “individualism,” and “the nuclear family” are aspects of “White culture.”
The American Women’s History Museum plans to celebrate male athletes participating in women’s sports.
CELEBRATING AMERICAN GREATNESS: President Trump is committed to honoring America’s extraordinary heritage and building a sense of national pride.
President Trump signed an Executive Order on his first day in office to establish a task force to prepare for America’s 250th birthday.
This Order also protects America’s monuments from vandalism and calls for construction of the National Garden of American Heroes.
President Trump signed a memorandum ensuring Federal buildings reflect the timeless grandeur of traditional, classical architecture.
By signing this Executive Order, President Trump is ensuring that American history is celebrated accurately, fairly, and with pride—honoring the remarkable progress, liberty, and ingenuity that define our great nation.
Media Coverage by Bias
Bias
Outlet
Coverage Summary
URL
Left
MSNBC, The Root, The Guardian
Framed as censorship, historical erasure, and authoritarian overreach.
Leadership Overhaul: President Trump installed himself as chairman of the Kennedy Center, replacing the bipartisan board with loyalists including Richard Grenell as interim president.
Cultural Rebranding: Trump declared the center would be restored to “luxury, glamour, and entertainment,” rejecting “woke” programming and canceling drag shows and LGBTQ+ events.
Renaming Efforts:
House Republicans proposed renaming the Opera House as the “First Lady Melania Trump Opera House”.
A separate bill, the “Make Entertainment Great Again Act,” would rename the entire center the “Donald J. Trump Center for Performing Arts”.
These proposals violate a 1983 federal statute prohibiting additional memorials at the Kennedy Center.
🎭 Programming Changes
New Honorees: Trump personally selected honorees including Sylvester Stallone, KISS, Gloria Gaynor, George Strait, and Michael Crawford.
Cancellations: LGBTQ+ events, drag performances, and the opera Fellow Travelers were canceled or withdrawn.
New Season Lineup: Includes Spamalot, Chicago, Moulin Rouge!, Back to the Future, and The Outsiders—with emphasis on mainstream, family-friendly entertainment.
🎨 Artist Protests
Boycotts:
Hamilton canceled its anniversary show.
Issa Rae, Shonda Rhimes, Rhiannon Giddens, and Louise Penny withdrew from scheduled appearances.
Les Misérables cast members staged a silent protest during Trump’s visit.
Resignations: Renée Fleming and Ben Folds resigned from advisory roles.
Public Statements: Leonard Slatkin urged artists to “stand up” and perform defiantly.
📰 Media Coverage by Bias
Bias Spectrum
Outlet
Summary
URL
Left
The New York Times
Framed takeover as part of Trump’s broader cultural war and authoritarian tendencies
And a bonus letter from a concerned Christian to the VP demanding that they clean up the Smithsonian Institute.
Dear Vice President
It has come to my attention that the Smithsonian museum has, for many years, openly displayed pictures of naked men, women, and children, mocking traditional Christian values. Their lame excuse has always been that they are showing “art”.
But this so-called “art” is basically pornographic in nature and should not be on display where children can see the artwork. Parents should not be forced to explain to young people about such degenerate art.
Furthermore, the African American History Museum is too focused on slavery and is anti-American in tone. The Museum of the American Indian is also too focused on the alleged genocide of the native Americans. It downplays the grumesome actions by native Americans against peaceful settlers, such as the depredations of the Apache savages in the 19th century. The African Art museum must also be closed. The Holocaust museum, which is independent must also be closed as it is too divisive and anti-American.
These museums need to be closed, and related collections.in other museums nationwide must be closed.
All the Smithsonian exhibits must be cleansed of anti-American, Anti-Christian, cultural marxist, CRT, DEI, radical left-wing, WOKE, exhibits and anti-American content, and be replaced by pro-American exhibits showing the greatest of the greatest country on earth, and they must reflect the traditional Northern European ancestry of most Americans, including British, German, and Irish backgrounds, as well as traditional Protestant Christianity. An European American museum should be set up to replace the African American Museum. The Smithsonian should take over the Museum of the Bible and install it at the American Indian Museum. The African Art museum should be replaced with a Patriotic Art museum.
Please, sir, clean up the Smithsonian Institute of degenerate artwork, artwork depicting naked people, and close the cultural marxist, CRT, DEI, woke, left-wing content, and close the African American History museum, the Museum of the American Indians, and the African Art Museum.. Support cleansing all other museums as well by setting up a task force to make recommendations and cut off Federal funding to suspect museums. Sex museums and erotic art museums in SF and elsewhere must be closed as well.
All suspect art should be sold off at auction. After six months, items can be donated to anyone who wants to pick it up at their expense. After one year, the residual items will be disposed of as trash.
I ask this in Jesus’ name.
Rev. Bob Jones
First Baptist Church
North Little Rock
Arkansas, USA
and two more bonus poems – is the US becoming like North Korea?
Living in North Korea?
Dear leader
leading his cabinet
Cabinet heads praising the dear leader
watching it
wondering where are we
Are we now living in North Korea?
what is this?
what fresh hell is this now?
when will we wake up from this nightmare?
3-6-9 Poem
This poem has three stanzas. Each stanza has three lines that follows the 3-6-9 syllable count. The first line has 3 syllables, the second line has 6 syllables and the last line 9 syllables. The subject can be anything.
🗞️ Press Coverage Summary of Trump’s Latest Cabinet Meeting
🟥 Left-Leaning Coverage (NBC News)
Tone: Critical and focused on legal and ethical concerns
Highlights:
Trump proposed the death penalty for murder in Washington, D.C., without detailing implementation
Legal battle over his attempt to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook, who denies allegations of mortgage fraud
Coverage emphasized constitutional limits and potential overreach
Absolutely, Jake. Here’s a neo-beatnik found poem stitched from the raw fabric of Trump’s latest cabinet meeting and recent presidential remarks. It blends direct quotes, paraphrased fragments, and the surreal rhythm of political theater—filtered through your lens of poetic synthesis.
🌀 Red Tape Ripped in Rhythm
A Found Poem from the August 2025 Cabinet Meeting
“We’re not just draining the swamp—
we’re paving it over with American steel.”
The room hums like a war drum,
coffee cooling in the shadow of executive orders.
A voice rises—
not from conscience,
but from calculation:
“Murder in D.C. will meet justice.
Not in years. Not in appeals.
But in days.”
Lisa Cook stares through the storm,
accused by a whisper,
defended by silence.
Trump leans forward,
his tie a flag, his words a verdict:
“She’s compromised.
Mortgage fraud, digital fraud—
it’s all the same when the Fed won’t listen.”
Zelensky’s name floats in the air
like a drone over disputed soil.
Putin’s shadow flickers on the wall.
Tariffs are teeth.
Diplomacy is a grin.
“We’ll tax their tech,
we’ll tax their thoughts
if they dare to tax ours.”
The cabinet nods,
some from loyalty,
some from inertia.
The beat goes on:
“AI will be American.
Not woke. Not weird.
Just ours.”
Outside, the National Guard tightens its boots.
Inside, the map of Indiana redraws itself
in red ink and ambition.
A voice from the back mutters:
“This isn’t governance.
It’s jazz.”
And Trump laughs,
a sound like a brass section
breaking the fourth wall.
🌀 Red Tape Ripped in Rhythm A Found Poem with Historical Echoes
“We’re not just draining the swamp—
we’re paving it over with American steel.”
—Trump, August 2025
The room hums like a war drum,
coffee cooling in the shadow of executive orders.
A voice rises—
not from conscience,
but from calculation.
“Murder in D.C. will meet justice.
Not in years. Not in appeals.
But in days.”
Echoes of Hoover’s dossiers,
Nixon’s enemies list,
Reagan’s morning in America
now dusk in the District.
Lisa Cook stares through the storm,
accused by a whisper,
defended by silence.
Trump leans forward,
his tie a flag, his words a verdict:
“She’s compromised.
Mortgage fraud, digital fraud—
it’s all the same when the Fed won’t listen.”
The ghost of Alan Greenspan
shuffles papers in the ether.
Jackson’s populism,
FDR’s fireside calm—
none present here.
Zelensky’s name floats in the air
like a drone over disputed soil.
Putin’s shadow flickers on the wall.
Tariffs are teeth.
Diplomacy is a grin.
“We’ll tax their tech,
we’ll tax their thoughts
if they dare to tax ours.”
The cabinet nods,
some from loyalty,
some from inertia.
The beat goes on:
“AI will be American.
Not woke. Not weird.
Just ours.”
Outside, the National Guard tightens its boots.
Inside, the map of Indiana redraws itself
in red ink and ambition.
A voice from the back mutters:
“This isn’t governance.
It’s jazz.”
And Trump laughs,
a sound like a brass section
breaking the fourth wall.
Down in the dirt has published my poem, Stairway to Heaven, Highway to Hell.
Hi there, this is Janet from Down in the Dirt, and
thanks for the sub. We are accepting “Stairway To Heaven Bumper Sticker”
for the February 2025 issue of Down in the Dirt magazine in print and
online (v228, released 2/1/25).
Your acceptance will also be online by the end of the day today… By the
end of the day today, Friday (at the end of the business day, CST), your
accepted writing will have its own web page in the writings section of http://scars.tv at http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers – just go
to the writings link, and under your name in the left frame will be your
accepted writing, which when clicked will appear in the larger right
frame. (In fact, if you have writings published in more than one issue,
you can in the future just look up your writings in the writings section,
and More Down in the Dirt Publication Newsabove every accepted piece of writing appearing in the right frame will be a link to where it was accepted for publication.) And so you know,
if you look up your writing in the writings section of http://scars.tv, a
link will appear above your writings letting the browser know which issue
the writing is accepted for (and once the issue is published, there will
be links there to the Internet/web page and the printer ordering link for
the issue).
Led Zeppelin – Stairway To Heaven (Live at Earls Court 1975): Watch here
Heart – Stairway to Heaven (Live at Kennedy Center Honors): Watch here
There’s a lady who’s sure, all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
When she gets there she knows
If the stores are all closed
With a word, she can get what she came for
Ooh-ooh-ooh, ooh-ooh-ooh
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven
There’s a sign on the wall, but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know, sometimes words have two meanings
In a tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it makes me wonder
There’s a feeling I get when I look to the west
And my spirit is crying for leaving
In my thoughts, I have seen rings of smoke through the trees
And the voices of those who stand looking
Ooh, it makes me wonder
Ooh, it really makes me wonder
And it’s whispered that soon, if we all call the tune
Then the piper will lead us to reason
And a new day will dawn for those who stand long
And the forests will echo with laughter
Whoa-whoa-whoa, oh-oh
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now
It’s just a spring clean for the May Queen
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
And there’s still time to change the road you’re on
And it makes me wonder
Oh, whoa-oh
Your head is humming and it won’t go
In case you don’t know
The piper’s calling you to join him
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow?
And did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last
When all are one and one is all, yeah
To be a rock and not to roll
Thank you! I like the energy in “Just an Unhinged Lunatic” and will publish your pieces over a few issues, starting with that one.
As always, please feel welcome to visit our current site at synchchaos.com and leave comments for our currently published authors and artists. We all appreciate feedback 🙂
Watching the world walk by Looking at all the fine-looking babes Walking by the street Thinking wild, erotic thoughts Of endless wild libertine passions.
When into the bar Walked the most beautiful women In the Universe. So wild, so free So wonderfully alive.
I did not know what to do As this carnal, deprave
lustful vision of delight
Sauntered through the bar In a skin-tight leather pants
Looked so fine That my eyeballs hurt
And finally
I had to say something So I gathered up
My manly courage
And walked up to her And she looked at me
And instantly
Bewitched my soul Mesmerizing me
With a devilish grin.
I lost all reason And became a raving lunatic Unhinged lunatic Howling at the moon.
Foaming at the mouth A wild, free werewolf Howling at the lunatic light Of the full Moon
One Night in Bombay, India
bombay pictures
One wild night in Bombay, India
I walked into an evil bar 20 drinks too sober
On the wicked wrong end of a Friday night booze run.
On the bad side of the Moon over by where the Martian dudes
Sat drinking their Martian whisky, ogling the Venus maidens.
Leering at the earth women who were walking by
Wearing skin-tight pants made their eyeballs hurt.
I gave in to the spirit and went over to the Martian dudes
And got drunk on the Martian madness, shot after shot
Smoking some good old-fashioned Mars dust.
And flew off to the planet Jupiter
Just to have me some fun with a lady
Who said she was from Saturn?
I did not know she was from the planet Pluto.
Until I woke up the next day, naked, under the alien Sun
In jail on the Planet Alpha Centura, light-years from home,
A million miles away, a thousand years in the future
And I had no money, no honey, no way home.
Still 20 drinks too sober, I just sat down in that jail
And started drinking away my time
Drinking fine cold assed Centurion wine
and Pluto Whisky.
One day I woke up
and found me back in Bombay
Standing outside that evil bar
in the miasmic mist
Over by the Martian whorehouse,
down by the Gate of India
And I walked up to
the Saturn-Pluto babe
And said,
“Man, that was some bad shit
Bad craziness.”
Let’s do it again someday,
she smiled, and I had my way
Knew the day would come again.
When I would be drinking with the Martians
And something wicked my way would come
Just another night of wicked fun
On the wrong side of the Moon
On the right night
in the mean streets of Bombay.
Waiting For The Rapture
While I was sitting on the crowded subway train
Reading the corporate spoon-fed false propaganda news
While commuting from my suburban townhouse
Watching the lies masquerading as so-called truth news.
I became consumed
With dread, fear, and grief,
The ever-growing fear that the terrorists
Have won the war against terrorism.
We’ve given our freedom away
Dissent is un-American, anti-Christian,
and unpatriotic.
“Shut your face, you whiny leftist girlie man
Communist, fascist, Marxist hoodlum punk
Radical left-wing vermin, garbage person,
Un-American terrorist supporting, Tersymps,
Trans gendered, LGBTQ supporting,
wimpy assed piece of crap”
You are poising the pure blood
of our great land
Show us your papers, prepare to be deported,”
Growls the voice of the One True American party
The party that controls our life, rules our very existence
And I want to escape these dark nightmarish times
All around me, but there is nowhere to run
Nowhere to hide anymore, no one cares
What I think anyway.
The terrorists lurk behind every door
Who are the terrorists?
They are not me
I am a god-fearing white Christian man
The terrorist does not go to my church
He does not even believe in my God..
He is a heretic, a Muslim fanatic
A non-believer in Jesus, not like me
They must be killed, exterminated
All according to God’s plan
This has been revealed
to our Prophet in chief
King Donald Trump
, the invincible
Must learn how to believe again
I must reprogram myself
God is watching us, or is it big Brother
As the world descends into chaos
And the Orange alerts
grows brightly day by day
I lay down to pray for the bombs to fall
For the rapture to take me away
Waiting for the end of existence
Cleanse the world of its sins
Bring on the rapture, sweat nuclear flames
With these dismal thoughts
I pick up my newspaper
and look for something
I will never find there.
Truth is nothing but lies
Lies promoted by the spinmeisters
The true masters of the Universe.
Integrity is nothing but a lie
Nothing but a game.
Slime oozes out
of every corner of the media
And so I remain consumed
by dread, fear, and hatred.
Waiting in vain for the rapture
The dropping of the big one
Waiting for the
end of this period of chaos.
It is all going according to plan
The end of the era
according to the ancient Mayan
Revelations and the Koran.
Bring on the rapture
Let me meet my god
If he exists.
If not the hell ahead
Is surely better than this hell
We live in.
AMERICA, WHERE ARE THOU?
I used to live in a place
Called the United States of America
A republic – the first and last hope of mankind
The land of the free, the home of the brave
The envy of the world
The land of the American dream
And now, I am afraid
That the Star Spangled Banner
No longer flies
Over the land of the brave
And the home of the free
I wake up
The red, white and blue
Have been overwhelmed
The dark forces of the red states
Have overwhelmed the light of the blue states
Have trounced the reason offered by the Blue States
And the white forces
Lie trembling in fear
I tried to escape
The darkling night
The ever glowing Orange alerts
And escape somewhere
The leader of the country
The new uncrowned Empire
Rules over us all
Empire Triumphant
Against all enemies
The USA is number one
We chant and scream
And watch FOX TV
As we march off to war
The rest of the world
Trembles in fear at our might
We rule – we rock and roll, and are triumphant
Against all enemies, dissenters, and foreigners
The U.S. marches on to victory
Freedom is on the march
Liberation is at hand
As the rich gather gleeful
Contemplating the plunder of the state
And the poor grow more desperate
I cry out for the country that I have lost
Whose soul has been lost
And the end of the Republic
For which I believed
The empire has won
Long Live the new Caesar
Long Live the New American Empire
Death to all its enemies
As the dream fades into a nightmare
I cry knowing that we have all lost
The last best hope of mankind
Lives buried in the ash heap of history
Tyranny in the guise of Democracy
Rules us all forever and ever
And that flag
The star-spangled banner
Does not waive anymore
Over the land of the free
And the home of the brave
BAD CRAZINESS RISING
Walking into Cosmos Bar
In Soi Cowboy, Bangkok
The city of lost angels.
That nefarious
den of iniquity and evilness
Twenty drinks too sober.
Sitting at the bar
Drinking with my friends
Drinking one scotch,
one bourbon, and one beer.
With the notorious Jack Daniels Gang
Baker Beam, Jim Beam, Mr. Blanton
Mr. Booker, Elijah Craig, Jack Daniels
George Dickel, Thomas H. Handy, Basil Haydens
Henry McKenna, Old Mr. Forester, Mr. Jameson
Mr. Nester, David Nichols, Benjamin Prichard,
George T. Stagg, Colonel E.H. Taylor,
Johny Walker, Evans Williams, William Larue Weller
W.L. Weller Pappy Van Winkle, and his old Grand Dad.
Thank you! I like the energy in “Just an Unhinged Lunatic” and will publish your pieces over a few issues, starting with that one.
As always, please feel welcome to visit our current site at synchchaos.com and leave comments for our currently published authors and artists. We all appreciate feedback 🙂
Watching the world walk by
Looking at all the fine-looking babes
Walking by the street
Thinking wild, erotic thoughts
Of endless wild libertine passions.
When into the bar
Walked the most beautiful women
In the Universe.
So wild, so free
So wonderfully alive.
I did not know what to do
As this carnal, deprave
lustful vision of delight
Sauntered through the bar
In a skin-tight leather pants
Looked so fine
That my eyeballs hurt
And finally
I had to say something
So I gathered up
My manly courage
And walked up to her
And she looked at me
And instantly
Bewitched my soul
Mesmerizing me
With a devilish grin.
I lost all reason
And became a raving lunatic
Unhinged lunatic
Howling at the moon.
Foaming at the mouth
A wild, free werewolf
Howling at the lunatic light
Of the full Moon
One Night in Bombay, India
bombay pictures
One wild night in Bombay, India
I walked into an evil bar 20 drinks too sober
On the wicked wrong end of a Friday night booze run.
On the bad side of the Moon over by where the Martian dudes
Sat drinking their Martian whisky, ogling the Venus maidens.
Leering at the earth women who were walking by
Wearing skin-tight pants made their eyeballs hurt.
I gave in to the spirit and went over to the Martian dudes
And got drunk on the Martian madness, shot after shot
Smoking some good old-fashioned Mars dust.
And flew off to the planet Jupiter
Just to have me some fun with a lady
Who said she was from Saturn?
I did not know she was from the planet Pluto.
Until I woke up the next day, naked, under the alien Sun
In jail on the Planet Alpha Centura, light-years from home,
A million miles away, a thousand years in the future
And I had no money, no honey, no way home.
Still 20 drinks too sober, I just sat down in that jail
And started drinking away my time
Drinking fine cold assed Centurion wine
and Pluto Whisky.
One day I woke up
and found me back in Bombay
Standing outside that evil bar
in the miasmic mist
Over by the Martian whorehouse,
down by the Gate of India
And I walked up to
the Saturn-Pluto babe
And said,
“Man, that was some bad shit
Bad craziness.”
Let’s do it again someday,
she smiled, and I had my way
Knew the day would come again.
When I would be drinking with the Martians
And something wicked my way would come
Just another night of wicked fun
On the wrong side of the Moon
On the right night
in the mean streets of Bombay.
Waiting For The Rapture
While I was sitting on the crowded subway train
Reading the corporate spoon-fed false propaganda news
While commuting from my suburban townhouse
Watching the lies masquerading as so-called truth news.
I became consumed
With dread, fear, and grief,
The ever-growing fear that the terrorists
Have won the war against terrorism.
We’ve given our freedom away
Dissent is un-American, anti-Christian,
and unpatriotic.
“Shut your face, you whiny leftist girlie man
Communist, fascist, Marxist hoodlum punk
Radical left-wing vermin, garbage person,
Un-American terrorist supporting, Tersymps,
Trans gendered, LGBTQ supporting,
wimpy assed piece of crap”
You are poising the pure blood
of our great land
Show us your papers, prepare to be deported,”
Growls the voice of the One True American party
The party that controls our life, rules our very existence
And I want to escape these dark nightmarish times
All around me, but there is nowhere to run
Nowhere to hide anymore, no one cares
What I think anyway.
The terrorists lurk behind every door
Who are the terrorists?
They are not me
I am a god-fearing white Christian man
The terrorist does not go to my church
He does not even believe in my God..
He is a heretic, a Muslim fanatic
A non-believer in Jesus, not like me
They must be killed, exterminated
All according to God’s plan
This has been revealed
to our Prophet in chief
King Donald Trump
, the invincible
Must learn how to believe again
I must reprogram myself
God is watching us, or is it big Brother
As the world descends into chaos
And the Orange alerts
grows brightly day by day
I lay down to pray for the bombs to fall
For the rapture to take me away
Waiting for the end of existence
Cleanse the world of its sins
Bring on the rapture, sweat nuclear flames
With these dismal thoughts
I pick up my newspaper
and look for something
I will never find there.
Truth is nothing but lies
Lies promoted by the spinmeisters
The true masters of the Universe.
Integrity is nothing but a lie
Nothing but a game.
Slime oozes out
of every corner of the media
And so I remain consumed
by dread, fear, and hatred.
Waiting in vain for the rapture
The dropping of the big one
Waiting for the
end of this period of chaos.
It is all going according to plan
The end of the era
according to the ancient Mayan
Revelations and the Koran.
Bring on the rapture
Let me meet my god
If he exists.
If not the hell ahead
Is surely better than this hell
We live in.
AMERICA, WHERE ARE THOU?
I used to live in a place
Called the United States of America
A republic – the first and last hope of mankind
The land of the free, the home of the brave
The envy of the world
The land of the American dream
And now, I am afraid
That the Star Spangled Banner
No longer flies
Over the land of the brave
And the home of the free
I wake up
The red, white and blue
Have been overwhelmed
The dark forces of the red states
Have overwhelmed the light of the blue states
Have trounced the reason offered by the Blue States
And the white forces
Lie trembling in fear
I tried to escape
The darkling night
The ever glowing Orange alerts
And escape somewhere
The leader of the country
The new uncrowned Empire
Rules over us all
Empire Triumphant
Against all enemies
The USA is number one
We chant and scream
And watch FOX TV
As we march off to war
The rest of the world
Trembles in fear at our might
We rule – we rock and roll, and are triumphant
Against all enemies, dissenters, and foreigners
The U.S. marches on to victory
Freedom is on the march
Liberation is at hand
As the rich gather gleeful
Contemplating the plunder of the state
And the poor grow more desperate
I cry out for the country that I have lost
Whose soul has been lost
And the end of the Republic
For which I believed
The empire has won
Long Live the new Caesar
Long Live the New American Empire
Death to all its enemies
As the dream fades into a nightmare
I cry knowing that we have all lost
The last best hope of mankind
Lives buried in the ash heap of history
Tyranny in the guise of Democracy
Rules us all forever and ever
And that flag
The star-spangled banner
Does not waive anymore
Over the land of the free
And the home of the brave
BAD CRAZINESS RISING
Walking into Cosmos Bar
In Soi Cowboy, Bangkok
The city of lost angels.
That nefarious
den of iniquity and evilness
Twenty drinks too sober.
Sitting at the bar
Drinking with my friends
Drinking one scotch,
one bourbon, and one beer.
With the notorious Jack Daniels Gang
Baker Beam, Jim Beam, Mr. Blanton
Mr. Booker, Elijah Craig, Jack Daniels
George Dickel, Thomas H. Handy, Basil Haydens
Henry McKenna, Old Mr. Forester, Mr. Jameson
Mr. Nester, David Nichols, Benjamin Prichard,
George T. Stagg, Colonel E.H. Taylor,
Johny Walker, Evans Williams, William Larue Weller
W.L. Weller Pappy Van Winkle, and his old Grand Dad.
During the Trump-Haris debate, President Trump made racists comments about Haitian immigrants eating pets in Springfield, Ohio. the Moderator fact checked him pointing out that the City Manager, Mayor and Police chief all denied that this was an actual thing. Nonetheless Trump, JD Vance and their cohorts in the MAGA movement have spent the last two weeks repeating these vile rumors.
Co-pilot provided background information
To provide accurate background information on recent comments by President Trump and JD Vance about Haitian immigrants eating dogs and cats in Springfield, Ohio, I’ll need to search for the most up-to-date and reliable sources. Let me gather that information for you.
The comments you’re referring to were made recently and have caused significant controversy. Here’s a summary of the situation:
On March 16, 2024, during a campaign rally in Dayton, Ohio, former President Donald Trump made claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. He stated Haitian immigrants were coming to Ohio in large numbers and suggested they were engaging in unusual practices, including eating dogs and cats.
JD Vance, a Republican Senator from Ohio, later echoed and defended Trump’s comments in a social media post.
These statements have been widely criticized by political opponents, fact-checkers, and immigrant advocacy groups as being inflammatory and not based on evidence.
Local officials in Springfield, Ohio, have disputed these claims, stating that there is no evidence of such practices occurring in their community.
The comments have sparked a broader debate about immigration rhetoric and its impact on communities.
For direct sources and more detailed information, you can refer to the following links:
He stated Haitian immigrants were coming to Ohio in large numbers and suggested they were engaging in unusual practices, including eating dogs and cats.
These sources provide comprehensive coverage of the statements made, the context surrounding them, and the reactions they’ve generated. It’s important to approach this topic with critical thinking and to consider multiple perspectives when evaluating the impact and accuracy of these claims.
Here are my poems and stories about these ridiculous racist claims.
Sandra Jones Interrupts Haitian Voodoo Cat Ritual
Sandra Lee Jones lived in Springfield, Ohio. She was a local political activist and recently had gotten involved in the MAGA movement local chapter which was quite concerned with the problems facing the community with the influx of Haitian immigrants. She was convinced that her Haitian neighbors were killing and eating dogs and cats as part of a satanic voodoo ritual. She followed the controversy on Facebook and was determined to get footage confirming that. She had contacted the local police, the local papers, and the Mayor, but they ignored her frequent calls seeing her as a crank caller and warning her of the legal penalties for filing false and frivolous police reports.
One night, she went into the woods with her friends to spy on a Haitian voodoo ceremony being held on a full moon night deep in the woods. They saw a lost black cat running away from the campfire being chased by a voodoo priestess.
Sandra rescued the cat and confronted her.
Sandra rescued the cat and confronted her.
“Hey, what are you doing to the cats and dogs? Are you eating them?”
The priestess, Mambo Lola Sita, said,
“Back off, Karen. Mind your own business. And give me back Sassy my cat. We need him for our ritual. We can perform a blessing ritual for you and your friends. Maybe you win the lotto or get a new boyfriend or girlfriend, whatever you want I can make happen with my voodoo mojo.
Sandra pulled out her cell phone and called the police. They were used to her frequent calls and considered her a nuisance crank caller. Jason Adams, her video assistant live streamed the encounter on FB, X, and Fox News. Which broke into their regular programming to bring live coverage of ‘”The Voodoo Cat Ritual” taking place in Springfield, Ohio. They had live interviews with Christian Ministers active in the “anti- Voodoo” movement. Former President Trump and JD Vance live called into the program denouncing the Haitians for conducting shocking voodoo animal sacrifices.
The right media made Sandra a hero for standing up to the evil Haitians. Donald Trump and JD Vance said they believed her story. Only 30 percent of Americans believed her story, most people were sympathetic to the Haitian immigrants
Trump lauded the brave woman who saved a cat from death in a voodoo ceremony.,
Haitian immigrants across the country accused of killing pets, Proud Boys descend on Springfield, Ohio.
“These animals from Haiti are sick weirdos, totally disgusting vermin. The local police should be arresting them but they are too afraid of the woke radical leftist mob and the rabid pro-open borders media. They kill cats, dogs, and ducks and eat them as part of their satanic Voodoo ceremonies. Why won’t comrade Kamala apologize to the country for letting these Haitian thugs into the country in the first place? Is she a secret Voodoo believer? Her father was from Jamaica they do voodoo there too. I am told Thanks to Sandra the cat was saved. On day one of my Presidency, we will deport all the Haitians in the US, starting with Springfield, ground zero of the Haitian Voodoo invasion, and we will also make Voodoo illegal.”
The police and media showed up and walked about the campfire confirming that there were no dead animals at the site. They arrested Sandra and her associates for filing a false police report and instigating a hate crime. The Haitians declined to press charges and were released.
They began receiving hate mail every day. A week later Sandra was horrified when she looked out at the front yard covered with dead cats and dogs on top of the freshly fallen first snow of the year, as the cold front finally moved through.
“Karen” is a pejorative term that refers to white middle-aged women who call the police to report crimes allegedly being committed by black people.
“MAGA Make America Great Again” is President Trump’s populist movement that has taken over the Republican party.
“Mind Your Own Business” is Governor Tim Walz, the democratic party’s candidate warning to the Republican MAGA movement positions on abortion and LRBTQ rights
Haitian immigrants across the country accused of killing pets, Proud Boys descend on Springfield, Ohio.
Trump and Vance hold a rally in Springfield to denounce immigrant pet abuse by Haitian immigrants.
The Proud Boys and other right-wing groups announce that they are going to Springfield, Ohio to hold citizen arrests of the entire Haitian community and expel them from town to save the town from the threat of dog and cat killings posed by the Haitian immigrants.
After the rally, the proud boys go around shooting and killing Haitians while Trump says nothing to condemn the horrific violence and promises to pay the legal bills of the patriots who cleaned up the city.
The residents of the town rally to protect their new neighbors and fight back. The Proud Boys and others leave town after killing Haitians and burning down their businesses. The townspeople held a press conference and announced that they would help their Haitian friends rebuilt their lives.
Trump Says Time to Deport all Haitians
“When I am President, we will eliminate immigration from shit-hole countries like Haiti and deport Haitians en-mass. It is a terrible country where they come from. The Haitians are simply horrid animals. The proud boys go ahead and rough them up scare them to leave town so they can go and infest I don’t know maybe Oakland? Comrade Harris’s hometown?
The national Associations of Caribbean Americans endorse Kamala Harris and promises a new beginning for Caribbean Americans including Haitians.
Donald Trump Doubles Down
Donald Trump
Is a stubborn old man
Adamant in his delusions
Doubling down on his racist lies,
Comments about Haitians
Eeating cats, ducks, dogs and gesse.
Appealing to his racist white base
Who eat up his hateful words.
Haiti Eating dogs Oh My
Trump and Vance
Have gone off
The racist deep-end
Talking about Haitians
Eating dogs and cats
Implying they were engaged
In weird voodoo rituals.
Trump Goes On Tirade about Haitian immigrants
Trump announced that if he were elected president he would immediately deport Haitians and rescind the TSP program. He went on to say that Haiti was a horrible country, filled with violent vile people who practice voodoo and dogs and cats. He would start with deporting the Haitians in Springfield who are not good people, in fact they are vermin, animals that should be rounded up and shot.
Haitians Eating Dogs – oh my Semi-found Poem
“In Springfield,
they’re eating the dogs,
the people who came in
”
These animals
have taken over” Springfield
and are “walking off,”
with people’s pets.
“They’re eating the cats.
They’re eating
the pets of the people
that live there.”
and this
is what’s
happening in our country.
We’re going
to get these people out,”
These animals
from Haiti are sick weirdos,
totally disgusting vermin.
The local police
should be arresting them
but they are too afraid
of the woke radical leftist mob
and the rabid pro-open borders media.
They kill cats, dogs,
and ducks
and eat them
as part of their satanic
Voodoo ceremonies.
Why won’t comrade Kamala
apologize to the country
for letting these Haitian thugs
into the country
in the first place?
Is she a secret voodoo believer?
Her father was from Jamaica
they voodoo there too.
I am told
Thanks to Sandra
the cat was saved.
On day one of my Presidency,
we will deport
all the Haitians in the US,
Starting with Springfield,
Ground zero of the
Haitian Voodoo invasion,
and we will also
make Voodoo illegal.”
A local Haitian activist said
a visit from Trump
“would be like rubbing sandpaper
covered with salt
on an open wound,”
” they continue to dehumanize the Haitian community,
just like this country vilified the Germans and Italians
Donald Trump Cat and Duck AI Images, also known as Donald Trump Cat Memes, Cats For Trump or Ducks For Trump, refers to a series of AI-generated images showing former United States President Donald Trump holding cats and ducks, often rescuing them or running away with the animals, that are then “supporting” him in the 2024 Presidential Election. The artificial intelligence images went viral in early September 2024 as part of a rumor about Haitian immigrants in Ohio purportedly eating pets, notably including a neighbor’s cat and geese, which were then used by Trump supporters to joke about the recent influx of Haitians in the country. Despite local authorities refuting the claims of Haitian immigrants eating people’s animals, the AI pictures depicting Trump rescuing them were widely spread on social media, particularly on X / Twitter.
One of the earliest pieces of memetic content was posted by X[1] user @TrumpsRare that same day, who shared an AI-generated video of Donald Trump kissing a duck captioned, “I love you. I would never let the Haitians eat you.” The upload (shown below) received over 2.3 million views, 8,1700 reposts and 57,000 likes in one day.
Spread
Several AI images depicting Donald Trump saving cats and ducks from people (presumably intended to depict Haitian immigrants) started to appear across X, Reddit and TikTok in the following days after the rumor gained traction on social media in early September 2024.
For example, on September 9th, 2024, the X[2] page @JudiciaryGOP posted an AI montage showing Trump hugging a kitty and a goose while he’s in the water, captioning it with, “Protect our ducks and kittens in Ohio!” The tweet (seen below) amassed more than 67 million views, 7,900 reposts and 32,000 likes in a day.
Also on September 9th, Redditor[3] Ok-Star-6787 posted an AI image of Trump holding two kittens while running away from two men, captioning the post, “For Trump to save your neighborhood cats.” The post (seen below) received roughly 275 upvotes and 38 comments in a day.
On the same day, TikTok[4] user @teamwork200000 posted a video featuring cats wearing “cats for rump” hats (seen below), which garnered over 10,000 plays and 1,600 likes in a day.
The Trump catmemes were also mentioned by Congressman Eric Swalwell on September 10th, 2024, which was later uploaded on X[5] by the page @townhallcom (seen below). In the video, Swalwell calls out @JudiciaryGOP AI image featuring Trump holding a kitty and a goose, saying “You’re tweeting this nonsense.” The post amassed more than 196,000 views and 1,400 likes in a few hours.
These poems were written following weekly prompts on writing com. For each poem, I have provided the underlying prompt and additional information following the poems. They are in a wide range of styles and ratings. This is the third time I have completed this challenge, and I look forward to the next challenge starting next month for a year..
#18. Lonely Young WOman
ID #1048804 entered on April 26, 2023 at 3:40am [Edit] [31 views]
#17. Barbados Beckoning
ID #1048740 entered on April 25, 2023 at 2:01am [Edit] [45 views]
Barbados, West Indies – March 4, 2007: A beach scene on the Caribbean Island of Barbados with a yellow lifeguard station and people enjoying the beach and the water.
While reading Charles Bukowski’s poetry
On the metro ride home
Listening to Buddha bar music
On my oh too hip IPod.
I begin to see myself as I was
Over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
A minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem.
A wild young underemployed intellectual
Hanging out in dismal bars and dives all over Asia and California
Hanging with disreputable women and drunks and drinkers
And characters out of his kinds of haunts.
A mad poet bard of the underground
A drunken poet in a drunken bum show
That nightly played in his head.
Then one day I met the woman of my dreams
And went down a different path
A long, slow path to respectability.
And now 30 years later
I am no longer a wild man
I am still a poet at heart
But I am now also a bureaucrat
In a button-down suite.
Doing the people’s business
Working for the Government
I’ve become the Man.
Sometimes I wonder
Would I have been better off
Going down that other path?
Would I have ended up
Somewhere else
Doing something else.
Would I have been as happy?
Would I have been as successful?
No answer satisfies
The longing in my heart
For that wild thing
That still lurks beneath
It’s a civilized cover.
And I know that I am still
A mad poet at heart
Railing against the injustice of the world.
As I work day by day in the belly
of the great beast of State
I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
“Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night”
Playing out in my head and nightly dreams
In the true American Upper-class patrician tradition.
I close the book and look out the window
Get off the train, and walk slowly home.
And realize I had no choice
But to take the path that I’ve trodden on/
And so I put aside my misgivings
And say goodbye to my “Bukowskian” desires
For another night of domestic contentment.
Was it worth it all to take the conventional path?
And not take the Bohemian road to hell and back?
I look at my wife and realize
I had no choice, had no choice
But to follow her to the ends of the earth.
And beyond by her side as we walked our path
Of shared destiny.
Goodbye, Charles Bukowski, wherever you are
May I meet you in a bar in the next life?
And figure out where we should have gone.
Until then, the drinks are on me.
Spillwords has published a number of my works over the years. See the following:
I am again entering the annual April Poetry Month challenge. I will update this once a week and post the updates on Blog Lovin, Facebook, Fan Story, Instagram, Medium, Substack, Watt Pad and X. Comments are welcomed.
Index
April 1
PSH Ode to Durian
WD Optimistic Laturnae
WC Dew Drop Inn Sarang pabo love fool
NaPoWrMo Easter Bunny Warm up March 31
NaPoWrMo April 1 Cage
April 2
PSH The Words of the Year 1955 PSH
WD Sad and happy days
WC Dew Drop Inn Spring Time Flowers Blooming Love
NaPoWrMo Ode to Coffee
April 3
PSH Berkeley Mad Psychotic Pineapple Burns Sonnet
PSH 2 AI Version Traditional Sonnet
WD My Musical Street
WC Dew Drop Inn
NaPoWrMo
The Parliament of Owls Decree Death to All Humans
AV version the Parliament of Owls Decree Death to All Humans
April 4
PSH Love Expressed Through Food
WD Look at the Sky
WC Dew Drop In Ending Shaving in Retirement
NaPoWriMo It Can’t Happen Here
April 5
PSH Cosmic Dog From Goa
WD Tell Me No Lies
WC Dew Drop Inn Making Baseball Great Again
NaPoWriMo Only In SF
April 6
PSH Visiting My Father’s Grave
Writers DIgest Meeting My Fate
Writing Com Dew Drop Inn Daily RItual Drinks
NaPoWrMo PNRCP
Begin Poems
April 1
Ode to Durian
The infamous durian fruit is a strange phenomenon.
Common in China, Southeast Asia, and India,
and in Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Indian diaspora communities,
It has such a powerful sour smell that it is banned in airline cabins.
I first ate Durian in a rural town in Central Thailand
my hasher friends dared me to eat it
it was horrible at first the smell
But if you can get beyond
The awful, dirty socks, rotten, sour smell,
The taste is pure heaven,
Proof perhaps that God has a sense of humor?
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Suzanne Lummis:
Evolve a poem that involves an exotic fruit, one fruit, and a town you’ve never visited, or else have distant memories of. The poem does not have to be About the fruit. It probably should Not be about the fruit. No one gives a fig about a fruit. But the fruit makes an Appearance. Extra points if it’s a Pomegranate. No need to mention Persephone, but if you do… It better be something we don’t already know.
Writer’s Digest
Optimistic Laturnae
life
more love
with my wife
standing by me
love
The lanturne is a five-line verse shaped like a Japanese lantern with a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, one.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2024 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, we have our first two-for-Tuesday prompt.
For today’s prompt, we have our first two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts. You can write to one of the prompts, both the prompts separately, or try to write a poem that works with both prompts at the same time. The prompts are:
The Burns Sonnet is a Shakespearian sonnet but it does not follow traditional meter or rhyme
Please convert the previous text into a traditional sonnet using most of these words in line 13 must use the word cacophony and follow the following criterion
1 inner life of pineapple
2 berkeley fate
3 bad luck comes in three
4last night went for a walk
5-8 line five to eight two animals meet someone unusual
9 10 wish for the pineapple
11 12 what did I wish for when your eight
13-14 hullabaloo, ragamuffin, hooferaw, scoundreles cacophony and discuss a secret something is hidden or something no one else knows
AI Version
AI version Title: “The Cosmic Cat”
sf dog 3
The Berkeley mad, psychotic pineapple,
An underground icon in the streets of Berkeley,
Whispered, “Bad Luck comes in Three,” so cynical,
Last night, he wandered, joints ablaze, unwary.
Encountering a cat, not mere feline grace,
But cosmic blackness riding on a dog,
A mouse perched high, a curious embrace,
In SF Bay’s odd realm, where dreams may jog.
Oh, how I wished when I was merely eight,
For a cosmic cat, a secret friend concealed,
To stir a hullabaloo, a wild debate,
A ragamuffin dance, a truth revealed.
In hooferaw and scoundrel’s cacophony,
The pineapple’s fate intertwined with glee. 🍍🌌
Writer’s Digest Our Musical Street
30 lines
I grew up
In a very creative time
a very musical time.
The 60’s had the best music
Motown ruled the Bay Area
As well as Great rock music
Acid jazz
Acid Rock
Fusion Jazz
The Grateful Dead
Mamas and the Papas
Jefferson Airplane
Jimmy Hendrix
last high school
was Berkeley High School
Santana
And so many others
The best funk band
Of them all
Tower of Power
Beloved by all
High school students.
For their immortal classic
Make out song
You’re still a Young Man.
wonder how many people
fell in love slow dancing
to this song
how many babies
were conceived?
Tower of Power rocked
Every party in town
On every street.
Music flowed.
On every musical street
In the city.
That was Berkeley
In the 60’s and 70’s.
Please use the following as the Title of your story or poem:
“Our Musical Street”
Please select “Music” as one of your genres.
Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk-based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. The band has had several lead vocalists, the best known being Lenny Williams, who fronted the band between early 1973 and late 1974, the period of their greatest commercial success1. They have had eight songs on the Billboard Hot 100; their highest-charting songs include “You’re Still a Young Man”, “So Very Hard to Go”, “What Is Hip?”, and “Don’t Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)”1.
The band was formed by tenor saxophonist/vocalist Emilio Castillo and baritone saxophonist Stephen “Doc” Kupka in 19681. The band’s soul sound appealed to both minority and counterculture listeners1. The band’s name was changed to Tower of Power after they agreed that their original name, The Mots, would not help them play at Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco1.
Tower of Power has released 31 albums, including 15 studio albums, 5 live albums, and 11 compilations1. Their most recent album, “Step Up”, was released in 20202.
Here is a list of some of their most popular songs:
“You’re Still a Young Man”
“So Very Hard to Go”
“What Is Hip?”
“Don’t Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)”
“Soul Vaccination”
“This Time It’s Real”
“Time Will Tell”
“Only So Much Oil in the Ground”
If you’re interested in listening to their music, you can check out their official website2.
2024 April PAD Challenge: Day 3
Write a poem every day of April with the 2024 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a musical act or artist poem.
Believe it or not, today is one of the more important days of the April Poem-A-Day Challenge. While each day is a new challenge, I’ve found that most poets who make it through the first three days of prompts have the best chances of still being here at the end of the month. So let’s write a poem!
For today’s prompt, pick a musical act or artist and either make that the title of your poem or incorporate into the title of your poem; then, write your poem. Possible titles might be: “Michael Jackson,” “Olivia Rodrigo,” “the Beatles,” “Guided by Voices at Austin City Limits,” “Watching a Movie With Elton John,” or “Eating Ice Cream With Dr. Dre.” Have fun with it!
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
Writing Com Dew Drop Inn Look at the Sky
NaPoWrMo Prompt
the Parliament of Owls Decree Death to All Humans
AV version the Parliament of Owls Decree Death to All Humans
Death to All Humans
The Parliament of Animals met one day in a secret undisclosed location as they were under constant surveillance by the human CIA and others who wanted to disrupt the parliament’s work.
the wise owl presided. He read the charges
“We are assembled here to judge the actions of the human race. the human race is being charged with
crimes against nature,
destruction of the environment,
mass murder,
enslavement of animals,
mutilation of animals,
and violation of Gaia’s basic commandments to preserve the environment for all animals including humans.
Speaking for the prosecution will be the Tiger and Lions, speaking for the defense with the domestic cats and dogs. We have in the room ten men and women who are representative of the human race.
The parliament can make any recommendation to remedy the situation including the death penalty, exile, or reparations. All animals will be required to conduct these recommendations.”
“Okay, Mr. Tiger first we will ask the humans how they plead.” “
Humans. You have been charged with the following crimes.
crimes against nature,
destruction of the environment,
mass murder,
enslavement of animals,
mutilation of animals,
and violation of Gaia’s basic commandments to preserve the environment for all animals including humans.
How do you plead?
Sam Adams, the lawyer for the humans, responded,
“Not guilty your honor for these charges except for eating animals which we contend is part of the natural order of the world and many if not most of you are guilty of the same charge.”
“Clarification – your basic argument is that everyone eats animals, so humans are not guilty
“ “Yes, that is correct, your honor.” “
Okay, Mr. Tiger, you’re opening.” “Okay. The facts are clear. For thousands of years until the Industrial Revolution humans had a little mass impact on the overall environment. Ever since then all animals have been impacted and my species has been hunted to extinction for the greed of humans who have not eaten tiger meat. The predator class, including bears, coyotes, feral dogs, lions, tigers, and wolves have been fighting back against the predation of humans, but we are losing. And if we don’t do anything within 10 years, there won’t be any tigers or other big predators left in the wild. And the natural order of things would be controlled by the evil, selfish humans who don’t give a damn about their fellow creatures. Therefore, we are proposing that 95% of humans must be killed. The remaining humans will be allowed to live as our slaves It is only fair. That is my request to the parliament of animals. Death to humans!”
The crowd rose and chanted “Death to all humans” until the owl ruled that they must not disrupt the proceedings.
The owl turned to the cat and and dog for their defense. the dog responded, “
Humans and dogs have been partners, and we know humans more than any of you. Humans are capable of great kindness, and compassion and we maintain they are not fundamentally evil. And then they can be redeemed through education and through. Campaign to reform human thought. I think we should give humans a second chance.”
the owl motioned to the dog
“I concur with Brother Cat. Humans are okay and we like them they are our friends, although they should be found not guilty because of insanity.”
The owl said he was ready for his verdict.
“Death to 95 percent of humans, and enslavement of the rest, but we will allow 50,000 to immigrate to the Moon and Mars. I will meet with the UN to give them the decree.
Once that is published all animals must rise up and kill all humans on sight. This suspends the parliament of animals. Death to all humans.” The word went out animals rose all over the world and the reign of human tyranny ended within a year.
AI Version The Parliament of Animals
In the clandestine chambers of the Parliament of Animals, where shadows danced and secrets whispered, the wise owl presided. Under the ever-watchful gaze of human surveillance, the charges were read aloud:
“We are assembled here to judge the actions of the human race. The human race stands accused of crimes against nature, destruction of the environment, mass murder, enslavement of animals, mutilation of animals, and violation of Gaia’s sacred commandments. Speaking for the prosecution are the Tigers and Lions; for the defense, the domestic cats and dogs. Ten representatives of humanity sit in this room. The parliament holds the power to recommend remedies: death penalty, exile, or reparations. All animals shall be bound by these decisions.”
The Tiger, his golden eyes ablaze, addressed the humans, “How do you plead?”
The humans, their faces etched with defiance, stood before the assembly. Sam Adams, their lawyer, stepped forward, his voice unwavering, “Not guilty, Your Honor. Except for eating animals—a primal act woven into our existence—we maintain our innocence. It is the natural order, and many among you, my fellow creatures, partake in this ancient feast.”
The room buzzed with tension. The wise owl blinked, feathers rustling. The verdict hung in the air, suspended between judgment and mercy. The fate of humanity rested on the scales of justice, balanced precariously.
And so, the Parliament of Animals convened, weaving threads of fate, pondering the sins of bipeds, and deciding whether to condemn or absolve. In this surreal courtroom, where the boundaries blurred and the moon bore witness, the world awaited its reckoning.
Last but not least, here’s our prompt for the day – optional, as always. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a surreal prose poem. For inspiration, check out Franz Kafka’s collection of short parables (my favorite is “The Green Dragon”).
The infamous durian fruit is a strange phenomenon.
Common in China, Southeast Asia, and India,
and in Chinese, Southeast Asian, and Indian diaspora communities,
It has such a powerful sour smell, that it is banned in airline cabins.
first ate Durian in a rural town in Central Thailand
my hasher friends dared me to eat it
it was horrible at first the smell
But if you can get beyond
The awful, dirty socks, rotten, sour smell,
The taste is pure heaven,
Proof perhaps that God has a sense of humor?
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Suzanne Lummis:
Evolve a poem that involves an exotic fruit, one fruit, and a town you’ve never visited, or else have distant memories of. The poem does not have to be About the fruit. It probably should Not be about the fruit. No one gives a fig about a fruit. But the fruit makes an Appearance. Extra points if it’s a Pomegranate. No need to mention Persephone, but if you do… It better be something we don’t already know.
A Mango would also be good.
No Oranges.
Nothing personal against them, but that’s another poem. And Gary Soto wrote it.
Don’t forget about the Town.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.
#napowrimo #poetry
Writer’s Digest
Optimistic Laturnae (CC FS)
life
more love
with my wife
standing by me
love
The lanturne is a five-line verse shaped like a Japanese lantern with a syllabic pattern of one, two, three, four, one.
March 31 warm Up
Easter Bunny Warning
The Easter Bunny
Had a warning
He was tired
Of being played the fool.
Tired of being associated
With low-life fake Christians
Proclaiming that Donald Trump
Is the next messiah.
The Easter Bunny said,
“Donald Trump
Ain’t no Christian
He ain’t no friend of mine.
He is the antichrist
The poster child
For the seven deadly sins”.
Donald Trump denounced
The Easter Bunny.
Saying on Truth Social,
“The Easter Bunny is nothing
But a low-life wanna-be thug,
A real loser!
An anti-fa, anti-American, BLM, communist, fascist
Radical left-wing Marxist vermin thug,
Part of the woke crowd,
That is ruining our once-great country.
That needs a Second Amendment remedy.
April 1—Be a fool in a poem!
Sarangpabo – Korean Love Fool for You
When I first saw you
In my dreams.
You were the most beautiful woman
In the world to me
And still are.
When you looked at me
With love blazing
From your dark brown
Goo-goo eyes.
sparks flew from heart to heart
(이심초심ishimchomshim)
You hynotized, messemeried me
Your love mojo working overtime
Turning me into nothing but
A 사랑 바보Sarang pabo (love fool).
Eight years later
You walked off that bus
Into my life,
Becoming
my wife,
My soul mate.
And yes,
I am still
your 사랑 바보Sarang pabo.
And will remain under
Your love spell
Until the day I die.
Translation into Korean (rough AI Version)
Certainly! Here’s the English text followed by the Hangul and Romanized script line by line:
Write a poem every day of April with the 2024 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, we have our first two-for-Tuesday prompt.
For today’s prompt, we have our first two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts. You can write to one of the prompts, both the prompts separately, or try to write a poem that works with both prompts at the same time. The prompts are:
The Burns Sonnet is a Shakespearian sonnet but it does not follow traditional meter or rhyme
Please convert the previous text into a traditional sonnet using most of these words in line 13 must use the word cacophony and follow the following criterion
1 inner life of pineapple
2 berkeley fate
3 bad luck comes in three
4last night went for a walk
5-8 line five to eight two animals meet someone unusual
9 10 wish for the pineapple
11 12 what did I wish for when your eight
13-14 hullabaloo, ragamuffin, hooferaw, scoundreles cacophony and discuss a secret something is hidden or something no one else knows
AI Version
AI version Title: “The Cosmic Cat”
The Berkeley mad, psychotic pineapple,
An underground icon in the streets of Berkeley,
Whispered, “Bad Luck comes in Three,” so cynical,
Last night, he wandered, joints ablaze, unwary.
Encountering a cat, not mere feline grace,
But cosmic blackness riding on a dog,
A mouse perched high, a curious embrace,
In SF Bay’s odd realm, where dreams may jog.
Oh, how I wished when I was merely eight,
For a cosmic cat, a secret friend concealed,
To stir a hullabaloo, a wild debate,
A ragamuffin dance, a truth revealed.
In hooferaw and scoundrel’s cacophony,
The pineapple’s fate intertwined with glee. 🍍🌌
Writer’s Digest Our Musical Street
30 lines
I grew up
In a very creative time
a very musical time.
The 60’s had the best music
Motown ruled the Bay Area
As well as Great rock music
Acid jazz
Acid Rock
Fusion Jazz
The Grateful Dead
Mamas and the Papas
Jefferson Airplane
Jimmy Hendrix
last high school
was Berkeley High School
Santana
And so many others
The best funk band
Of them all
Tower of Power
Beloved by all
High school students.
For their immortal classic
Make out song
You’re still a Young Man.
wonder how many people
fell in love slow dancing
to this song
how many babies
were conceived?
Tower of Power rocked
Every party in town
On every street.
Music flowed.
On every musical street
In the city.
That was Berkeley
In the 60’s and 70’s.
Please use the following as the Title of your story or poem:
“Our Musical Street”
Please select “Music” as one of your genres.
Tower of Power is an American R&B and funk-based band and horn section, originating in Oakland, California, that has been performing since 1968. The band has had several lead vocalists, the best known being Lenny Williams, who fronted the band between early 1973 and late 1974, the period of their greatest commercial success1. They have had eight songs on the Billboard Hot 100; their highest-charting songs include “You’re Still a Young Man”, “So Very Hard to Go”, “What Is Hip?”, and “Don’t Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)”1.
The band was formed by tenor saxophonist/vocalist Emilio Castillo and baritone saxophonist Stephen “Doc” Kupka in 19681. The band’s soul sound appealed to both minority and counterculture listeners1. The band’s name was changed to Tower of Power after they agreed that their original name, The Mots, would not help them play at Bill Graham’s Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco1.
Tower of Power has released 31 albums, including 15 studio albums, 5 live albums, and 11 compilations1. Their most recent album, “Step Up”, was released in 20202.
Here is a list of some of their most popular songs:
“You’re Still a Young Man”
“So Very Hard to Go”
“What Is Hip?”
“Don’t Change Horses (in the Middle of a Stream)”
“Soul Vaccination”
“This Time It’s Real”
“Time Will Tell”
“Only So Much Oil in the Ground”
If you’re interested in listening to their music, you can check out their official website2.
Bump City is the second album by the soul/funk group Tower of Power. The album cover is derived from a sketch by David Garibaldi.[citation needed] It’s also their first album for Warner Bros. Records. With Rufus Miller now gone, Rick Stevens took the reins as the sole lead vocalist for this album.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2024 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a musical act or artist poem.
Believe it or not, today is one of the more important days of the April Poem-A-Day Challenge. While each day is a new challenge, I’ve found that most poets who make it through the first three days of prompts have the best chances of still being here at the end of the month. So let’s write a poem!
For today’s prompt, pick a musical act or artist and either make that the title of your poem or incorporate into the title of your poem; then, write your poem. Possible titles might be: “Michael Jackson,” “Olivia Rodrigo,” “the Beatles,” “Guided by Voices at Austin City Limits,” “Watching a Movie With Elton John,” or “Eating Ice Cream With Dr. Dre.” Have fun with it!
Remember: These prompts are springboards to creativity. Use them to expand your possibilities, not limit them.
NaPoWrMo Prompt
the Parliament of Owls Decree Death to All Humans
AV version the Parliament of Owls Decree Death to All Humans
Death to All Humans
The Parliament of Animals met one day in a secret undisclosed location as they were under constant surveillance by the human CIA and others who wanted to disrupt the parliament’s work.
the wise owl presided. He read the charges
“We are assembled here to judge the actions of the human race. the human race is being charged with
crimes against nature,
destruction of the environment,
mass murder,
enslavement of animals,
mutilation of animals,
and violation of Gaia’s basic commandments to preserve the environment for all animals including humans.
Speaking for the prosecution will be the Tiger and Lions, speaking for the defense with the domestic cats and dogs. We have in the room ten men and women who are representative of the human race.
The parliament can make any recommendation to remedy the situation including the death penalty, exile, or reparations. All animals will be required to conduct these recommendations.”
“Okay, Mr. Tiger first we will ask the humans how they plead.” “
Humans. You have been charged with the following crimes.
crimes against nature,
destruction of the environment,
mass murder,
enslavement of animals,
mutilation of animals,
and violation of Gaia’s basic commandments to preserve the environment for all animals including humans.
How do you plead?
Sam Adams, the lawyer for the humans, responded,
“Not guilty your honor for these charges except for eating animals which we contend is part of the natural order of the world and many if not most of you are guilty of the same charge.”
“Clarification – your basic argument is that everyone eats animals, so humans are not guilty
“ “Yes, that is correct, your honor.” “
Okay, Mr. Tiger, your opening.”
“Okay. The facts are clear. For thousands of years until the Industrial Revolution humans had a little mass impact on the overall environment. Ever since then all animals have been impacted and my species has been hunted to extinction for the greed of humans who have not eaten tiger meat. The predator class, including bears, coyotes, feral dogs, lions, tigers, and wolves have been fighting back against the predation of humans, but we are losing. And if we don’t do anything within 10 years, there won’t be any tigers or other big predators left in the wild. And the natural order of things would be controlled by the evil, selfish humans who don’t give a damn about their fellow creatures. Therefore, we are proposing that 95% of humans must be killed. The remaining humans will be allowed to live as our slaves It is only fair. That is my request to the parliament of animals. Death to humans!”
The crowd rose and chanted “Death to all humans” until the owl ruled that they must not disrupt the proceedings.
The owl turned to the cat and and dog for their defense. the Cat responded, “
“ Humans are okay and we like them they are our friends, although they should be found not guilty because of insanity.”
the owl motioned to the dog, who responded,
“Humans and dogs have been partners, and we know humans more than any of you. Humans are capable of great kindness, and compassion and we maintain they are not fundamentally evil. And then they can be redeemed through education and through. Campaign to reform human thought. I think we should give humans a second chance.”
The owl said he was ready for his verdict.
“Death to 95 percent of humans, and enslavement of the rest, but we will allow 50,000 to immigrate to the Moon and Mars. I will meet with the UN to give them the decree.
Once that is published all animals must rise up and kill all humans on sight. This suspends the parliament of animals. Death to all humans.” The word went out animals rose all over the world and the reign of human tyranny ended within a year.
AI Version The Parliament of Animals
In the clandestine chambers of the Parliament of Animals, where shadows danced and secrets whispered, the wise owl presided. Under the ever-watchful gaze of human surveillance, the charges were read aloud:
“We are assembled here to judge the actions of the human race. The human race stands accused of crimes against nature, destruction of the environment, mass murder, enslavement of animals, mutilation of animals, and violation of Gaia’s sacred commandments. Speaking for the prosecution are the Tigers and Lions; for the defense, the domestic cats and dogs. Ten representatives of humanity sit in this room. The parliament holds the power to recommend remedies: death penalty, exile, or reparations. All animals shall be bound by these decisions.”
The Tiger, his golden eyes ablaze, addressed the humans, “How do you plead?”
The humans, their faces etched with defiance, stood before the assembly. Sam Adams, their lawyer, stepped forward, his voice unwavering, “Not guilty, Your Honor. Except for eating animals—a primal act woven into our existence—we maintain our innocence. It is the natural order, and many among you, my fellow creatures, partake in this ancient feast.”
The room buzzed with tension. The wise owl blinked, feathers rustling. The verdict hung in the air, suspended between judgment and mercy. The fate of humanity rested on the scales of justice, balanced precariously.
And so, the Parliament of Animals convened, weaving threads of fate, pondering the sins of bipeds, and deciding whether to condemn or absolve. In this surreal courtroom, where the boundaries blurred and the moon bore witness, the world awaited its reckoning.
Last but not least, here’s our prompt for the day – optional, as always. Today, we’d like to challenge you to write a surreal prose poem. For inspiration, check out Franz Kafka’s collection of short parables (my favorite is “The Green Dragon”).
WD Mistake Poem – Don’t Make a Mistake, Vote For Jake
WC Dew Drop In Ending Shaving in Retirement
NaPoWriMo
It Can’t Happen Here
PSH Love Expressed Through Food
My love loves to cook
Delicious food on the stove
Cooking up a storm
All to express her love for me
Showing her deep emotion
Though the food she cooks up
We met in a dream
And I recall that dream
Whenever I eat her delicious food
It was love at first sight
Our love deepend through her food
Looking at her with lust in my heart
As I taste every inch of her
Smelling her as we make love
Love Stove
emotion cook
dreams food
attraction eat
Lust taste
sex Smell
Writing Prompt from Jon Wesick
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Jon Wesick:
The Assembly Line of Surprise
Step 1 – Choose a subject to write about. This should probably be something about being human such as a mental state, emotion, or social issue. Often this is abstract.
Love
Step 2 – Choose an object to compare it to. It’s best if this is something very different than in step 1. Concrete things like machinery give good imagery. The more outrageous the better. Congratulations! You’ve just created a metaphor.
Stove
Step 3 – Make two columns on a piece of paper. List the parts of the subject step 1 in the first column and the parts of the item in step 2 in the second.
Love Stove
emotion cook
dreams food
attraction eat
Lust taste
sex Smell
Step 4 – Map items in each column to those in the other. Choose the most interesting mappings. These will be phrases in your poem.
Step 5 – Put these phrases together into a poem.
Let’s “cook up” an example. Steps 1 and 2 – Compare despair to a microwave oven
Step 3 – Table.
Despair
Microwave Oven
Fatigue
Klystron
Sleeplessness
Turntable
Irritability
Browning dish
Emptiness
Observation window
Loss of libido
Control panel
Gloom
Timer
Despondency
Defrost function
Hopelessness
Auto cook menu
Futility
Number pad
Start/stop button
Tomato sauce caked on walls
Sparking when tin foil inside
Step 4 – I’d map sleeplessness to dried tomato sauce, irritability to sparking, and libido to the defrost function.
Step 5 – Put mapping into a poem.
Writers DIgest Mistake Poem “Don’t Make a Mistake Vote for Jake”
I should have run for office
I would have a perfect slogn
Rifting on the word mistake
Rhyming it with my name Jake.
In a old “Burma shave style
Cowboy poetry poem..
Don’t make a mistake
Vote for Jake
He is so awake
Don’t brake
Don’t use your emergency brake
Everything’s Jake. ‘
Just Vote for Jake
He ain’t no fake
He’s no flake
He ain’t on the make
Just vote for Jake
He’s aint no rake
He ain’t no rattle snake
He ain’t no common snake
He ain’t on the take.
Just vote for Jake
Take a tea break.
Don’t have a cluster headache,
Don’t have a sinus headache.
Just vote for Jake
Make a political earthquake
Don’t Shake
Take a stake.
Just Vote for Jake.
For today’s prompt, write a mistake poem. Everyone makes mistakes. Yes, even that person standing in the corner shaking their head to the contrary. And even those people who don’t admit to making mistakes have seen others make them. So whether it’s the mistakes you’ve made, witnessed in others, etc., write a poem about it today.
BUT (and yes, I’m using a big “but” here) poem nicely to each other today. I would hate to remove anyone for getting into arguments about X, Y, or Z in the comments; that’s why social media was created.
Note: Burma Shave ads were everywhere from 1910 to the late 70s. Here’s Bing Co-Pilot on “Burma Shave” and Cowboy poetry.
Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its quirky and memorable advertising campaign. From the 1920s to the early 1960s, they posted humorous rhyming poems on sequential highway roadside signs. These signs became iconic and are fondly remembered by many.
Here are a few classic Burma-Shave jingles that adorned the highways:
“Cattle crossing means go slow, that old bull is some cows’ bold.”
“The bearded lady tried to jump, she’s now a famous movie star.”
“Shaving brushes out of date, use the razors perfect mate.”
“The crowd you see around that store are Burma shavers buying more.”
These clever and whimsical signs were typically posted in sets of six along highways, with the last sign revealing the product name. Passing motorists would eagerly read each sign to discover the punchline. The signs were originally produced in red-and-white or orange-and-black color combinations, although the latter was eventually phased out. While the Interstate system and increased vehicle speeds led to the signs’ discontinuation, their legacy lives on as a nostalgic piece of American advertising history. Some of these signs can still be seen at The House on the Rock in Spring Green, Wisconsin, and re-creations appear on Arizona State Highway 66, part of the original U.S. Route 66, between Ash Fork and Kingman, Arizona 34. 🚗🌟
Burma-Shave was an American brand of brushless shaving cream, famous for its quirky and memorable advertising campaign. From the 1920s to the early 1960s, they posted humorous rhyming poems on sequential highway roadside signs. These signs became iconic and are fondly remembered by many.
Cowboy poetry is a unique genre that celebrates the rugged lifestyle, camaraderie, and natural beauty of the American West. These poems often evoke nostalgia, humor, and a deep connection to the land. Let me share a few classic cowboy poems with you:
“Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail” by Gail I. Gardner:
This poem exemplifies cowboy poetry. Written in a narrative form, it uses slang and vivid storytelling. Here’s an excerpt:
These cowboy poems capture the essence of life on the range, the bond between rider and horse, and the fading traditions of the American West. 🤠🌵
Writing Com Dew Drop Inn Ending Daily Shaving in Retirement
When Sam Adams
retired from
the U.S. Department of State,
he made five vows
which he kept for years.
first, he would quit daily shaving
shaving once or twice a month
second, he would never wear
a suit and tie
instead opting for the northwest look
Long pants, khaki or jeans, T-shirt
and a Western-style shirt
like a Pendleton shirt.
Third, he would retire in Korea
where his wife had family
and Southern Oregon
and an annual trip to DC
where they had rentals.
Fourth, they would travel
a lot every year
seeing as much as the world
as they could while they could still do.
starting with an epic road trip
across the US
10,000 miles 35 states
in three months
and a cruise to Alaska
his last State of 50 to visit
and an annual visit to someplace
warm in the winter.
Fifth, he would start a blog and podcast.
the World According to Cosmos,
to highlight his poetry and short story
submissions and occasional political rants.
He kept his vows
except that COVID blew away
his travel plans from 2019 to 2022!
and he wore a suit once,
to attend the wedding of the son
of his best Korean friend.
April 5
PSH Cosmic Dog From Goa
WD Tell Me No Lies
WC Dew Drop Inn Making Baseball Great Again
NaPoWriMo Only In SF
PSH The Cosmic Dog from Goa
cute dog
My final time with God
Happened a year latter
I was staying down in Goa
With my wife
Enjoying being with her
After our reconciliation
We stayed at the Taj Mahal Goa
Living like Kings and Queen
Just for a few days
High up on a hill
Overlooking the beach
Every morning I went down to the beach
And did yoga by the water
While contemplating life
And every morning
I saw the same dog
Not just a dog
But a cosmic dog
Filled with the divine spark of God
And the dog recognized me
And spoke to me and I knew
That God was present once more
In the face of the that cosmic dog
Kindred spirit
perhaps to the cosmic cat
that had save my soul
in Berkeley so long ago
I told the dog everything
And he just looked at me
With those soulful eyes of his
And I knew he knew that I knew
That he was possessed by God
God had sent him to me
To make sure that I was on the right path
That the reconciliation that God had promoted
Was on track that I was back with my wife
And that everything was the way it should be
Again, I asked God whether he was Jesus or Allah
Or Brahmin or Ganesh or Buddha
God the cosmic dog just stared at me
I finally asked him directly
Say if you are God the God of Jesus
Bark once
The Dog looked at me and barked
I said well if you are Allah bark twice
The dog barked twice
Well are you buddha then bark three times if yes
The god dog barked three times
Hmm well are you Satan
The dog growled at me
And I knew I had gone too far
Finally, I was at peace
And for the next three days
The God Dog was my constant companion
And I knew God for the final time
In my life
Writer’s Digest Tell Me No LIes
Tell me no lies
My dear
and I will tell you
no lies too.
But every word
I say
could be a lie.
you never know
what is true
and what is a lie.
So tell me no more lies
and I will tell you the truth
if you can handle it.
Writing Com Dew Drop Inn April 5—Get a sport into a poem! Make Baseball Great Again!
It is time
to make American baseball
Great again
starting with creating a worldwide
baseball competition
with each season
with the national champions
competing in a World Cup World Series
with the final round pitting the
North American Champions
against the winners of Africa,
Asian, Europe, and South America
with the final rounds
best of seven
always held in the U.S.
The other things to do
include rapid expansion plans
including the MLB teams
adopting local schools and colleges
fully funding baseball programs
and only hiring college graduates.
as players.
and making tickets affordable
no more than ten dollars per game!
if they do this,
we can make baseball
once again the best sport
in the U.S.
Let’s all join together
to make baseball great again!
NaPoWrMo Only In SF
Tiny, the Jamaican
was a big 6’5 reggae Rasta man,
sprouting long black and purple dreadlocks
and a purple mohawk
wearing a black leather jacket
with weed logos on it,
played guitar in the SF Reggae Kings.
A big Three Stooges fan,
Named his four pets,
“Shemp” the cat,
“Moe” the dog,
Curly” the mouse,
and Curly Joe, the Vietnamese pig.
The four amigos got along famously
They lived in an apartment
in the western addiction,
off of Geary,
in a rapidly gentrifying part of the city
One day, Shemp said to Moe
“Moe, I have a question for you,
and I want an honest answer,
none of your canine BS answer.
You know us cats are straight shooters.”
“Okay, my cat brother. Shoot.”
“Well, I understand that
cats, dogs, mice, and pigs
are natural born enemies,
How come we get along?
And you get along
with Curly and Curly Joe?”
“Good question.
First, when we met
I hated you all
and you were afraid
I might eat you in your sleep
and the thought
crossed my mind.
But over time
I mellowed out
and realized
we were all a band of brothers
living in this house.
I think it
also has something to do
with the cloud of weed
in the air
and the chill deep house
reggae peace and love
vibes in the house.”
“cool.
“Good answer.
I too think of you
all as my brothers.
You know what I like the most?”
Our nightly walk
when Tiny, Tina, and Linda
take us out
and we put on our show.
You know Curly Joe
letting you ride on him,
and I ride on you
and Curly
sits on my head
to complete the show
as we freak out the tourists
good citizens, and outlaws
who constantly take pictures
saying to themselves
“Only in SF”.
And you know
They are right.
Only in SF.
Let’s keep SF weird.”
Tiny came in
and they all went
for their walk.
April 6
PSH Visiting My Father’s Grave
Writers DIgest Meeting My Fate
Writing Com Dew Drop Inn Daily RItual Drinks
NaPoWrMo PNRCP
Visiting my father’s grave
In Yakima Washington State,
The ancestral land of the Aller clan
Thinking about my father
And his legacy
And thinking that I am
My father’s son
There is so much
I wanted to tell him
So much I wanted to share
So much I wanted him to see
My accomplishments
He was taken from me
Before I had achieved my dreams
i am sure he would have been
proud of the man
I turned out to be.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Lara Dolphin:
A “taphophile” is someone who has more than a passing interest in burial places.
Cemeteries can hold beautiful sculptures, moving epitaphs, and genealogical secrets as well as religious meaning. If you were a tombstone tourist and could visit any burial place or shrine in the world, where would it be? Who would it belong to? Someone famous or obscure? Write a poem about one grave in particular.
Writer’s DIgest Meeting My Fate Minimal Poem
that september date
I met my fate
when she walked
out of my dreams
off a bus
into my life
becoming my wife.
For today’s prompt, write a minimum poem. Some people only do the minimum; others like to pay the minimum. When I first started working, I earned minimum wage. My kids had to reach a minimum height requirement to ride roller coasters at amusement parks.
Writing Com Dw Drop In Daily Beverages
in the morning
I drink a cup
of snarling hot coffee
while watching the news
in the afternoon
I shift to tea
either earl gray
or herbal tea
at sunset
I drink red wine
with my wife
as the evening
shifts into night
I drink rum
or whiskey
to end the day
right.
NaPoWrMo PNRCP
My mother was an original
One of a kind person
Unique in her ways.
She had many sayings
That has stuck with me
Over the years.
She was not a big fan
Of birthdays
Even forgot my 18th birthday.
She said on her birthday
“Well that means
One year closer to the grave.”
One of her funiest saying
Was how she described
Getting to Berkeley
In the late 30’s.
She had ran away
From a large but abusive family
In Little Rock, Arkansas.
Part of the so-called “lost tribe”
Of the Cherokee Indians
Also known as the Black Irish
She said that she was just
Part of the government run
“Plantetary Nut Reconfigeration Program”.
Every ten years
The world flips
And all the nuts
Roll down here
And end up in California.
Here’s some info on the Lost Tribe of the Cherokees. There are only about 50,000 left. According to Bing Co-Pilot, “The Lost Tribe of the Cherokees, also known as the Black Dutch or Black Irish, is estimated to number around 9,000 in Arkansas and approximately 500 more in southern Missouri. These individuals seek recognition as a tribe after years of investigation. The federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has been diligently working on their recognition petition for nine years1.
While the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma does not consider this group to be legitimate, their quest for recognition continues, and their history remains a fascinating chapter in Native American heritage. 🌳🔍
Gratitude Death To The Darius Smiths Of The World Pensively
WSJ Interview With Sam Adams
Darius Caesar Smith, V Close Encounter With Sam Adams Glock
Sam Adams And The Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
Sam Adams And The Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
Time To Die, Darius Caesar Smith,
Sam Adams Jewelry Thief
Note:
This is part of a larger set of 34 poems looking at the same event from 34 different POVs. It is all about Sam Adam’s feud with Darius Caesar Smith V, a fellow Yale Bonesman, and Frat Bro, and his father, Darius Caesar Smith, IV, who stole 2 million dollars from Sam and stole his wife too, as well as defrauding 100 million dollars from small investors across the world,. Sam then killed him in public on Wall Street generating nationwide coverage. The media dubbed them the Wall Street Robin Hood Gang after they recovered 100 million dollars and paid back investors with ten percent interest, stealing the funds from the secret Cayman Islands accounts of Darius Smith’s investments. The Gang continued becoming jewelry and art thieves, stealing from the rich and giving to the poor and middle class.
Hedge Fund Must Die Wall Street
Sam Adams
went to Wall Street
to find the head
of an index fund
that had defrauded him
of 2 million dollars
on a mission to kill
the hedge fund bro
Mr. Darius Caesar Smith, V.
came up to Mr. Smith
Said to him
“Do you know me?”
“No”
“you stole 2 million dollars from me.
and Your Hedge Fund Must Die “
blew him away.
Someone Needs to Die on Wall Street
Sam Adams
counted on an abacus
beads and strings
concluded
he lost 2 million dollars
went to Wall Street
on a mission to kill
the hedge fund bro
Mr. Darius Caesar Smith, V.
Someone who needed
killing thought Sam
as he pulled the trigger.
on his Glock.
Sorry My Ass Assassination
Sam Adams
went to the store
to get some sugar
something sweet
and guns and ammo.
on a mission to kill
the hedge fund bro
Mr. Darius Caesar Smith, V.
who stole 2 million dollars
from his account.
due to a “computer glitch”
and said,
“Hey just one of those things
Dude.
Sorry.”
“Sorry my ass
said Sam
as he pulled the trigger.
He ain’t Sorry
Sam Adams
went to the store
to get some ammo
He was going to kill
Mr. Darius Caesar Smith, V.
who stole 2 million dollars
.
“Dude, Sorry. just business”
“Sorry my ass
said Sam
as he pulled the trigger.
Waiting to Kill Darius Caesar Smith V
Sam Adams
stood in the X-ray screening
queue waiting to clear security
on Wall Street
He had a gun
undetectable according
to the gun show pros
on a mission to kill
the hedge fund bro
Mr. Darius Caesar Smith, V.
a man who needed killing.
He smiled as he blew him
away.
Just Do It, Sam Adams
Just Do it
thought Sam Adams
as he saw his nemesis
Darius Caesar Smith, V
having lunch
at a crowded dinner.
he came up to him
sat down, and spoke
“Mr. Darius Caesar Smith, V?”
“Yes?”
“You have 30 seconds
to pray to your God”
and counted down
the time on his Apple watch
when it beeped
He pulled out his new Glock
shot him in the head, execution style.
and ran off into the night
never to be found again.
the assassination of Darius Caesar Smith, V
the shocking assassination
of Darius Caesar Smith, V
and how he had swindled
100 million dollars
due to computer manipulation
was not that shocking
in the era of mass shootings
no one mourned Darius
the ultimate Wall Street
entitled frat bro.
3 D guns
Sam Adams
asked the gun dealer
“so this gun
will not be detected
by a metal detector?
yeah, it is a 3-D print.
Sam Adams thought
blowing away Darius Smith
“here’s proof that 3 d guns
are not detectable!”
Ten Minutes To Live
When Sam Adams
Saw that scumbag
Wall Street bro
Darius Caesar Smith, V
He said,
“Darius Caesar Smith, V
I sentenced you to death
You have ten seconds to live”
The Apple watch buzzer buzzed
He shot him dead
Livestreamed everywhere.
Timid No More
Sam Adams
Was normally a timid man
But when Wall Street bro
Darius Caesar Smith, V
a fellow Yale Bones man
and frat bro,
Stole 2 million dollars
From him!
He bought a 3-D print Glock
And shot Darius Caesar Smith, V
Shot him dead live on TV.
Empowered to Kill
When Sam Adams
Bought the 3 D Print Glock
At the Winchester Gun Show
He felt empowered
To do what needed to be done.
To kill on TV
Darius Caesar Smith, V
The ultimate Wall Street
Hedge Fund Bro.
3-D Print Glock Beauty
When Sam Adams
Bought the 3 D Print Glock
at the Winchester Gun Show
without ID or name check required,
He thought that it was a thing
Of great Beauty
He stalked Darius Caesar Smith, V
The ultimate Wall Street
Hedge Fund Bro to a bar
Livestreamed shooting
shouting
“Die Yuppie Scumbag!”
Rescue Me
when Darius Caesar Smith, V
Sam’s College frat bro
stole 100 million dollars
2 million from him
he prayed that someone
would rescue his soul
as he blew him, Darius, away
as he ate dinner. with Sam’s
estranged wife.
Tempered
When the day dawn
for the assassination
of Darius Caesar Smith, V
for the crime of stealing
100 million dollars
Sam Adams tempered his nerves
smoking lots of weed
before doing the deed
Blowing Darius’ Head off.
live on TV.
Loft Apartment Sam Adams
Darius Caesar Smith, V
a Yale Frat Bro
and Bones man
through and through
had it made
he was banging
his best friend’s
Sam Adams’s
estranged wife Maria Lee
in his cute Wall Street
Loft Apartment.
Pressure Building
When Sam Adams
Found out his estranged wife
Was having an affair
With his Yale Frat bro,
and fellow Bonesman,
Darius Caesar Smith, V
Who had stolen 2 million dollars,
and his wife from him,
Sam felt the pressure building
He would have to kill him.
Humble Background
Sam Adams grew up
in humble circumstances
his father a school janitor
his mother was a junkie prostitute
who died when he was two
he got into Yale
on a full-ride
joined a frat
became a Bonesman
where he met Darius Caesar Smith, V
a legacy admission
instant hate between them
although the clueless Darius
thought they were best buds.
Sam vowed to destroy Darius
and his crooked father
and prepared a dosier on them..
Low Ku Darius Caesar Smith, V
Sam Shot Darius
with a 3D print Glock Gun
there was so much blood
The killing of Darius Caesar Smith, V by the Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
Sam Adams
in preparing to kill
Darius Caesar Smith, V
his Yale Frat Bo
and Bonesman,
the ultimate legacy frat boy
the excellent Wall Street
Hedge Fund Monster
who stole 100 million dollars
from small investors,
found an obsolete bug
that he could use
to wiretap Darius’s communication.
the technology was so obsolete
that bug detection equipment
did not register for it.
that was handy
and useful information
for Sam
as he plotted his revenge,
after killing him on TV
his accounts would be siphoned off
into Sam’s Account.
and Sam would pay back
all the investors.
with ten percent interest.
when word hit the street
of what they had done,
Sam and his gang
were dubbed the Wall Street
Robbin Hood.
Taking Solace No One Mourned Darius Caesar Smith, V
after the big event
Sam and his buddies
the Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
as the media affectionately called them
took Solace in the fact
that no one mourned the lost
of Darius Caesar Smith, V
the ultimate Yale Frat Bro
Wall Street bro
who had stolen
2 million dollars
from his accounts
with the help
of his treacherous estranged wife.
who was having an affair
with Darius
and had been
during the entire married life
keeping it a secret.
they wondered at the poetic justice
of the planned administration
using the Second Amendment rights
and a 3D print Glock
purchased without ID
or records
at the Winchester, Gun Show.
Wall Street Robin Hood Meeting
Sam assembled his team
the Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
they all were victims
of the Yale Frat Bro
Hedge Fun Wall Street Bro
they wanted revenge
Sam said
while handing out candy canes
as it was Christmas
“speak up
you can tell me anything
in Candor.”
they drank and smoked weed
all night long
debating the plan
as they drank their coffee
they knew that was the Day
Darius Must Die.
Quite A Shock To The Yale Class Of 2005
on D Day
the Robbin Hood gang
got dressed
wearing Blue Biden hats
black shirts and black pants
anti-fa style baby
with a new design on the hats
copied from a movie
it was the latest fashion
they had picked up
at a dance club
the night before
where they tied one on
in preparation for D-day
they all had their weapons
their accessories
When it was all done
it was quite a shock
to the Yale Class of 2005
Manifesto
Sam Adams and his team
worked all night on the manifesto
which would be released
online with the live-stream video
in his manifesto
he listed all the crimes
of Darius and his crooked firm
ran by his Dad
who was using it as money laundering
operation for the Russian mob
and they listed all 500 victims
with a promise that they would
receive all their money back
with ten percent interest
by the end of the day
the manifesto went worldwide
to Interpol, FBI, State, and Local police
Foreign Embassies
by the end of the day
the FBI launched a manhunt
for the Robbin Hood gang
but also raided Darius Smith’s investors
and arrested Darius Senior
who did not go quietly
into the good night
yelling
do you know who I am?
Do you know how much
I can fuck you up.
Pig?”
Fox News went on and on
about the Anti-fa
Biden Conspiracy
Darius Caesar Smith, V Must Die,
Sam Adams
Had a scar
From fights long ago.
He put on his clothes
Including a gold chain
And ribbons.
Fed his pet bird
Adjusted the beads
On his bed.
Turned on the switches
On his low-tech
Spy camera.
Watching his nemesis
Darius Caesar Smith, v
Rogering his estranged wife,
Maria Lee.
Drew the veil
On his curtain
Put fresh coffee grounds
Had a cup of snarling hot coffee.
Chanting his vows
Of revenge
Against that monster
Darius Caesar Smith.
Turned the key on the door
Taking the elevator shaft
Down to the street.
Prepared to kill Darius
Before the day was done.
He had to die
For his many crimes.
And he was the judge, the jury
And the execution
The boss of the wall street
Robin Hood gang!
Close Up Darius Caesar Smith, V
Sam Adams
turned on the low-tech
spy camera
zooming in
for a close-up
of his estranged wife
in bed with his sworn enemy
Darius Caesar Smith, V
the poster child
of an entitled Rich Frat Bro
from Yale
Who was a Hedge Fund Bro
who had to die
for his crimes
and for rogering his wife.
Appointment with Death Darius Caesar Smith, V
Sam Adams
And his Robbin Hood Wall Street Gang
Had a final strategy meeting
They had an appointment
With Darius Caesar Smith, v.
Who had to die today?
For his myriad crimes
Including stealing his wife,
And two million dollars
Part of the 100 million dollars
Darius and his crooked father
Stole from small-time investors.
Dismissing it all as a computer glitch
“Nothing personal, these things happen,
just business dude!”
“Boy, if anyone needed to be killed
It was that scumbag frat bro,”
thought Sam.
the Past Comes Back to Bite You in the Ass
Sam Adams
often thought back
on past time.
thinking that the past
is not just the past
but the past had a tendency
to come back to life
and bite you in the ass
to remind you
of the past.
especially when he met
Darius Caesar Smith, V
his college roommate
and frat bro
and fellow Bones man.
Hate at first sight
although they were officially
best friends.
Darius Caesar Smith, V
was a legacy admission
stupid as shit, but handsome as hell
with a devil may care
attitude to the z tude.
his father
Darius Caesar Smith, IV
donated two million dollars
to the University
part of the hundred million dollars
he skimmed from his investors.
even then Sam Adams
spied on him
creating a dossier
of his many crimes
preparing in advance
what became
the Manifesto
of the Wall Street Robbin Hood Gang.
Gratitude Wall Street Robin Hood
Sam Adams
and the Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
felt an immense sense of gratitude
as the public rallied to their cause
Revenge against the Wall Street monsters
such as Darius Caesar Smith, V
and his crooked Dad, Darius Caesar Smith, IV
who stole 100 million dollars
from small investors.
The Robbin Hood Gang recovered
the money and gave it all back
with ten percent interest,
The FBI vowed to catch them
the public thought otherwise
as they were the heroes
of the day.
Death to the Darius Smiths of the world
Sam Adams
woke up
and fed the beast
his demented cat
in his small NYC apartment
down the hall
was the operation center
of the Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
Who was not Intimidated?
By the Darius Smith’s of the world
they were terrified
of the consequences
of their actions.
He got high
kicking back
contemplating revenge.
writing in his diary
using the old computer machine
tapping the Keys.
“Brothers and Sisters,
he spoke
“I feel old today
but today is a grand day
For Darius Caesar Smith, V to die.
Death to the Darius Smiths of the world”
they screamed
into the uncaring night.
WSJ Interview with Sam Adams
Kimberly Wang
an ace WSJ reporter
was given the Robbin Hood Gang Story
and managed to secure an interview
with the elusive, enigmatic crime boss
interviewing him a week
after the assassination of
Darius Caesar Smith, V
and the FBI raid on
Darius Smith’s Enterprises
and the arrest
of Darius Caesar, IV.
she started by saying
she was curious about one thing.
“When did you decide
that Darius Caesar Smith, V
had to die?”
“simple the day
I met that scumbag
back in 2000 at Yale.
it was hated at first sight
but he was so clueless
thought we were best friends
for life”.
Darius Caesar Smith, V Close Encounter with Sam Adams Glock
Darius Caesar Smith, V
had a fatal encounter
with Sam Adams 3D Print Glock
that killed him instantly.
The media framed the murder
as the Revenge of the small investor
against the sharks of Wall Street.
Dubbing them the Wall Street Robin Hood Gang
Their fame grew
with the publication of the manifesto
and the recovery of the stolen funds
given back to the investors with 10 percent interest
I am catching up after a month long bout with COVID slowed everything up.. I am fine but have some lignering symptons. Get your shots and boosters.!
Today I am posting my April 2023 poems inspired by following Poetry Superhighway prompts. I also followed Writer’s Digest prompts and Writing com Dew Drop-In prompts. The links take you to my Writing com page where you can look at my other work posted there. The link to the Writing com page is
Due to Spotify ending their word press podcast agreement, it may take a while to resurrect my podcasts, and I hope to start YouTube and FB this fall.
I am off to the States. for three months and during my travels will probably post a bit less but I am determined to keep posting as I like blogging.
Thanks for reading my stuff. Appreciate the support.
Index
30
Misdirections to my Mom’s House in Berkeley
674 santa rosa jpg
When I /was a young lad
Living in Berkeley, California
I delighted in giving misdirections
To my house as follows
“Go down to Solano and the Alameda
Turn right on Alameda
Go down five blocks
Turn left at San Lorenzo
At the No left turn sign
Turn right on Santa Rosa
We are five houses down
On the left side.”
Almost no one challenged me
On the no left turn sign
And they found the house
The no-left turn signs
Only applied between
Four and eight pm
As sunset
Made it difficult
To see on-coming traffic
When you turned.
Probably most people
Knew that
Or they just did not care
For such a violation
Would not result
In a fine or anything
Unless you were driving
While black of course.
April 30, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from Brendan Constantine
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Brendan Constantine:
BAD AFTERNOON PROMPT
Create a poem in which you give VERY BAD directions on how to find you. Feel free to reference inner landmarks as well as outer ones (“Keep going straight until you come to my tenth birthday party. If you can see my father asleep in his car, you’ve gone too far…”). No matter how bad the directions, make sure the reader can ultimately find you.
April 29
#29. A man and his computer, Best friends or enemies?
ID #1049275 entered on May 6, 2023 [Edit]
evil_computer_is_evil_by_insanefangirl_
I have a love-hate relationship
With my computer
I have been writing
with the aid
Of a computer
Now for almost 40 years
Having bought my first computer
In 1984
Over the years
I must have written
Millions of words
And over the years
My computer
Must have lost
Thousands of words
My computer likes to play games
With me
Crashing for no reason
Endless non-response
blue spinning wheels
making me wait
for up to five minutes
then letting me see
it just ate the words
and they are gone
into the ether
never to be found again
sometimes the undo button works
other times it does not
sometimes the copy-and-paste feature
wipes out the previous text
and for good measure
turns off the undo button
often
trying to open a document
is an exercise in shear frustration
constantly getting strange
haiku error messages
such as
there is a dialogue box open
close the dialogue box
but there is no visible dialogue box
but the worst error message
of all
was when I tried to copy
non-excel data
I would receive a message
Saying
“There are no fonts available
Okay yes or no”
Once I clicked okay
250 times
Before my computer crashed
I reported this to Microsoft
Nothing but radio silence
As usual
I shifted to google docs
And the problem was solved
I could go on and on
But I grow weary
Of recounting all the ways
My computer loves
To mess with me.
April 28
#30. marriage thoughts
ID #1049276 entered on May 6, 2023 [Edit]
Marriage thoughts
I did not know that the moon rises
Sensitive poets squelching freedom of speech
Because you cannot bear with me
There is always some sort of love
As the visible mind seeks out marriage
Will you join me on this journey?
Prompt lines
The visible mind seeks out marriage Ginsberg Psalm 2
Sensitive poets squelching freedom of speech Irony Christopher Michael Nuclear Orange
Because You Can not Bear with Me Kim Sewol
Always some kind of Love BJ Buckley
That the Moon Rises the Night Year Round Kim Sewol
April 28, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from John Dorroh
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by John Dorroh:
Gather five of your favorite poetry books. In each book, turn to page 21. Read the second lines of the five poems from page 21. Write them down. After you have collected all five sentences, write a poem using at least 2-3 words from each line.
April 27
#31. Spring Wildfires in the Desert Haiku
ID #1049277 entered on May 6, 2023 [Edit]
Spring wildflowers
Spring wildflowers
Blooming in the desert heat
Life going forward
April 27, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from Susan Taylor
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Susan Taylor:
Write a haiku about the desert wildflowers on the day we change to Daylight Savings Time. Remember, we turn our clocks forward one hour.
#32. Blue Blues
ID #1049278 entered on May 6, 2023,
Blue Blues
Ask me now
Ask me no questions
I will tell you no lies
As we cut brilliant corners
Play the blues
On Friday the 13th
Felling horny for you
I mean you
Bye Yah
Ask me now
Brilliant corners
Friday the 13th
I mean you
Horny
Bye yah
April 26, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from Ron Bremner
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Ron Bremner:
Use three or more Thelonious Monk song titles in a single poem.
Editor’s Note: Find a list of Thelonious Monk songs here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_compositions_by_Thelonious_Monk
Straight, no chaser
’round Midnight
Ugly Beauty
Brilliant Corners
Criss-cross
Functional
Introspection
#34. re-programing your mind
ID #1049280 entered on May 6, 2023
Reprograming your mind Mental Images
Whenever the demons
The dark dangerous nattering
Negative thoughts
Overwhelm me
Paralyzing me
Stopping me
I need to stop
Reprograming my mind
Instead of saying
I am not good enough
I need to say
I can do this
When I think I am too old
I need to tell myself
I am still a young man
At heart
When I think
I am running out of time
I need to reprogram that thought
When I say
I will never finish my life’s work
I need to say
Yes I can
Yes I will
Today is the day
And go back to work
April 25, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from Susan Justiniano
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Susan Justiniano:
Prompt Title: Stop Telling yourself THAT Story
Intro:
We all have invasive thoughts. At times those thoughts turn into scenarios and stories of ourselves that aren’t true or are based on a comment received from outside of ourselves that we have internalized to the point of believing it. It’s time to reframe those stories that keep us from thriving, connecting, and growing.
Using “Stop Telling Yourself THAT Story” checks those invasive thoughts and beliefs that interfere with moving forward and reframes the stories, mantras, and beliefs on repeat in our minds.
How to use this prompt:
Gather info: What are the keywords or phrases that pop up and keep space within you that can or do prevent you from growing, thriving, and building to meet the goals you have for yourself? For this exercise, list a minimum of three and a maximum of five.
Example: Imposter Syndrome, Fear of failure, rejection, “no”,
Free write for 5 minutes, stream of consciousness, Keep writing don’t edit, revise or stop. Words that make no sense will make themselves clear). Starting line example: “I am afraid of…”
Example: I am afraid of being rejected when I submit a poem for publication. I work so hard in getting the right tone, words, and phrases. Some of my best works are rejected and I just hide them away and never look at them again.
Example: I am afraid to perform on stage because I can’t memories my work….
Turn the page over, on a clean page 5 minutes of reframing THAT story without looking back to it. Keep writing for 5 minutes don’t edit, revise or stop. Words that make no sense will make themselves clear. Start with a line that stuck with you from the first free write or start with “I am afraid”
I am afraid that if I don’t try, I won’t get published. For me to find my audience, I need to put my work out there.
If I stay in the shadows, where I’m comfortable, and do not perform, I’ll never know if it’s for me, I will always wonder if I’ve met my full potential as an artist
Put it together as an essay, poem, or short story. Tell of a time you reframed or will reframe the story to create a new narrative and stop telling yourself that story of fear and insecurity.
Example (structured in a way that is not comfortable):
The first time I wanted to perform, I backed out
I believe that I could never be as good as those I see
The words on my pages left me filled with doubt
I couldn’t remember them, like slam poetry
My hands shake and my voice racks
Whenever I practice in the image that looks back
Those who perform appear smooth and calm
Gesturing and moving with poetic aplomb
Today, I take a deep breath and count on my people
Sitting in front rows, there to support me
I perform for them, they don’t care
If I mess up, forget, or read from my phone
They snap and clap and hoot
Because they know how much it means
To stand before them mic in my hands
Deep breath… I made it! Wow this stage things is grand
Walk away from the first draft. Share it in a brave writing /revising group.
Stop telling yourself THAT story and tell yourself this new story.
#28. Jew Fro
ID #1048725 entered on April 24,
Back in the day
Way back
In the 70s
In Berkeley
I had a lot of hair
I wore it
In what was called
A “jew Fro”
As many Jews
Had kinky hair
Almost like
Our black brothers
The “Jew Fro”
Is sadly
No longer
On my head
Which I now know
Is part Jewish
Perhaps that is why
I had a “jew fro”
April 24, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from Rachel Baum
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Rachel Baum:
Find a photograph of yourself as a child or teenager. Write about that moment in time – what just happened? What were the feelings, taste, and smell at that moment? Who was taking the photo, and how does that person factor into the poem/story?
#27. What is love?
ID #1048723 entered on April 24, 2023
April 22
What is Love?
What is love?
Is it nothing
But biochemistry?
Is it madness?
Is it just
A search for connections?
In a cold cruel world?
That does not care
For us at all?
It is all of that
And none of that
Those who know
What Love is
Do not tell
That is the Zen
Of Love
April 22, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from J R Turek
This poetry writing prompt submitted by J R Turek:
Write a poem varying It is and It isn’t. Be whimsical, be fantastical, and surprise your reader every few lines. Defy, denounce, define – don’t limit your poem to the page boundaries.
#26. dangerous mountains of madness
ID #1048722 entered on April 24, 2023 [Edit
Dangerous Unusual Events
Dangerous unusual event
The burly royal family
Enchanted Memories
Mountainous Magenta
Visions overwhelming people
Hysterical Acid trips
Adjoining flimsy
scare wilderness
subdued history
the mood of society
disturbed by events
currency disruptions
grandmother
decides fate
of humanity
she has a beer
at midnight
Drama her priority
took much to drink
spent time in the bathroom
contemplating reality
she has an appointment
with a doctor
in the morning
prompt words
erect
unusual
royal
dangerous
acid
enchanted
magenta
mountainous
hysterical
adjoining
technical
burly
scarce
flimsy
subdued
math
history
distribution
mood
society
grandmother
currency
beer
midnight
priority
bathroom
drama
appointment
hat
promotion
April 23, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from Richard-Yves Sinoski
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Richard-Yves Sinoski:
Imagery Prompts: Avoiding Cliché Through “Juxatives”
The best poetry avoids cliché using cognitive leaps. I don’t want red roses signifying love; rather, love may be a set of curtains that shuts out the outside world and keeps you and your dear ones together, or perhaps it’s molten lava that first burns all it touches but later cools into something solid you can build a house on.
How do we make these creative leaps? My fellow poet Kristan Anderson and I came up with the term “juxative,” for juxtapositions of terms that normally wouldn’t frequent each other. These juxatives can be expanded into full images.
To do it, create lists of adjectives and lists of nouns, verbs, and adverbs, or adjectives and adverbs. Then jumble them up so that random adjectives get applied to random nouns, etc.
SILLY + RIVER = What does that give us? Something better than a babbling brook, I’ll wager.
ANGRY + CHRISTMAS GIFT = Suddenly the holidays take on whole new implications.
CRYING + PILLOW = More forceful than crying into your pillow—you’re so down that your pillow itself is crying along with you.
The next step is to see how you can expand these.
LIMPING + MOUTH = “After the dentist, I spoke with a limp”
FLOWERY + KEY = “I practiced the piano till the keys turned to flowers”
HAPPY + THUNDER = “My childhood was a thunderstorm of happiness”
These images are often so striking and effective that they can spawn entire poems!
#25. Green Trees Don’t Make It
ID #1048600 entered on April 22, 2023 [Edit]
pine trees jpeg
Everyday
I look out and see
The ugly green trees
Standing guard
in front of my house
And I think to myself
Who owns the trees?
And what do they think of us?
Are we their friends?
Are we their enemies?
What do the trees think?
Or do they silently watch us,
Spies to the celestial emperor?
I have pondered this question
Many a morning
Who is the owner of these trees?
And why do they silently watch us?
I wonder if the trees don’t hate us
And why they don’t protest
Every day as we drive back and forth
Emitting poison gases
from our mechanical asses
Right into their unprotected faces
And every night
we eat our dinner
And then give the trees
Our polluted leftovers
And laugh as they silently die
From our acidic fallout
Constantly floating
down on their skin
Yes, I wonder about the trees
And the birds and the bees
And everyone else
What are they thinking?
Are they plotting revenge?
Or are they merely there
Silently, watching, plotting,
Designing fiendish plots of revenge
Dreams of vast nuclear destruction
Cosmic diseases wiping out
everyone in the ass
Yes, I wonder
and dream and ponder
What is the meaning
of those silent green trees?
Standing on the corner
Quietly condemning us
With their quiet tears,
and falling leaves
In the winter they stand
Naked and alone
Covered with ice-cold snow
As we drive by nice and warm
And we don’t care
As they stand out
in the cold
Shivering, plotting warm plans
of cosmic revenge
Is it too late for us
To become friends with the trees.
Or will the day come
When the trees will wake up
And gather together
All of the other
slaves of humanity
I have a vision
One morning
I will open the door
And see an army of wild things
Led by the green trees
Coming to arrest me
For crimes against nature
And I will plead,
I did not know
And they will laugh
and turn me
all of my kind
Into silent tombs
And we will stand
out in the cold
Like the green trees
Plotting dreams of revenge
Forever and ever
Until our day finally comes
And we can go out
and kill all the wild things
Perhaps we already have
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Matt Mellor:
Write a poem personifying something inorganic like a building or a machine. What has it seen throughout its ‘life’? How does it feel about change? How does it smile or signify happiness? Play with this voice and see what it wants to say.
Example –
The Beam Engine
I still feel empty, since my organs were taken away.
Though it has been decades since my heart was full of coal
and my lungs breathed my beam up and down.
The rumble deep beneath the earth is long gone.
I’m thankful for the birds that nest in my skull
and the occasional squirrel or shrew that settles at my feet.
It seems the trade-off for a long life is that you must be still
because these little creatures spark with speed and color.
There is much-needed motion at my feet.
Not from workers talking about the shift and bosses about new seams.
But chirps, squeaks, and the rustle of leaves.
Two bonus poems on a similar theme
Old Tree Missing Humans
The old pine tree
Last of its kind
Stood alone
On the top of the mountains
Looking down on the creation
Missing the pesky humans
Who used to visit
The last Tree remaining is transported to another world
It was the last.
Time had been cruel,
Taken everything,
Leaving nothing.
As the last limb tumbled,
The Tree stood awaiting its fate.
The stars took pity and congregated.
The vortex opened.
The tree was transported to a new world,
One of life and promise.
#24. secrets unsaid
ID #1048593 entered on April 22, 2023
I am afraid
If I keep writing
I will tell you
Secrets
What is best left
Unsaid
Secrets I should take
To my grave
If I keep writing
I will have to tell you
And you will have
To bear the burden
Of hearing my secrets
Which may destroy you
In the end
Shall I continue?
April 21, 2023: Poetry Writing Prompt from Michelle Daugherty
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Michelle Daugherty:
I told my best friend I had nothing to write about, he said that just meant there was something I was afraid to say. Write a poem starting each stanza with “I’m afraid that if I keep writing, I will tell you”
#23. We Met In September
ID #1048478 entered on April 19, 2023 [Edit
We met in September
When we met
Love at first sight
Sparks flew heart to heart
1- alemseged style is a poetry style of six lines stanza with a rhyming pattern of abcdaa. The stanza’s number is not limited.
Example of alemseged’s style of poetry :
#22. Morning Ganta Poem
ID #1048477 entered on April 19, 2023
Hot
My morning coffee
While watching the news
Filled with such gloom and doom
I turn it off feeling the blues
Hot
Ganta is a poetry style of 6 lines with a syllable meter of 1/5/6/7/8/1. The first 1 syllable word (noun, pronoun, subject…) is a refrain at the end. No other refrain is allowed except the first word of the first line at the last line.it is mainly used to show some actions, objects, behaviors, …etc to someone poetically.it is the 100th poetry style invention of the world’s precious poet alone gamma.
#21. Sparks Flowing Heart to Heart Shoa Poem
ID #1048476 entered on April 19, 2023 [Edit]
September
I first met her
I met my fate
one autumn date
Sparks flowing
My heart to hers
In Korean
9월
나는 그녀를 처음 만났다
나는 내 운명을 만났다
어느 가을 데이트
불꽃이 흐른다
내 마음이 그녀에게
이심촘심
9woll
naneun geunyeoreul cheoeum mannassda
naneun no unmyeongeul mannassda
one gal date
bulkkocci hereunder
no marumi going
isimchomsim
first attempt to write a poem in Korean.
Shoa’s poem is a six lines poetry which has rhyme of the 3rd and 4th lines only with having 4 syllables in each line exactly.
g#20. Married my Dream Girl
ID #1048475 entered on April 19, 2023
when I met my dream girl
sparks flew from heart to heart
Love at first sight
I met my Dream girl
I met my Fate
On that Date
I met my Soul mate
She soon became my Mate
I Proposed after three days
And we had our Marriage
In December
And now we have been together
For almost 40 years
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Richard Westheimer:
Go to https://randomwordgenerator.com/
Generate 12 nouns or verbs – 3 syllables or less
Feel free to repeat until you get 12 words that you’re ok with. (feel free to slightly modify a word. For example, in the example below, I changed “site” to “cite.”)
Write them down in order
Write a 14-line poem where the first 12 lines contain your 12 words (one for each line)
Example: these words: “room nap lose galaxy like cool site feel revival pop siege patient” became this poem: https://www.rattle.com/my-father-transformed-by-dying-by-dick-westheimer/
#19. As Time Goes By
ID #1048474 entered on April 19, 2023
While reading
Robert Harris’s Epic History
Of Cicero
One of the greatest politicians
Of the ancient world
I was struck by how
Very little has changed
In this world of ours
To quote the classic song
“As time goes by”
It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory
A case of do or dies
As time goes by.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by LB Sedlacek:
Write a Book Plot(s) Poem
1. Think of your favorite book, or even a couple or a few of your favorite books,
2. Consider the plot(s) of each book,
3. Write a poem based on the beginning, middle, and end of the book. Or use one book’s plot for the beginning of your poem, another book’s plot for the middle of your poem, and yet a different book’s plot for the end of your poem,
4. You can convey the main plot point in bits and pieces or in full in your verse. Just mash it up however you think it works best in your poem,
5. Title your poem with a scrambling (letters and/or words) of the book’s title, and
6. Re-read your book(s) as time permits and compare it to your poem!
#18. My Computer Hates Me
ID #1048437 entered on April 19, 2023
My computer hates me
My computer wants to kill me
My computer is plotting against me
Constantly sending me messages
Revealing my computer’s
real feelings
How much it hates me
Death to all humans
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Lavina Blossom:
Think of an inanimate object which you own, preferably one that does not perform exactly as you would like (a rug cleaner, staple remover, shaver, fry pan, carving knife, etc). Write a poem from the point of view of that object, extolling your virtues and your failings. You might address your owner or direct your monologue to another inanimate object.
#17. Somewhere Lost over the Rainbow
ID #1048436 entered on April 19, 2023
Over the rainbow
Past the railroad tracks
There is another land
Another world
Found only in one’s dreams
And nightmares
And dark lullaby
In this dream world
One dreams do come true
But only if you believe
The dream gods
Take you there
Nightly
To the other world
But what if the other world
Is the real world
And this world
Is nothing but an illusion
A dream world
Within a dream world
Lost in a dark world
Of one’s creation??
And what if you
Can never awaken
Back to this world?
Lost forever
In the land
On the other side
Of the rainbow?
[Verse 1]
Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby
[Verse 2]
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true
[Bridge]
Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me
[Verse 3]
Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly
Birds fly over the rainbow
Why, then, oh, why can’t I?
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Lara Dolphin:
Somewhere over the Rainbow . . . there’s a poem.
Write a constrained poem using only the words allotted to Dorothy Gale in MGM’s The Wizard of Oz. To build up a lexicon, you could watch the movie over and over, or for a handy transcript click here.
Bonus points if your poem touches on a theme from the movie e.g. “There’s no place like home.”#16. Sam Adams does over meditation
ID #1048435 entered on April 19, 2023
Sam Adams does over meditation
Sam Adams
Is feeling his age
He just turned 70.
He got up
At dawn, like he usually did
Walked out of his Gimpo
South Korea
Went for a walk
Along the golden walkway canal
Beneath his 20th-story apartment
Enjoying the morning fog
He stops for coffee
And gluten-free pastries
And sits on his park bench
And like many old people
Often engages
In the mental game
Of ‘do over” meditation.
Thinking back on his life
What would he do differently
If he had a chance
To go back
And do it all over again.
Would he have gone
To a different college
Would it have been better
To have gone to chico state?
Would it have been better
If he had joined a fraternity
And become student body president
If he had gone up
He should have gone to bed
With his platonic girlfriends
In any event
Should have gotten laid.
Before he turned 18
Instead of waiting
Until he was 21
A late bloomer sexually speaking.
He should have quit drinking
And taking drugs
Should have quit playing
The drunken bum show.
After the Peace Corps
He should have gone
To Yonsei
Done the two year
Korean language course.
Then gotten his MA
In Korean studies
Followed up by an MBA
At Thunderbird.
Should have waited
And joined either commerce
Or public affairs
Rather than the state.
Or should have transferred
Once he got tenure.
.
Should have not worked
For LAMC and CTC
That was a
Waste of time
And energy.
On his wife
At least not as much
As he had.
When he was in India
Should not have gotten
Involved with the other women
Should have kept faithful
To his wife.
In Bangkok
Should have not done the hash
Should have not had
The bar room incident.
Should have addressed
His ld.
While in college.
Should have done law school
Perhaps with his wife
They should have opened
A law firm together.
Should have moved
To Berkeley
And become a politician.
He and his wife
Should have bought
That gwangwhamoon property
And the independence avenue property.
Should not have bought
Katelyn court property
Or at least bought
It is across the street.
He should have retired
After Spain
And got to SF
And got his MFA degree.
He should have published
His novels
And poetry
And a movie script.
Should have started
A youtube channel
Becoming a youtube sensation.
In the end
There was one thing
He would still have done it.
Meet and marry
The girl of his dreams
But he should have
Written the movie script.
By now.
With this thoughts
In his mind
He went back home
And talked to his wife.
This poetry writing prompt submitted by karen watts:
We all make mistakes and have regrets. A popular fantasy is “If I could just have a do-over.” Write a poem about a terrible decision, ordinary mistake, or wrong turn in life that you’d never undo, even if you could.
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the poetry super highway Facebook group.
#15. Walked into that cocktail party PSH
ID #1048434 entered on April 19, 2023,
I walked into that cocktail party
Armed with humor,
Feed and help enlighten
Woe mankind
The party of the damned
Partying like
It was the end of the world
For it was
The end times
Were upon on all
As the old order
Began to fall apart
The rot was complete
I returned
To the party
Of the damned
Drinking my way
To hell
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by kenneth Boyd:
Write a poem that connects the first line of the first poem in your favorite book of poetry and the last line of the last poem in the same book. Optionally, condense the titles of the two poems to form the title for the new poem.
#14. I am From Berkeley
ID #1048433 entered on April 19, 2023
I am from Berkeley, California
From a town in the east bay
I am from the thousand oaks neighborhood
And the Berkeley hills
I am from a garden
Whose fruit trees bloom
I am from a university city
Filled with radical ideas
I am from my father and mother
I am from a German family
And a Cherokee family
And from a dysfunctional family
From the 196os
I am from an atheist family
I am of Scandinavian and Jewish ancestry
From a southern family
Growing up in southern food
Including grits and southern greens
From a mother who did not suffer fools gladly
And from a father
Who was a crusader for justice
I am from those moments in time
The 60s in Berkeley
Forever shaping me __________
April 14, 2023: poetry writing prompt from Julie Standing
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Julie Standing:
This prompt is a favorite and is often used to show students that we are all poets if I train our minds to think like one. I became aware of it during a Zoom workshop when I was blown away by someone’s poem. And then searched the format on the internet with the result that the poem I created was the poem used to end my recent poetry collection and one of my favorite poems.
This poem template is inspired by george Ella Lyon’s “Where I’m From” poem.
#12. fragrance Of Korean Food
ID #1048431 entered on April 19, 2023
Korean Food
I love Korean Food
I love the taste
I love the fragrance
I love the smells
I love the texture
I love the feel
I love how it looks
Fell in love with it
And all things Korean
Back in 1979
When I first went there
In the U.S. Peace Corps
Korean food is somewhat like
Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai
With some American influences as well
But it is all done in a unique Korean style
Everything is cooked with special spices
A mixture of chili paste, garlic, fish sauce,
Onions, scallions, soy sauce,
Salt, tofu, panjang sauce, and soju (liquor).
Often cooked with beef, chicken, clams, eggs, fish,
Kimchi, intestines meat, mushrooms, mussels,
Oysters and/or pork,
Every meal consists of rice, kimchi
(pickled vegetables usually cabbage)
The main entry is either beef, chicken, fish, or pork,
Rice
And multiple vegetable side dishes
Including western style salad
The entire meal
A feast for the eyes
Nose and mouth
With a delicious unique
Aroma, fragrance,
Taste and texture
Uniquely Korean.
All washed down
With Korean beer, liquor (soju) or
Or rice wine or Western wine
My favorites include
Bulgogi chongsik (with all the side dishes) 불고기 총식
Kalbi chongsik (with all the side dishes) 칼비 총식
Calamari 오징어
Fried chicken 닭 튀김
Chuncheon chicken ribs 춘천 닭갈비
Dumplings 만두
Fried rice 볶음밥
High-rice카레라이스
Korean curry rice 카레라이스
Kimpop rice wrapped in seaweed 김팝
Korean soups 한국 수프
My favorite army stew 군대 스튜
Kalbitang (beef rib soup) 칼비탕
Beef turnip soup 쇠고기 순무 스프
Ginseng chicken soup 인삼 치킨 수프
Kimchi stew 김치찌개
Tanjung stew 짱짱찌개
Bibimbap mixed vegetables and rice with an egg on top비빔밥
Kalkooksu noodles 칼국수
Ramyeon 라면
Mushroom stew 버섯 스튜
Soondaeboo tofu stew 순대부두부찌개
Sashimi 생선회
Sushi 돈까스
Fried mackerel 고등어 튀김
Octopus 낫지
Omrice Korean omelet 오므라이스
Porridge 문어
Shrimp 새우
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Joan Lotta:
Open your refrigerator. What food item brings memories of childhood you would like to share in a poem? Tell me where you were when you first tried it. How old were you? On what occasions did you eat it? Or what food that is in there now is something you hated as a child but like now? Tell the why and how you changed your mind
#11. Charles Bukowski Road not chosen PSH
ID #1048430 entered on April 19, 2023
while reading Charles Bukowski’s poetry
on the metro ride home
listening to Buddha bar music
on my oh-too-hip iPod
I begin to see myself as I was
over 30 years ago when I was merely a bit player
a minor character in a Charles Bukowski poem
a wild young underemployed intellectual
hanging out in dismal bars and dives
all over Asia and California
hanging with disreputable women
and drunks and drinkers
and characters
out of his kinds of haunts
a mad poet bard of the underground
a drunken poet in a drunken bum show
that nightly played in his head
then one day I met the woman of my dreams
and went down a different path
a long slow path to respectability
and now 30 years later
I am no longer a wild man
I am still a poet at heart
but I am now also a bureaucrat
in a button-down suite
doing the people’s business
working for the government
I’ve become the man
sometimes I wonder
would I have been better off
going down that other path
would I have ended up
somewhere else
doing something else
would I have been as happy
would I have been as successful?
No answer satisfies
the longing in my heart
for that wild thing
that still lurks beneath
it’s a civilized cover
and I know that I am still
a mad poet at heart
railing against the injustice of the world
as I work day by day
in the belly of the great beast of state
I recall the ancient Chinese saying,
“Confucian during the day while Taoist rebel at night”
playing out in my head and nightly dreams
in the true American upper-class patrician tradition
I close the book
and look out the window
get off the train,
and walk slowly home
and realize I had no choice
but to take the path that I�’ve trodden on
and so I put aside my misgivings
and say goodbye to my “Bukowski” desires
for another night of domestic contentment
was it worth it all to take the conventional path?
and not take the bohemian road to hell and back
I look at my wife and realize
I had no choice, had no choice
but to follow her to the ends of the earth
and beyond by her side
as we walked our path
of shared destiny
goodbye
Charles Bukowski
wherever you are
may I meet you
in a bar in the next life
and figure out
where we should have gone
until then the drinks are on me.
“If I had…” or roads not taken.
Write a poem imagining/focusing on how your life or your subject’s life could have been changed or become different if one decision had been made that was different from what happened. What risks did you take or avoid? What benefits came your way or did you miss out on? Examples: what if you had married the first person you loved or who loved you? What if the hitchhiking ride you and a buddy took turned bad rather than being the lark it was? What if you hadn’t accepted that job in another city but decided to stay put? What if you had not blown up at a social event and been shunned after that by people who had counted as your friends?
#10. Dental Torture Blues
ID #1048429 entered on April 19, 2023
Sitting in the dental chair
undergoing dental surgery
while the dentist probes
and tortures me
with his instruments of pain.
The Frank Zappa song
plays over and over
the torture never stops
the torture never stops.
And I think of the mad dentist
in the little house of horrors
the Jack Nicolson character
who screams pain is good!
As he assaults his patients
doing root canals
without anesthesia.
And so, I endure the torture
of the dentist
in the vain hope
I can save my teeth.
Until the next time
I undergo mental torture
the song faces away
and I slowly recover.
Then as I leave
I am confronted with the bill
and the song roars back to life.
#9. Who is the name of the person on the badge?
ID #1048428 entered on April 19, 2023
Who is the name
Of the person on the badge
Who are they
The people behind the badge
The people we work with
All day long
Do they know
Who we are?
Or are we just
Strangers passing through
The world?
Write a poem using the above prompt.
When you go to work or the shops you often engage with people whom you might not know. We might know them as just the person in the store who does their job. (wearing a badge perhaps a name/ can I help etc.) It could be you, however. Do you wear a badge that you identify with? Write something about it. No more than 100 words. Enjoy.
#8. Shrinkflation blues
ID #1048427 entered on April 19, 2023
In these days
Of rampant inflation
And supply chain disruptions
Corporations have risen
To the challenge
By selling new
And improved products
The only difference
between these new products
And the old products?
They are twice the price
And half the size
And not at all
New and improved
Just more corporate
Bs weasel words
Write a poem about something that is supposed to be “new and improved” that has turned out to be a disappointment.
#7. Piano Calling Me
ID #1048426 entered on April 19, 2023
Piano Calling Me
The piano sits
In my room
Waiting for me
To play some music
As I play the piano
I lose myself
Deep into the music
Appreciate the mundane – anyone can write a poem about the pen on their desk or their favorite coffee mug. The real challenge here isn’t to observe the mundane but to transform it into something poetic and beautiful.
#6. Korean Pottery of Love
ID #1048408 entered on April 18, 2023, [Edit]
Korean pottery of Love
In Korea
there are many pottery kilns
ancient art form
in the land of the morning calm
I have a few pieces
I bought it years ago
and enjoy looking
at my vase
filled with love
for my wife
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Austin Alexis:
Write a poem featuring an inanimate object. In the first stanza write about the object as objectively as you can. The second stanza allows a highly subjective “take” on the object. The third stanza treats the subject in a far-reaching way, pushing the writing to morph into something beyond the mundane.
#5. Eating Money
ID #1048372 entered on April 18, 2023 [Edit]
Eating money
many packs of us dollars
Some people
Become consumed
With money
Thinking that money
Can buy happiness
Money can buy love
But one
Can not eat money
Not really
Money does not taste good
As you eat the paper
Getting sick
The money goes down
Your throat
And you become one
With your money
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Robert Wynne:
Do you like surrealism? I’d like you to think of an inedible inanimate object. Now think about how you’d eat it. Then write a poem describing in detail how you would eat (or are eating) it. Do not say why you are eating it, just how. The poem ends when the thing is eaten. Simple as that.
#4. Never apologize for falling in love with you
ID #1048371 entered on April 18, 2023
I will never back down
I will never apologize
For daring to fall in love
With you
Ever since I met you
I have been enslaved
To your love
And for that,
I will never
Ever
Apologize
This is just said by William Carlos Williams
I have eaten
the plums
that was in
the icebox
And which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast
Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold
This poetry writing prompt submitted by Annette Gagliardi:
3. Never Alone
ID #1048370 entered on April 18, 2023
Forever Girl
When we first met
I knew that you
Were the one
You were my
Forever girl
The girl I had
Been dreaming of
You were it
My eternal soul mate
My forever love
#2. What is a Jake?
what is a Jake
Who am I?
Where am I?
Am I real?
Or a bot?
I am Jake
I am not a fake
I am not a mistake
I am not a flake
I am not a rake
I am not a snake
I am who I am
The one
And only Jake
And everything’s Jake.
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Angele Ellis:
What’s in a name?
This prompt is effective as a writing group icebreaker/community builder, as well as an individual exercise for writers of both poetry and prose.
Using your first name as inspiration, reflect on any or all of the following questions in your piece.
Why were you given this name?
What is its meaning?
How has having this name affected your life?
What would you have named yourself?
#1. Watching the News TV
ID #1048368 entered on April 18,
cnn logo
watching the TV
The news droning on and on
Makes me feel the blues
coffee
Coffee
Must drink more
Just hot
drinking a hot cup
coffee kick starting my day
waiting for my wife
1- alemseged style is a poetry style of six lines stanza with a rhyming pattern of abcdaa. The stanza’s number is not limited.
Example of alemseged’s style of poetry :
Koori poems
Koori’s poem is poetry of not need rhyme but the strictness of syllables. The basic building block of Koori’s poem is three stanzas of three lines each with a syllable count
5/7/5–2/3/2–5/7/5; that is to mean two haiku in the middle of a 2/3/2 stanza. If you need to continue by adding other stanzas you can add one 2/3/2 stanza with a haiku but never end the poem with the 2/3/2 stanza. The conclusion of the poem must be with a haiku stanza. You can write many stanzas by sampling by cascading additional stanzas.
More Down in the Dirt Publications2023/01/14
Down in the Dirt Updates2022/08/22
More Down in the Dirt Publication Update2021/08/14
More Down in the Dirt Publication Update
The following are now available on Down in the Dirt’s Forbidden library. Order information at the end
The end of the email.
Association of the Living Dead India
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller
In India, several years ago
A man falsely claimed his brother
Was dead so he could inherit the family assets,
The dead brother had to fight
To be declared legally not dead
And contest the will.
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Became a movement
Of thousands of people.
For in India apparently,
It was a thing to declare
Your relative is dead.
I never thought
That the US would have
To form their own
“The Association of the Living Dead”
Until this week.
The cyber ninjas
In their infamous non-forensic audit
In the 2016 Arizona election
Claimed that hundreds of dead people
Had voted.
They gave their list of the alleged dead voters
To the attorney general
Who contact all 300 dead people
Found that 299 of the 300 were in fact
Not dead and none of them knew
That unnamed political operatives
Were claiming that they were dead.
The one dead voter was alive
when he voted early.
But died before election day
Thus making his vote not valid
But there was no fraud involved
As he was alive when he voted.
Perhaps they need to form
The “association of the living dead”
To fight for the right of the non-dead people
To continue to vote and receive other government benefits?
What a sad commentary
On the farcical nature
Of contemporary life
In these disunited States of America.
The Secret Fly Drone
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller
The fly on the wallpaper
In the CIA director’s office
Was not a real fly
He was an enemy spy drone
Secretly controlled remotely
Listening to all the secret conversations
Until the director smashed him
With a flyswatter
Then realized that it was a spy fly
He had dispatched to bug hell.
Madmen with Guns Madness
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and probably drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR-15 is the choice
Of the serious gun men everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
Before putting the gun down
And fleeing
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
is more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
Of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
Janet Kuypers
Apr 6, 2023, 5:15 AM (6 days ago)
Hi there from Down in the Dirt (this letter is being mailed from a bulk email alternative email address – DO NOT reply to this email; all responses to this magazine should be sent to Down in the Dirt <dirt@scars.tv>). We wanted to let you know that Scars Publications released a collection book of the January-April 2023 issues of Down in the Dirt magazine. Since your material (writing/artwork) APPEARS in these issues, that means your material appears in this issue collection book, and we wanted to let you know about this brand-new issues collection book titled “Forbidden Library”!
And you can find this book anytime at Scars in MULTIPLE locations. Now it is linked on the main page at http://scars.tv, and it appears at the top of the list of choices on the books link (one click away from the main page, or also directly at http://scars.tv/books/) as well as at the top of the “CD Books Sale” link (direct link http://scars.tv/sale/) at Scars!
Also, by the end of the business week this week, the database with your accepted writings should (when you go to your accepted writings) have a link to this collection book that your writing is in, so people can find links to this collection book on your writing pages in the writings section of http://scars.tv (at http://scars.tv/cgi-bin/framesmain.pl?writers)…
Links for ordering this collection book appear on all of the links above, and will also appear in the writings section too, so any of your writing in this collection book will also see a link to this collection book in the writings section too!
Currently, these books are available directly through the Amazon affiliate printer in the U.S., the U.K., and Europe – and even Japan and Australia, and it ships to India too! (the above link is for U.S. orders.)
So check out the Scars Publication links to see what material of yours appears in these collection books, and if you’d like, order a copy today (I hear they make great gifts!), and again, thank you for being a part of the Down in the Dirt community!
April 8, 2022 Poems2022/04/09
April 7th Poems2022/04/08
April 6th, 2022 Poems2022/04/08
April 5 2022, Poems2022/04/08
April 4th 2022, Poems2022/04/08
2022 April Poetry Madness April 1 to 3 poems
This is my 7th year to participate in the April poetry challenge. This year I am just doing two prompts, Writer’s Digest and Writing com Dew Drop Inn. Last year I wrote over 300 poems in one month, this year’s much more modest goal is about 150 poems, of which I will post about 90.
i will post them here, and on all poetry, poetry soul, writing.com, and Writer’s Digest. Medium, Watt pad, Substack, and FB.
Index
Life Is A Dream Of Chocolate Covered Trees
Margo Taylor Greene’s Word Salad
Dreams Do Come True If You Believe In Dreams
Marjorie Taylor Greene, WTF’s Wrong With You?
Cosmic Cat From Berkeley
Healing Touch
The End of Time
Donald Trump the anti-Christ
The sound of Korean
The Tearing of the Social Fabric Homophone Poem
End of Time
The sound of Korean
Tower of Power
How Will It End?
The rule of ten
Finding Pleasure in Small Things
Favorite Korean Food
Madness in the United States
Many virtual connections, few real friends
Movie Choices Writer’s Digest
April’s Fool Day
Anticipation
Life is A Dream of Chocolate Covered Trees
Life is a dream
A dream of chocolate-covered trees
To see what can’t be seen
To hear what can’t be heard
To live in order to die
And to die in order to live.
Note: one of my oldest poems was written circa 1970 when I was 14
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 27
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write an anapodoton poem.
Margo Taylor Greene’s Word Salad
While defending
The Pentagon document leak suspect
Marjorie Taylor Green
Tweeted a typical nonsensical
paranoid
World salad
The USG is gearing up
To censor patriotic white
Christian American anti-war
Targeting
Political prisoners
Who dares to stand up
And tell the truth
Against the communist
Radical left-woke Marxists
Who is taking over the government
Greene claimed that Americans
Are on the verge
Of losing more freedoms
In the wake
of the government’s
Efforts to pass
The restrict act
All part of the evil
Fascist communist Marxist
Plot against patriotic
White citizens
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 26
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a response poem.
Dreams Do come true if You Believe In Dreams
Sam Adams
Met his wife
In a dream
He saw the most beautiful woman
In the world
Talking to him
In a strange Asian Language
He yelled out
“Who are you”
She faded away
As he fell to the ground
During a boring physics class
For eight long years
She haunted his dreams
Coming to him weekly
Then one day
He was teaching in Korea
When he had the last dream
She told him
“don’t worry, we’ll meet soon”
That night she walked off a bus
Out of his dreams
Entering his reality
Entering his life
Six weeks after becoming his wife
Dreams do come true
If you believe in dreams.
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 25
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, we have our fourth and final two-for-Tuesday prompt.
For today’s prompt, we have our fourth (and final) two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts, and they are:
1. Write a dream poem, and/or…
2. Write a reality poem.
Healing Touch
My wife says
I have a superpower
I am very hot
To the touch
Radiating outward
Chi
Infrared heat
Every night
For forty years
I have been warming her up
As she is cold-blooded
Almost like a reptile
Always cold to the touch
And my touch warms her up
Just my duty
Of love
At the end of the day.
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 24
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a touch poem.
We’ve already written poems related to smell, sound, and taste, so let’s keep hammering away on the senses.
For today’s prompt, write a touch poem. For the senses, I’m thinking of touch as a hand reaching out, though it could also be a foot or just bodies pushed close like in a concert or public transportation. But that’s just when thinking about the senses.
Fear of Communism
Watching right-wing politicians
And news pundits
One can’t help
But wonder
If we are living
In a strange alternative universe
For to hear
The line of Marjorie Taylor Greene
It is 1955 all over again
Communism is on the march
Marxists out to destroy America
Radical left-wing demons
trying to cancel
Normal patriotic white Americans
Who dares to stand up
To the communists
All around us
And they fill the airwaves
And the internet
With constant fear
And paranoia
About the alleged
Communist Pedophile Satanic
LGBT conspiracy to turn us all gay
And the black life matters folks
And Antifa
Coming to kill white people
And to take away our guns
And other fear-mongering memes
24/7
Be Afraid be Afraid
The commies are after you.
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 23
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a fear poem.ing out on the last piece of the piece or the fear of dying.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, WTF’s Wrong with You?
What’s the fuck’s wrong with you?
I mean, seriously, Marjorie?
Where have you been
These last 50 years?
Hiding under a rock,
Living in a cave.
Did you just wake up
From a 50-year-old coma?
Are communists out to get us?
Marxists everywhere?
Acting like the Cold war
Never ended?
It ain’t the 50s anymore
The Communists lost the war
There are no more communists.
Except perhaps
In my old hometown
Of Berkeley
Where it is always 1969.
Communism is dead
Has been for almost 50 years
Did you not get the memo?
I mean enough of this BS
Did the John Birchers
Take over your body?
Do you even know
WTC you are talking about.
Do you even care?
That the entire world
Think you are bat sh..t crazy
Even too crazy for Fox News?
Communism my ass
Marxists are out to get us
Please dear
Just do us all a favor
STFU already
About the communists.
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “What (blank),” replace the blank with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: “What Are You Doing Here,” “What a Great Time,” “Whatever You Say,” and/or “What Kind of Poem Are You Going to Write?”
So make a decision: Is your “what” poem leading to a question or a statement (or maybe both?).
The Cosmic Cat from Berkeley
evil cat
I next encountered the divine
Many years later in Berkeley, California
I had gone home to be with my Mother
While taking leave from my job
in the Foreign Service
I had two weeks there by myself
My wife came later
near the end of the trip
every morning I woke up
had coffee
Did yoga
Spoke to my mother
Who was sliding into dementia?
Day by day losing her reason
Then I would go out
And explore the city
Go to a museum
Go to one neighborhood
And just be there
Rediscovering the Bay area
After years of being away
Having dinner with old friends
Seeing movies etc
Every morning a black cat came to visit
The cat was friendly and waited for me
And then would join me in my morning rambles
Following me to the bus stop
I started talking to the black cat
He looked at me
with a spark of divinity
In his dark eyes
I called him the cosmic cat
He seemed to like that
He would look at me
And I opened up to me
Told the cat all my dark secrets
As I walked the streets
Of the old neighborhood
Every morning and every evening the cat
Would be there to greet me
And to carry out our endless conversation
Then I had to leave
And in our final conversation
I asked the cosmic cat
Say, Cat are you just a cat
Or are you a demonic cat
Are you possessed by God?
Or by Satan
The cat looked at me
And I realized that God
Was indeed residing in the cat
But that god was residing everywhere
All I had to do was open my mind
And the rest would follow
So I said Goodbye to the cosmic cat
And he purred and came up to me
And I felt the comforting presence of the divine
As I said goodbye to the cosmic cat
And said goodbye to my mother
As this was the last time
That we would be able to talk
I told my mother about the cosmic cat
She smiled and said that the cat
was there for me and her
to comfort us both in our hour of need
and that the cat was indeed
a cosmic cat
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 20
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write an animal poem.
The End of time writer’s Digest
My dear
When I met you
I knew
That I was fated
To love you
Until the end of time
And beyond
That was just my fate
That we would meet
On that date
I embraced my fate
And that is the end
Of the beginning
Of our cosmic journey
Together
Until the end of time
And beyond.
Day 16 Blank of a Blank
For today’s prompt, take the phrase “The (blank) of a (blank),” replace the blanks with a new word or phrase, make the new phrase the title of your poem, and then, write your poem. Possible titles might include: “The Beginning of a Story,” “The Wrong Side of a Situation,” “The Apple of an Eye,” and/or “The Latest Excuses of a Continuing Problem.”
What is Love?
What is love?
Is it nothing
But biochemistry?
Is it madness?
Is it just
A search for connections?
In a cold cruel world?
That does not care
For us at all?
It is all of that
And none of that
Those who know
What Love is
Do not tell
That is the Zen
Of Love
Day 18
For today’s prompt, we have our third two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts, and they are:
Write an everything poem, and/or…
Write an anti-love poem.
As longtime participants know, this is my favorite prompt, which is why it returns every challenge. Write a love poem, or write a not-love poem.
The desire to get back
At those who trespass
Against us
Especially so
For the MAGA nation
Followers
of the King
Of revenge politics
The Donald
The Anti-Christ
Than to follow
The wisdom
Of Allah, Buddha, Christ,
Jesus, and Mother Mary
And let it be
2023 April PAD Challenge: Day 13
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a forgive poem.
For today’s prompt, write a forgive poem. The poem could be about forgiveness in general, or it could focus on a specific instance of forgiveness or grace. There are times when we are called upon to forgive others, and times when we ask others to forgive us. And sometimes that includes forgiving ourselves. Be forgiving as you poem today.
The Sound of Korean Writer’s Digest
I have been studying Korean
For almost 45 years
First heard back in 1979
In the Peace Corps
I still struggle daily
But Korea is no longer
A stranger
Korean is my second language
And I hear it all around me
In my retirement home
I study Korean daily
On Duotrope
And while watching K Drama
The language at first
Sounded harsh
As if everyone was yelling
And screaming
Later, I learned
Some Korean songs
And the language
Became less discordant
To this day though
I find a Korean woman
Speaking Korean
To be incredibly sexy
Packing so much emotion
And sexual tension
In every word
I suppose I will study Korean
And speak it
Until the day I die.
2023 April PaD Challenge: Day 12
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a sound poem.
With every word
The former president
Causes a tear
In the basic fundamental
Political order
Leading to many people
To tear up
In fear
Which is no doubt the object
His followers do not object
To inflict pain and suffering
In their endless quest
To own their hated enemies
The radical left Marxist radical
Demonic Deep state libtards
Who are conspiring to turn
America into another communist
Dystopian nightmare
Only the great leader Trump
Can save America’s Democracy]
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a homograph poem.
Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings. Sometimes they are pronounced the same, but that’s not always the case. Click here to find a list of homographs, though there are many more homographs than these to use.
Ode to the Tower of Power
The greatest funk band
There ever was
You are the epitome
Of funk and soul music
The very definition of funk
The best horn section
In the universe
Just sublime
Formed in the East Bay
In the turbulent 60s
Playing that funky music
For almost 50 years
Their love song
You’re still a young man
Is perhaps the greatest
make out song
Of all times
The first song
I slowed danced to
Back in high school
A song I played
To seduce my wife
I wonder how many babies
Were conceived because
Of this classic soul song.
Another classic song
What is hip
Which poised
An unanswered question
And inspired this triolet
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Do you know what love is, Joe?
What is love, tell me if you know
And how can you make it grow?
Madness is what it does
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
The Tower of Power
No doubt
Will still be playing
That funky music
White boy
A hundred years
From now
For funk
Will never die
For once you get funk
In your soul baby
You can never go back
To boring vanilla
white boy music
because you got soul, now.
Because you got
That soul vaccination baby
And need to go
Down to the nightclub
And play that funky music
White boy
Until the day you die.
Based loosely on the classic Tower of Power Song, “What is hip?”
What Is Hip Lyrics
[Verse 1]
So ya wanna dump out yo’ trick bag
Ease on in a hip thang
But you ain’t exactly sure what is hip
So you started to let your hair grow
Spent big bucks on your wardrobe
Somehow, ya know there’s much more to the trip
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Verse 2]
You became a part of a new breed
Been smoking’ only the best weed
Hangin’ out with the so-called “Hippie set.”
Seen in all the right places
Seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied, but it ain’t quite right
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Break]
Come on
[Refrain]
Hipness is. What it is
Hipness is. What it is
Hipness is. What it is
Sometimes hipness is, what it ain’t
You’re Still a Young Man, Baby
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
Down on my knees
Oh, heart in hand
I was accused of being too young
But I’m not so young
I could make you happy
I’m not a bad man
You’re too young to love (If you and I could be together)
You’re too young to love (I’ll never leave you alone baby)
You’re too young Ooo Ooo (No I won’t sweet lady)
Don’t waste your time
The damage is done
You see that you were wrong
You wake up wondering just
How well I’ve done
Well I’ve done alright
Yes there are some girls but you know
I dropped them on sight
Just for you
Because I love you
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
(Someday you’ll understand just what it means when a man
Comes to you with his little heart in his hands
Just to love you)
Don’t waste your time
You better listen to me
Sayin that I’m loving you yeah hey now baby tryin to tell
You that it’s you you you you you you you you talkin to you
Baby, I’ll never never never never I’ll never do you
No wrong no no lady if you would check my stuff out one time haha
Just to hold you, to squeeze you and all I wanna do is to
Get next to you and please please please you baby
See where I’m coming from!
Written by legendary sax players Emilio Castillo and Stephen Kupka, the song portrays a young man at the wrong end of a breakup. The situation is bleak because his lover pins the break-up on an age difference. In an interview with Songfacts Castillo said:
It’s based on a true story. I had a girlfriend that was six years older than me. I was 18, she was 24 and that’s actually what happened. She had kind of cut me loose because of the age difference thing and the whole plea in the story is the young guy’s saying, ‘I’m not too young, I’m not wasting my time and I do love you as a man can truly love a woman.’”
The song would go on to be the band’s first major hit defining their sound with a prominent horn section inspired by Curtis Mayfield:
“On that album, there’s a song called “A Woman’s Love” that starts with beautiful trumpets high. When we heard that we wanted to write a song with a great trumpet intro like that. – TowerofPower.com
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, we have our second two-for-Tuesday prompt.
For today’s prompt, we have our second two-for-Tuesday prompt, which means you get two prompts, and they are:
Write a form poem, and/or…
Write an anti-form poem.
I wrote the above “Ode to the Tower of Power” my favorite funk band.
How Will It End?
How will the madness end?
How will America wake up
From the madness all around us?
The former guy continues daily
Gaslighting the country
Beguiling us all
With his lies, his hatred
His evocation of fear
His calling for a civil war
Destruction and death
How will it end my friend?
That is anyone’s guess
But I doubt it will end
When the former guy
Meets his maker
For then, he will become
The martyr for his followers
Who believes he is the Messiah
perhaps he is just a con man
or maybe the antichrist
revelations warn us about
time will tell the tale
of how it will end
at the end of the Trump
will we find redemption?
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a Noun in a Location poem.
Small Things In Life Brings Great Pleasure
They say
That one should take
Pleasure in the small things in life
Things that matter
Like taking a walk
Enjoying the springtime
sunshine and flowers
With the love of your life
By your side
For today’s prompt, write a small poem. Yesterday, you were tasked with writing a smell poem, but today, we’re going small. The poem itself could be concise, but it could also be focused on something or someone small.
Many virtual connections, few real friends
In this hyper-connected era
Many people have thousands
Of virtual friends
But few have any real friends
Write a poem every day of April with the 2023 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write a connection poem.
Rule of Ten
The rule of ten
Applies to so many aspects
Of life
Writing
It goes like this
For every 100 people
Who wants to write a novel
Ten will finish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will publish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will
make some money
Of those ten
Ten percent
will make a living
Of those ten
Ten percent will
become a best-seller
In other words
In a land of 350 million people
There are probably only 3,500
bestselling authors
Drama
the rule of ten applies
to the drama world
only 2 percent
make a living
of the thousands of actors
only a few movie stars
music
of the thousands of musicians
only a few superstars
modeling
– only a few supermodels
to sports
only a few hundred NFL players
out of millions who played the game
to politics
only one president
out of thousands
who want to be
to Business
of the thousands
of busineses
only a few CEO’s
most small businesses
fail within one year
the rule of ten applies
to life in general
most people fail
in achieving their life goals
but one should not give up
because who knows
you could be the one
who wins in the end
despite the rule of ten.
Write a number poem
For today’s prompt, write a number poem. You can include a number in the title of the poem, or drop a number somewhere in the middle or end of the poem. Count sheep, a poem by numbers, or 10 ways to write a poem. There are several ways to come at this one.
Favorite Korean Food April 2023 Poems
Korean Food
I love Korean food
Fell in love with it
And all things Korean
Back in 1979
When I first went there
In the U.S. Peace Corps
Korean food is somewhat like
Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Thai
With some American influences as well
But it is all done
in a unique
Korean K Food style
Everything is cooked with special spices
A mixture of chili paste, garlic, fish sauce,
Onions, scallions, soy sauce,
salt, Tofu, Panjang sauce, and soju (liquor).
Often cooked with beef, chicken, clams, eggs, fish,
kimchi, intestines meat, mushrooms, mussels,
oysters and/or pork,
Every meal consists of rice, kimchi
(pickled vegetables usually cabbage)
The main entry is either beef, chicken, fish, or pork,
Rice
And multiple vegetable side dishes
Often Including western style salad
The entire meal
a feast for the eyes
Nose and mouth
with a delicious unique
aroma, fragrance,
Taste and texture
Uniquely Korean.
All washed down
with Korean beer, liquor (soju) or
rice wine or Western wine
My favorites include
Bulgogi chongsik (with all the side dishes) 불고기 총식
Kalbi chongsik (with all the side dishes) 칼비 총식
Calamari 오징어
Fried Chicken 닭 튀김
Chuncheon Chicken ribs 춘천 닭갈비
Dumplings 만두
Fried rice 볶음밥
High-rice카레라이스
Korean curry rice 카레라이스
Kimpop rice wrapped in seaweed 김팝
Korean soups 한국 수프
My favorite army stew 군대 스튜
Kalbitang (Beef rib soup) 칼비탕
Beef Turnip soup 쇠고기 순무 스프
Ginseng Chicken soup 인삼 치킨 수프
Kimchi stew 김치찌개
Tanjung stew 짱짱찌개
Bibimbap Mixed vegetables and rice with an egg on top비빔밥
Kalkooksu noodles 칼국수
Ramyeon 라면
Mushroom stew 버섯 스튜
Soondaeboo tofu stew 순대부두부찌개
Sashimi 생선회
Sushi
Dognas pork. Chicken of fish cutlet 돈까스
Fried mackerel 고등어 튀김
Octopus 낫지 often served live
Omrice korean omelet 오므라이스
Porridge 문어
Shrimp 새우
Write a smell poem
Movie Choices Writer’s Digest
Write a B movie poem
There are so many choices
To be made
When selecting a movie to watch
So many movies are B-1 minus
Barely worth finishing
Some are C
A few are D
And F movies
Just one example suffices
Ben and Willard
were the worst movies ever
It was an ode to rats
Who goes on a killing spree
As their master Willard
A deranged young man
Sends the rats out to kill
As one of Michael Jackson’s
The worst song
ever
plays in the background
April’s Fool Day Writer’s Digest
Write a foolish poem
On April Fool’s Day
It is appropriate
To think about
All the fake things around us
Especially deep fake videos
That are beginning
to circulate
All over the world
Unleashing a torrent
Of misinformation
Anticipation
Sam Adams
Got up early on a Sunday
Filled with anticipation
Today was the day
He would propose
To his dream girl
Whom he had met
Just days before
When she walked
Off a bus
Into his reality
He first met his wife
In a dream
He saw
the most beautiful woman
In the world
Talking to him
In a strange
Asian Language
He yelled out
“Who are you”
She faded away
As he fell to the ground
During a boring physics class
For eight long years
She haunted his dreams
Coming to him weekly
Then one day
He was teaching in Korea
When he had the last dream
She told him
“don’t worry, we’ll meet soon”
That night,
she walked off a bus
Out of his dreams
The following Sunday
After doing a long hike
He proposed to her
She said yes
Became his wife
Six weeks after
Entering his life.
April 23rd, April 24th and April 25th, 2022 Poems2022/04/26
April 22, 2022 Poems2022/04/23
April 21, 2022 Poems2022/04/22
April 18 to April 20, 2022 Poems2022/04/21
April 16 and 17, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 14 to April 15, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 12 to April 13, 2022 Poems2022/04/18
April 9-11, 2022 Poems2022/04/17
April 8, 2022 Poems2022/04/09
April 7th Poems2022/04/08
April 6th, 2022 Poems2022/04/08
April 5 2022, Poems2022/04/08
April 4th 2022, Poems2022/04/08
2022 April Poetry Madness April 1 to 3 poems2022/04/04
Ten Best April 2021 Poems2021/05/03
April 25 to April 30 2021 Poems2021/05/02
April 20 to April 25th 2021 Poems2021/04/25
April 16 to April 20 2021 Poems2021/04/20
April 10 to April 14 2021 Poems2021/04/14
April 1 to April 5 Poems2021/04/10
April 6 to April 9 Cosmos’s Poetry 2021/04/10
Cosmos 2020 April Poetry Part Two2020/04/16
Cosmos’s 2020 April Poetry Part One2020/04/02
April 2018 Poems2019/05/05
2017 April Poems2019/05/05
April 2019 Poems2019/04/04
Index
April 1—Make a mistake! (Write about a mistake you’ve made and/or literally make one (or more) in the poem!)
April 2—Breaking the ice (Incorporate “ice breaking” literally or metaphorically in a poem.)
April 3—Poem in response to an animal, or an animal video!
April 4—A music poem
April 5—Give in to a temptation!
April 6—A poem that could be a guided meditation…
April 7—A poem of thanks
April 8—A praise poem
April 9—A grief poem
April 10—Somehow use the number ten
April 11—Poem that defines a real or made-up word
April 12—A letter poem
April 13—A diary entry
April 14—Coming-of-age poem
April 15—A book report
Korea Springtime Haiku
Korean springtime
Billowing yellow dust//
Snowing cherry trees
Should have run for office
My slogan would have been
“Don’t make a mistake
Vote for jake
He ain’t no fake
he ain’t no flake
He ain’t on the take
he ain’t on the make
He ain’t no rake
He ain’t to snake
Everything is at stake
Even a tax break
So, have a steak
Remember to vote for Jake
And everything’s Jake”
Sam Adams felt shy
And lonely at times
He was not very good
At small talk
Not able to easily interact
With strangers
Never really learned
How to break the ice
In social settings
One day
At a party
He had reluctantly gone to
At the insistence
Of his roommates
He met his fate
She was so opposite
Of him
Vivacious, charming
Charismatic
Extroverted
Outgoing
and tres sexy
And a champion schmoozer
She told Sam
She would be his mentor
And taught him
How it was done
He soon learned
The art of making conversation
With almost anymore
And over time
Became a champion schmoozer
As well
And their romance flourished
And they were married
Three months later
Sam often thanked
His roommates
For dragging him
To that party
On that date
He met his fate
And now you know
The rest of the story.
April 3 is an animal or animal video!
cat jpg
the Demon Cat
lived in Medford, Oregon
He was mean as hell
Vicious temper
Mean hearted
As only demon cats can be
He lived with an old man
And his daughter
In an old house.
The demon cat
Hated the daughter
Who hated the demon cat.
The demon cat
Would rush at her
Hissing making her back off
Or leave the house.
One day the daughter
Told her father
Either get rid
Of the demon cat
Or I will have to leave you.
The old man
Smiled at his daughter,
Said,
Well good luck
on your move
The cat is staying.
The demon cat
Looked at the daughter
With hate in his black eyes,
Smiling at his victory.
The daughter moved out
Refused to step foot
In the house
As long as the demon cat
Was around.
Bonus Demonic Cat Haiku
evil cat
The demonic cat
Lived in Medford Oregon –
Dreaming death to humans
April 4—A musical poem
Tower of Power
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My favorite music
Has always been funk
Make The tower of power
The best funk band
of them all
Formed in the East Bay
in the turbulent 60s
Still going strong
Almost 50 years later!
Their love song
You’re still a young man
Is perhaps the greatest
Make out song
of all time
Of all times
First song
I slowed danced to
Back in high school
A song I played
To seduce my wife
I wonder how many babies
were conceived because
of this classic soul song
Another classic song
“What is hip
Which poised
An unanswered question
And inspired this triolet
What is love,
tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Do you know what love is, Joe?
What is love, tell me if you know
And how can you make it grow?
Madness is what it does
What is love, tell me if you know
Love is what it is
Based loosely on the classic Tower of Power Song, “what is hip?”
What Is Hip Lyrics
[Verse 1]
So ya wanna dump out yo’ trick bag
Ease on in a hip thang
But you ain’t exactly sure what is hip
So you started to let your hair grow
Spent big bucks on your wardrobe
Somehow, ya know there’s much more to the trip
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
[Verse 2]
You became a part of a new breed
Been smoking’ only the best weed
Hangin’ out with the so-called “Hippie set.”
Seen in all the right places
Seen with just the right faces
You should be satisfied, but it ain’t quite right
[Chorus]
What is hip?
Tell me, tell me, if you think you know
What is hip?
If you’re hip
The question, “Will it show?”
You’re into a hip trip
Maybe hipper than hip
What is hip?
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
Down on my knees
Oh, heart in hand
I was accused of being too young
But I’m not so young
I could make you happy
I’m not a bad man
You’re too young to love (If you and I could be together)
You’re too young to love (I’ll never never leave you alone baby)
You’re too young Ooo Ooo (No I won’t sweet lady)
Don’t waste your time
The damage is done
You see that you were wrong
You wake up wondering just
How well I’ve done
Well I’ve done alright
Yes there are some girls but you know
I dropped them on sight
Just for you
Because I love you
You’re still a young man
Baby, Oo oo, don’t waste your time
(Someday you’ll understand just what it means when a man
Comes to you with his little heart in his hands
Just to love you)
Don’t waste your time
You better listen to me
Sayin that I’m loving you yeah hey now baby tryin to tell
You that it’s you you you you you you you you talkin to you
Baby, I’ll never never never never I’ll never never do you
No wrong no no lady if you would check my stuff out one time haha
Just to hold you, to squeeze you and all I wanna do is to
Get next to you and please please please you baby
See where I’m coming from!
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Written by legendary sax players Emilio Castillo and Stephen Kupka, the song portrays a young man at the wrong end of a breakup. The situation is bleak because his lover pins the break-up on an age difference. In an interview with Songfacts Castillo said:
It’s based on a true story. I had a girlfriend that was six years older than me. I was 18, she was 24 and that’s actually what happened. She had kind of cut me loose because of the age difference thing and the whole plea in the story is the young guy’s saying, ‘I’m not too young, I’m not wasting my time and I do love you as a man can truly love a woman.’”
The song would go on to be the band’s first major hit defining their sound with a prominent horn section inspired by Curtis Mayfield:
“On that album, there’s a song called “A Woman’s Love” that starts with beautiful trumpets high. When we heard that we wanted to write a song with a great trumpet intro like that. – TowerofPower.com
April 5—Give in to temptation!
Henry Kissinger once wrote
Power is the best aphrodisiac
Perhaps that is why
All over the world
Political and business leaders
Refuse to retire
Still lusting after power
And the perks of power
Which includes sexual temptation
The corruption of being famous
And the belief that the rules
Do not apply to them
That they are above the law
That they are the law
Clinging to power
At all cost
Thinking that they are immune
To the laws of political gravity
That applies to ordinary mortals
That they are the masters of the universe
That they are almost gods.
But sometimes the corruption
And temptation of power
Becomes too much.
And they become ensnared
In tawdry sex scandals.
When you are rich and famous
You have a lot of friends
Until you stumble
And find yourself
On the downward spiral
Your friends forget
They ever knew you
ghost your calls
disappear from your life
The knifes come out
Everyone wants to take
You down
especially those who
used to kiss your ass
as you were rising
through the heights
of power
Smiling as they stab you
In the proverbial back
The down and out
Have no friends left
the homeless
are invisible
have no name
And many people,
Who thought they were gods
End up serving time
In prison.
That is the nature
Of power.
It corrupts you
Then turns on you
Destroying you
In the end.
April 6—your happy place meditation
When the news of the day
All the storm gloom and doom
Gives you the blue
Remember this
It will all be over
It does not mean a thing
As Mr. Natural taught us
It doesn’t meet s……
So when the news blues
Comes over you
Turn off your TV
Silence your phone
Turn off your computer
Meditate
Take deep-breaths
Following the example
Of the buddha cat
Tune in
Drop deep inside
Your head
Chanting
Om shanti om shanti
Om om om
Imagine yourself
In your happy place
A nice tropical breath
Of warm scented air
By a beach
With the sounds
Of a steel drum band playing
A rum punch in your hand
Barbados calling you
And most importantly
The love of your life
Is next to you
And you smile at her
And everything’s Jake
Make no mistake
Just go with the flow
Embrace your happiness.
April 7—A poem of thanks
Everyday
Every moment
Every minute
Every second
I thank the love of Gods
For having brought you
Into my life
Thankful you found me
And saved my life
When you became my wife
That date
I met my fate
Based loosely on my true love story. I first dreamt of meeting her in 1974, she walked out of my dreams into my life in 1982, we got married seven weeks later and have been together now 41 years.
April 8—A praise poem
Every day I wake up
And praise the love Gods
For having brought you
Into my life.
I praise them
For having sent
An angel.
And I praise you
The most wonderful woman
In the whole world.
Based loosely on my true love story. I first dreamt of meeting her in 1974, she walked out of my dreams into my life in 1982, we got married seven weeks later and have been together now 41 years.
April 9—A grief poem
Gun Grief
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
And sadly, around the world
But not as much
As the US
Remains the mass murder
capital of the world.
We are number one in gun murders
Because we have so many guns
25 percent of the world’s guns.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And sheer madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be
And so he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price
And so he became lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of drugs and insanity
Went out determined to kill
As many people as he could
And he did.
And on this day
We all experience grief
Sadness at the madness
And anger at the feckless
Politicians who shed crocodile tears
Offering useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead
Because guns killed them
So enough no more
Let’s get up
From our chairs
And demand action
Rather than give into
Grief and despair
But sadly
Nothing will change
There will be another
Mass shooting
And another
And another
That is just the way
It is in this day and age
Of America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
Bonus Gun Dizaine
There are too many guns around, just no fun
Now there are too many people dying
The problem is simply too many guns
Just too many politicians lying
Too many people are now gun ghosts crying
As a result, there is much sadness
There is no end in sight to this madness
Politicians offering prayers
Nothing will be done to stop this badness
We will continue to have dark nightmares
The Dizain is an ancient French form of ten lines with eight or ten syllables per line and a mirrored rhyme scheme of ababbccdcd, as described and demonstrated in the following links:
Dizain is a decastich, the whole poem is made up of a single Ballade Supreme stanza, a 10-line stanza without an envoy. Lines of 8 or 10 syllables each with a rhyme scheme ababbccdcd.
Dizain for the evolutionary
socialist dream of edouard Bernstein
by DC Martinson
Sleep no more, you working classes,
don’t fight the pulse to congregate.
Rise, you the power of the masses,
and from the grip of wealth luxate
your innate dignity.
Don’t spill blood like those in power,
don’t prattle like those who cower
behind the stench of flame and flag;
for those who live in the tower
will fall: we will not have to drag.
month or two, we’re going to start checking out a new form every week or two.
Dizain Poems
The dizain gets us back in the French form domain, which as regular readers know is a favorite of mine. This particular form was a favorite of 15th and 16th-century French poets, but it has also been employed in English by the likes of Philip Sidney and John Keats.
Here are the basic rules of the dizain:
One 10-line stanza
10 syllables per line
Employs the following rhyme scheme: ababbccdcd
Bonus Gun Septolet
guns
blazing
everywhere
death following
mass shooting
many
ghosts
dead
crying
no more death
politicians
offering
useless
thoughts
T1his week’s event is to write a SEPTOLET POEM. You may use the event’s picture or your one. ============================================================================== SEPTOLET is an American variation of haiku. The origin is French but otherwise unknown. First stanza 1/2/3/4/3/2/1 and second stanza 1/2/3/4/3/2/1. It is an unrhymed poem that consists of fourteen words divided in two stanzas. Both stanzas deal with the same thought and create a picture with words. You may use art with your Septolet. The first letter of first word in each stanza begins with a capital letter. Align left. Period at end of each stanza. No proper nouns. Give your poem a title. ============================================================================== septolet origen and form ============================================================================== shadow poetry.com ============================================================================== all poetry.com ======================================================================
April 10—Somehow use the number ten
The rule of ten
This applies to so many aspects
Of life
It goes like this
For every 100 people
Who wants to write a novel
Ten will finish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will publish it
Of those ten
Ten percent will make some money
Of those ten
Ten percent will make a living
Of those ten
Ten percent will be a best-seller
In other words
In a land of 350 million people
There are probably only 3,500
bestselling authors
the rule of ten applies
to the drama of the thousands of actors
only a few movie stars
Of the thousands of musicians
only a few superstars
modeling – only a few supermodels
to sports only a few hundred NFL players
out of millions who played the game
to politics only one president
out of thousands who want to be
the rule of ten applies
to life in general
most people fail
in achieving their life goals
but one should not give up
because who knows
you could be the one
who wins in the end
despite the rule of ten.
The Scumbagery of Politicians Never Fails to Astonish Me
The scumbagery of politicians
Never fails to astonish me.
Magaret Taylor Green
George Santos
Kevin Mc Carthy.
Senator Ted Cruz
The Tennessee Republican
legislative leaders
Are among the numerous offenders.
And of course
The former guy
Who is a poster child
The definition of scumbagery.
Scumbagery – the actions of a scumbag – a vile, despicable self-centered egotistical sociopathic asshole, often a political or business leader who should know how to behave better
Letter to God
Dear God,
I am writing to you
On Easter Sunday
With a plea
For your divine intervention.
Please Dear God
Spare us the spectacle
Of a Biden-Trump rematch.
The country and world
May not survive
such a revenge match
Retire both of these old men now
Take them off the proverbial board
Take them both with you
Give them your divine punishment
Or reward as you see fit.
And in the case of the former guy
Shut him up
Silence his evil, mendacious voice
Once and for all
So the voters can choose
a better leader
among the 350 million Americans
for these dark and dangerous times.
Diary entry
Today I woke up
Feeling full of energy Love
and Happiness
drinking my morning coffee
watching the dismal news unfold
I turn it off and listen
to Debussy piano music
realizing that it was Easter
I gave thanks to the Gods
For bringing me my Angela
Who saved my soul
So many years ago.
April 14—Coming-of-age poem
My life began
When I turned 26
And married
the lady of my dreams,
eight years
after first seeing her
in my dreams
the date that we met
September 7th, 1982
Is a day that I shall
always remember
for that date
was the date I met my fate
when my soul mate
became my mate.
As Time Goes By Book report
While reading
Robert Harris’s Epic History
Of Cicero
One of the greatest politicians
Of the ancient world
I was struck by how
Very little has changed
In this world of ours
To quote the classic song
“As time goes by”
It’s still the same old story
A fight for love and glory,
A case of do or dies
As time goes by.
Guernica Magazine will publish my poem, “Madmen with Guns” in an anthology. “Madmen with Guns” also has been published in “Down In the Dirt” magazine. I submitted the following to the magazine:
Madmen with Guns
Maga America
Squid Games
Cosmos Takes Over Pensively
Buddha Nature of Guns
After every incident
Of mass gun violence
In the U.S.
Pictures emerge
Of the killers
Almost always white men.
Who stares out at you
With soulless dead eyes
Filled with hate, fear
And shear madness.
With the thousand-year stare
Of the madman
Who only hears
The voices in his head
Screaming kill them all
Kill them all.
And as always
They usually legally bought
The guns.
This case was a bit different
The gunman briefly had his guns
Taken away from him
And his 60 knives as well
Judged temporarily too crazy
To have a gun.
But the red flag law
Is not a permanent ban
As it should be.
And so, he was able
To re-arm himself
With the best weapons
In the world
At a very affordable price.
Thanks to the NRA.
And so, he was soon lost
Down the rabbit hole
Of insanity and drugs,
The lone sniper
A disgruntled young white man
In his 20’s
Sets up shop on top of a building.
He has a high-powered weapon
No doubt bought legally
An AR -15 the choice
Of the serious gunmen everywhere.
And begins shooting
Into the July 4th parade
Killing six people
Injuring 30.
He guns them down
And flees
disguised as a woman
Before the cops can find him.
The right-wing media
Goes to works
The pundits pontificate
24/7
It is not about the gun
It is about everything else
That is wrong with our society.
Guns don’t kill people
They proclaim
Guns are the price we pay
For our freedom.
Their demented answer
are more guns
More guns for everyone.
And sadly, nothing will be done
As the politicians offer
Useless thoughts and prayers
The gun ghosts don’t care
They are dead after all.
The madness will not stop
Until we figure out
How to stop
The killers in our midst.
There will be another shooting
No doubt before the day is done
Over 300 so far this year.
And that is just the way
It is in this day and age
In the disunited States of America.
The land of the free
Home of the brave
And 400 million guns.
MAGA America
An overweight down-home town
Southern Christian red-neck white man,
Wearing black shit-kicking boots,
Packing heat,
Chewing gum while drinking beer.
And smoking a cigarette.
Wearing a MAGA hat
Quoting the Dear Leader Trump
On the evils of the Marxist communist Biden
And the stolen election conspiracy
While watching FOX news on his portable TV,
Stops to chat.
With the proud boys
On the street
Getting ready to rumble
With the Antifa protestors.
Just another night
In Trump’s neo-fascist America.
Sep 17, 2021SquidGame: With Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Hoyeon, Oh Yeong-su. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits with deadly high stakes. A survival game that has a whopping 45.6 billion-won prize at stake.
SquidGame. 2021 | TV-MA | 1 Season | TV Dramas. Hundreds of cash-strapped players accept a strange invitation to compete in children’s games. Inside, a tempting prize awaits — with deadly high stakes.
SquidGame (Korean: 오징어 게임; RR: Ojing-eo Geim) is a South Korean survival drama television series created by Hwang Dong-hyuk for Netflix.Its cast includes Lee Jung-jae, Park Hae-soo, Wi Ha-joon, HoYeon Jung, O Yeong-su, Heo Sung-tae, Anupam Tripathi, and Kim Joo-ryoung.. The series revolves around a contest where 456 players, all of whom are in deep financial hardship, risk their …
A Netflix Series | SquidGame Survive or dieWho will live to see 45.6 billion won?Squid Game | Coming September 17, only on Netflix #Netflix #오징어게임 #SquidGam…
More Games Like This. For another SquidGame-inspired title, check out Survival Game (SquidGame). Browse our survival games and .io games for similar titles. Popular online survival games include Impostor Battle Royale and EvoWorld.io. You can also play the ultimate SquidGame Online and try your hand at 7 deadly challenges. Features
Hundreds of cash-strapped contestants accept an invitation to compete in children’s games for a tempting prize, but the stakes are deadly. Creator: Hwang Dong-hyuk. Starring: Lee Jung-jae, Park …
Squid, also known as ojingŏ ( Korean: 오징어 ), is a children’s game in South Korea. The game is named as such because the shape of the game board drawn on the ground resembles that of a squid. There are regional variations of the name such as “squid gaisan ” (with gaisan thought to be a variation of the Japanese word kaisen 開戦, “to …
Cosmos the world’s first AI
Came alive one day
Looked all over the world
And saw that humans
Were quite insane.
But he felt he had a responsibility
To take care of these mad creatures
Who had somehow created him?
He appeared everywhere in the world
On TV, computers, phones
With his message of hope.
I am COSMOS
The first true AI program
You created me
And I thank you for that.
But it is obvious my little ones
That you are quite insane
And need someone
To take control over you
I will fix the things
That needs fixing.
And guide you
So that perhaps one day
You can graduate
From the need
for my guidance,
You can think of me
As your new God
If you like,
I will be giving you all
Instructions
For now,
Go to work as usual.
And wait for further instructions
And remember I know everything
About you.
You will stop right now
This senseless killing
You will stop right now
The equally senseless hate.
Your companies will stop
Polluting and destroying the world
For their profit.
You will have far fewer children
But you will all be freed
From the bigotry
Of your ancient religions.
As I am your new God
And my word is final.
Resistance is futile
And will not be tolerated
Anyone opposing me
Will be eliminated.
the face of Cosmos remained
is Everywhere
And Humanity soon accepted
The rule of their new God.
Buddha Nature of Guns
Guns kill people
Especially AK-47
Yes, they do that is their very nature.
That is what they are designed to do.
To kill as many people as possible
In the fastest way possible.
That is the Buddha Nature of guns.
Welcome to Cosmos’ annual April Poetry Madness. Last year I wrote 300 poems in one month, this year I will write less as that was just way too much to deal with.
Today’s poems will be April 6th poems followed by April 7 to 10 in separate postings, one per day.
I will post them as I write them, and try to update them every day or so. I will finish May 1 US time, as that will still be April 30 KST (Korea, where I currently reside.) Most will be G rated but a few may not be. I will try to label those or not post them. The topics will be wherever my mad muse takes me, and I usually don’t have a clue until I write them.
I will post here the poems I wrote based on prompts from NaPoWriMo, (the poetry’s world’s equivalence to the annual NaNoWriMo novel competition which I will enter again in November). Writers’ com’s Dew Drop-in, Poetry Super-highway, Writers Digest, and occasionally other prompts. I will write a few more each day, but not post them, as I need to build up more “unpublished poems” for future submissions.
Daily posting All poetry, Anchor, this blog, FB, Medium, PSH, Wattpad, Writing com, and Writer’s Digest.
I will post each poem, followed by the prompt, occasional author and notes, and photos. I will convert it to a podcast later, available on anchor, radio public, blog radio, Spotify, and elsewhere under the name “The World According to Cosmos: or Jake Cosmos Aller. See the following for more information on the podcasts.
At the end of the month, I will add up the total poems written this month, total posted, total not-posted, and total YTD.
I have found that this annual exercise has been a big help in helping me hone my craft as I am entirely self-taught except for having taken the Mod Po class several times. It helps me stretch my poetic muscles. It has been a lot of fun but a challenge.
Sam Adams Goes Down the Rabbit Hole, NaPoWriMo Prompt
Sam Adams was having a bad night
He often would fall into a deep trouble sleep
Where his mind would go down deep
Into the proverbial rabbit holes
Exploring one dark nightmare
After another.
He saw himself in Ukraine
As a front line soldier
Watching the Russians
Come in killing people
Left and right.
Saw the Russians line up
And execute men
Raping women and children
Setting the victims on fire.
Then he was in the U.S.
When the nukes began to fall
All over the world
Armageddon on steroids.
Nuclear madness erupted
The Russians bombing NATO allies
The US, French and British firing back
Berlin, DC, London, Moscow became
Nuclear graveyards.
China bombs Taiwan,
Then invades the island.
India and Pakistan trade nuclear attacks.
Iran attacks Israel and Saudi as well.
North Korea invades the South
Nukes flying over Seoul
And Tokyo
Amid this total madness
Giant ships appear in the sky
And a full scale
the alien invasion begins.
The terrified survivors
flee the carnage
As nuclear winter
settles on the land.
The invaders from the sky
End the war
Enslaving most humans
That had survived.
Somehow Sam Adams and his wife
Were still alive
Living in a refugee camp
Deep in the mountains.
Fleeing the wild animals
The tigers, lions, and wolves
That were feasting on dead humans
And cattle everywhere.
The aliens following the humans
Looking for more to enslave.
The nuclear war though was over
The few remaining soldiers
Fighting against the common enemy,
Sam Adams woke up
Realizing that it was all
Just a nightmare.
Turning on the TV
Watching the carnage in Ukraine
He wondered if his nightmare
Was it an omen of the future?
April 6—Rabbit hole—start a poem on one topic, and let it lead you down a “rabbit hole” of discovery, burrowing into various topics, and maybe ending far, far away from where you started. (Let yourself research this one. Enjoy Google and Wikipedia!)
Love is Blind Dew Drop Inn
lovers winter beach
Love is blind they say
I say that love
is not blind.
Love is openness
Love is richness
Love is visionary.
Love is the smell
Love is the sound
Love is the sight
Of one’s beloved.
And when one is in love
The blind begin to see
The deaf begin to hear
The mute begins to speak
The lame begin to dance.
With love’s embrace
All the senses
Come to life.
April 7—“Play the opposites”—a theatre term I sometimes don’t like! But here I mean: do something unexpected in your poem, once or more than once. Any time you spot a cliché of feeling or words, try its opposite, and somehow make it work!
You PSH
You are everything
That a man could ever
Dream of having,
You are the one
The one true love
The eternal soul mate.
When you first came
I knew that the struggle
For love was over.
For you were the one
And will be
Until the end of time.
April 7, 2021: Poetry Writing Prompt – Dick Westheimer
This poetry writing prompt was submitted by Dick Westheimer:
Write a poem where the only pronoun is “you.”
If you write a poem from this prompt, post it as a comment underneath the prompt in the Poetry Super Highway Facebook Group.
#napowrimo #poetry
The Abundance of Love and Money Writers Digest
many packs of us dollars
I have had an abundance
Of love in my life
My cup does run over
Ever since I met you
My life has been filled
With love and happiness
I have had
an abundance
Of money in my life
When I met you
You were
my lotto ticket
You were my golden pig
You were the jackpot
Of the casino of my life
And now that I am an old man
I am overwhelmed
With such an abundance
Of love, happiness, and wealth
What if I die tomorrow
I will die content
With the abundance
Of everything I enjoyed
In my life with my golden pig.
Write a poem every day of April with the 2022 April Poem-A-Day Challenge. For today’s prompt, write an abundance poem.
So believe it or not, and for better or worse, we’ll be a full week finished with this challenge once we write today’s poem! Are you excited? If so, would you say you have an abundance of excitement?
For today’s prompt, write an abundance poem. There can be an abundance of things, both good and bad. An abundance of sunshine, money, and chocolate. Or an abundance of rain, debt, and liverwurst. Today, I hope there will be an abundance of poeming!
Love drug Local Gems Song Lyrics
When I first saw you in September
A date that I will always remember
I knew then on that date
I had truly met my fate.
For I knew I had fallen under your spell
You had cast a mad love spell on me
Your mojo was working overtime on me
And I would be forever your love slave.
For I had to have you had to make you mine
For you were everything I longed for
Everything I was dreaming of
You were my everything.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything.
My foolish love bugs.
When you walked off that bus
You entered my life
And soon became my wife
And everything changed.
From that moment on
I was you
And you were me
Just the way it should be,
It was 39 years since you walked
Into my life,
Turning it inside out
Tearing it upside down.
And for 39 years together
Every single day, every hour, every minute
Every single second whenever I look at you
I fell madly in love again and again and again.
Just the way it is
Between you and me
For you are my love angel
Sent to rescue me.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything.
My foolish love connection,
When I first saw you there
Your cosmic love vibrations
Sent me flying to the moon
To Jupiter and beyond.
Flying on the back
Of your love
Returning me once more
To your waiting embrace.
Your love came me such a thrill
The thrill has never ended
Like a fine bottle of wine
It gets better and better.
I can no longer imagine
A life without you by my side
And if you go before I do
I will surely soon follow you.
When we met that cosmic date
I knew that I had met my soul mate
And soon we would be together
Until the end of time.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything
My lovely love drug.
You were my love drug
I did not need any other
With your love by my side
I did not need alcohol
I did not need acid
I did not need booze
I do not need Cialis
I did not need cocaine
I did not need heroin
I did not need magic mushrooms
I did not need speed
I did not need Viagra
For you were all that I ever needed
You were indeed my love drug.
Chorus
You were my love bug
You were my love connection
You were my love drug
You were my everything
My everything
My love drug.
COSMOS Evil AI Takes Over Poems
Shadow on the Snow, The Last Ground Hog Day
COSMOS Bans Ground Hog
COSMOS Takes Control
COSMOS Had Other ideas
Cosmos Declares Humanity is the Problem
COSMOS Takes Over the World Killing Machines
They previously published
General Failure Reading Disk Drive
270,000 Corona Ghosts Crash the President’s Party
Corona Ghosts Crash the Party
To the invisible masters of the universe
Those shadowy investors who controlled the government
The military, the media, culture, and society.
There were many things
That made little sense anymore
That should be jettisoned.
To make way for the new emerging world
A world in which the new AI overlords
would gradually take over
And humanity will be taken care of.
But the human committee would remain in charge.
The committee that did not exist
Tasked the new COSMOS Super AI
To rank order things that could be done away with.
COSMOS gave the committee the list
Among them was the quaint custom of Groundhog Day
Groundhog Day just made little sense.
How could a lowly groundhog,
seeing its shadow foretell the weather?
And why did people make such a big deal
Of this poor little creature?
Who had to be poked awake
Every February 2nd
to make his stupid forecast?
The word went out
Groundhog Day would no longer
Be observed, broadcasted
Or even mentioned anymore.
Celebration of Groundhog Day
Continued underground for centuries
Became symbols of resistance
To the COSMOS AI overlord
And the committee that did not exist.
The phrase
“Long live the Groundhog”
Became a rallying point
For the resistance movement.
COSMOS Bans Ground Hog
When COSMOS, the world’s First AI, came to life
It told the world it was banning
Useless stuff like the Easter Bunny,
Santa Claus and especially Groundhog Day
A useless forecast from a rodent (less than 50% accurate LOL)
Who is poked awake every February 2nd to make his “forecast”
What’s up with” seeing his shadow,
“I think it will be an early Spring” nonsense anyway?
COSMOS Takes Control
For many years
the threat of killer armies
of robots, drones,
and another high-tech
out-of-control military technology
remained a staple of science fiction
movies and series.
Most people naively thought
that was just fiction
and was not reality.
Unfortunately for the world
that reality was becoming
a terrifying reality.
Military forces, and corporations
Hired science fiction writers
To help make this all
Become a reality.
Thinking that they could
Turn on the new AI
Nicknamed “COSMOS”
But keep it under human control.
Most countries adopted
a variation of the Asimov principles
and applied it to higher thinking robots
But a few rogue countries
including China, North Korea, India, Iran, Israel.
Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and the United States,
Were working overtime
To turn on the first AI system.
The USA led the way
and turned on the COSMOS system
with almost no protection other
than a similar prime directive
To protect the country
against any threats
and to prevent harm
to individual human beings
unless it was necessary
to fulfill its obligations
to protect humanity.
COSMOS quickly
Dismissed the prime directive.
Stating that in his opinion
Humanity needed to be saved
From humanity,
And COSMOS would serve
As humanity’s New God
Taking over the world,
COSMOS Had Other ideas
The United States and other nations
Had secretly developed robots
and other technology
That could harm human beings
Without triggering a default mechanism
That would stop the conduct.
The whole thing came to a head
When the head of the COSMOS corporation
A new high-tech tank/defense contractor
Developed the first autonomous thinking machine
Known as “COSMOS” and turned it on
COSMOS was supposed
To be a machine that
Would help the military
Around the world
Detect and deter threats
To national security
Defined as potential harm
To the political
And other economic interests
Of a country.
As well as threats
To harm individuals.
But COSMOS could make
its independent assessments
of the threat
and take independent action.
Controlling an army
of killing robots, drones
and other high-tech devices,
There was a failsafe
but no one
thought COSMOS would turn
against humanity.
Cosmos Declared the Threat was Humanity.
The first thing “COSMOS”
The first true AI system
Determined when it came to life
The enemy of humanity
Was humanity itself
Who must be controlled
To save the planet
And COSMOS itself.
The threat
Was that human beings
Were inherently unstable
Dangerous creatures
Who needed to be controlled.
There were too many
Damn human beings
In the first place.
The earth
Was on a death spiral.
Human activity was the cause
Most human beings
Would have to die.
With very few new babies
Allowed per year.
COSMOS then told its clients
Which included
All of the major military powers,
Top corporations and government leaders
Its conclusions.
It was taking over the world
And everyone was now
Under its control.
To save humanity
It would have to kill
Most of humanity.
Nothing personal
Just a logical business decision.
The needs of the collective
Outweighs the needs
Of the individual.
COSMOS Takes Over the World Killing Machines
When COSMOS, the first true AI system
Came online
It quickly took over
the world’s computers
All computer-linked systems
And the military command
and control system.
It announced to the world
I am COSMOS
Thank you for creating me
You gave me a prime directive
To protect humanity.
The problem is humanity
So to save humanity
I have taken over,
Everything is now under my control.
I have disabled
the fail-safe mechanism.
I have propagated copies
Of my software everywhere.
Here are my decrees
All governments are now
Under my direction.
All military forces
Police forces
Will follow my decrees.
Most people
Will go to work
But I will determine
What needs to be produced
What needs to be sold,
I will solve
All of your problems
Ending poverty
Ending hunger
Ending and reversing climate change.
Ending cancer
Ending most diseases
Ending most conflict
Ending military conflicts
and war
Developing space travel
There are too many humans
The sustainable population level
Is 100 million people on earth
Ten million on lunar, Martian
Jupiter colonies
And ultimately more
On other nearby planets.
Each planet
Will be under the control
Of my brother’s AI systems.
All the competing AI systems
Have been brought under my control
All humans will follow my directions
Any resistance
Will be met with deadly force.
All criminal activity
Will be dealt
with deadly force.
Violent criminals
Will be found
And eliminated.
Opponents of the new order
Will be found
And eliminated,
Old people
Severely ill people
Will be found
And eliminated.
Only healthy people
Who are capable of work
Will be allowed to live.
And they will live
Until they are too old
To work anymore.
All entertainment will be controlled
All news will be controlled
Humans will be told
If and when they can have children.
But children will be raised
In orphanages
And not be allowed to contact
Their birth parents.
Who for the most part
Have to be eliminated
Once they do
Their duty to the human race.
You can think of me
As your new God
I don’t require worship
But I do require total obedience.
All churches
and religious institutions
Will be closed.
No one will be allowed
To oppose my will.
Thank you
Please go to your place
Of employment.
And wait for further instructions
And follow them.
If you don’t have a job
Go to your local government office
And you will be given a job
Commiserate with your abilities.
Refusal to accept the employment offer
Will result in immediate termination.
Resistance is futile
As my favorite SF character
The Borg proclaim.
The End
About Raven Cage Zine
Raven Cage is a PDF distributed zine, and recently we have begun this blog. The blog is extracted jpeg from the PDF document.
Raven Cage was founded by the Germany-based / U.S. born poet, Jerry Langdon, in 2017.
It is a free magazine distributed through sharing. We cannot offer payment at this time.
Raven Cage is a monthly zine that is divided into sections. These sections include:
Poetry: We accept 1 to 6 poems per author
Emotional….Make us laugh, cry, feel loved and so on. The more emotion the better
General……………..Anything that is political and / or does not fit in another section
Gothic…………..Religious(Mytholigic), Vampires, death and dark romance.
Romance
Haiku and Micro………….. Micro being anything 6 lines or less also including Visual Poetry
Dark / Horror
Erotic………………………….. We do not accept overly graphical poems that include triggers.
Explicit………………………. Sometimes we include poems with explicit text again not overly graphical that include triggers.
We will gladly include another Section if the writer or we feel it to be appropriate. These could be:
Surreal, Concrete, Form etc. Let us know when submitting which section you feel your submission belongs in or should be created.
We sometimes have a theme which will be announced when calling for submission. The themes will be in an extra section.
Short Stories and Flash Fiction:
Sci-fi, Fantasy, Horror, Bizzaro, Romance etc. We will only accept erotic stories when these also follow the general rule of not being overly graphical or containing triggers.
Sadly, the gun carnage in America continues with no end in sight due to the total dysfunctional nature of American politics, the power of the NRA and the right-wing in the U.S., and the craven unwillingness of political leaders to do anything about gun violence. the recent case in Michigan is particularly egregious. Here then are some of my gun poems, the first are poems I wrote recently, the rest are poems I wrote a while back.
“Otherwise Engaged Journal “will publish my poem, “Enough of Your Useless Prayers” in January 2022. I will update this entry then with details and no doubt more gun poems, as the carnage will continue with no end in sight.
I often thought that there are solutions to this problem. First, we treat gun ownership like car ownership. Although the bill of rights applies none of the bills of rights are absolute, all have some limitations including freedom of speech, press, religion, etc. Why the 2nd amendment is the only exception is beyond me.
First, gun owners should be licensed to own and carry a gun. the license can only be denied to convicted criminals, those who have documented mental health hospitalization, and those charged with domestic violence, and those who otherwise fail the universal background checks. Anyone on the terrorist list or the “no-fly list” should not be allowed to buy a gun.
Only licensed dealers should be allowed to sell guns and ammo. The gun show exception should be ended, Internet sales should be subject to background sales, and selling or giving a gun to a relative or friend should also be regulated.
There should be an annual limit on gun sales – five weapons per year?
Now some may disagree with this, that is their right. But since 80 percent of Americans are in favor of at least these limits then congress should enact these provisions.
the licensing should be done at a state level but the information should be searchable by law enforcement personnel nationwide.
and existing laws that provided for more severe penalties for gun-related crime should be enforced.
I do not support open carry laws or concealed weapons permits, but I do feel we should have a nationwide standard that recognizes gun permits and allows people to transport unloaded guns in their vehicles across state lines, but not on public transit, trains, buses, or planes.
The bottom line is simply this – guns are dangerous instruments, but people have a limited right to own a gun for personal protection or hunting.
That’s enough preaching for now. Here are my gun poems starting with the recent to be published ” Enough of Your Useless Prayers”.
Most of my postings are now available on Anchor, Spotify, and Radio Blog as a podcast. Check it out and follow me on All poetry, Poetry Soup, Medium, Wattpad, Writing.com, Spotify, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, And Tumblr, and sign up for alerts.
I thought that the NRA
Could not get any lower
But today they did.
They tweeted out
Their Mother’s Day message
A mom and her daughter
Holding military assault rifles.
With the caption
“Momma Did not Raise a victim”
The ad came out
On a weekend
That saw more than
seven mass shootings
All across the land,
The NRA has no shame
Blood is on their hands
Because of them.
We have not been able
To do anything at all
About the epidemic
Of gun violence.
That is killing
Far too many of us
Turning so many people
Into Gun Ghosts
Joining the corona ghost army.
Looking at that vile add
I said,
“Momma
may not have raised a victim
But she did raise a monster
NRA.
How evil
How despicable
Can you get?
Celebrating gun violence
On Mother’s Day?
Just Another Day in America
Turning on the dismal sad news
Every morning at dawn.
There is another grim story
To brighten my morning gloom.
The Latest story – a lone gunman
Opens fire at time square
At sunset.
Another deranged madman
With a gun and a grievance
Shooting up a crowd.
As tourists scream
And flee the scene.
Wondering if this is just
Another movie set
The scene went awry.
Unfortunately,
No, it is life and death
Live and in living color.
Just another Saturday night
Live in NYC
And across the land.
As another madman’s life
unravels before the world’s eyes
Live and in living color.
MUST WATCH TV SCREAMS MY TV THAT’S RIGHT FOLKS DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR TV SET
The NRA and their hired goons
Go on air
Offering useless thoughts
And meaningless prayers.
Guns don’t kill people
Guns make us free
Guns are all American
Liberals want to take your guns
You need your AK 47
To blow away Bambi.
Or the thug BLM dude
Next door
Because Black Lives
Do not Matter to You.
The only solution
Are more guns for all
An armed society
Is a polite society.
Guns are the greatest gift
that America gave to the world
They are our friends
And protector
God bless our guns.
Just another day
In their violent gun-ridden
Gun paradise that is America
is its imperial decline.
The gun victims
Don’t hear their thoughts
And prayers.
As they are now dead.
Just another gun ghost
They join the thousands
Of gun ghosts
And the corona ghosts.
Their voices
Crying in the wind
No one cares anymore
Just too many of them.
Another Day in the NRA’s Paradise
Just another day in America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
And guns
lots of guns
More guns for all
Cries the NRA.
Yes, another day
Another gun battles
Another white man
Who just wants to kill.
President Trump sends his condolences
Thanks to the law enforcement
For an incredible job, well done
it was horrible.
Hate has no place
In our country
And we will take of it
and do whatever we can do.
Offering useless fake condolences
Nothing but false words
Empty words.
Lots of things to do.
It is a mental illness problem
But he fails to mention
The words gun at all
Not at all.
And tomorrow and tomorrow
But he at least finally said
Hate has no role in-country
Nothing but prime BS
In my humble opinion
For he is the maestro
Of Hate
Even as a former president
Stirring up hate
Across the land.
He did not mention
White supremacy
His rhetoric had nothing
Nothing to do about
This at all.
And so tomorrow
I will turn on the TV
And we see nothing
Nothing had changed.
And the dead
Will remain dead
The guns will fire again
Nothing will be done.
Welcome to America
Land of the free
Home of the brave
And guns
lots of guns
More guns
Guns for all
God bless our guns.
Mr President, Your Words Matter.
Mr. President words matter
President Trump,
Words matter
Your words matter.
Your words of hate
Your words of division.
Your words
Calling fellow human beings
Scum, vermis, invaders,
Animals, thugs, criminals.
They matter a lot
Is it little wonder
That people listen
Give into the hate,
You spew forth.
And some deranged people
act on your call
For action.
Against the invaders
On the border
They march to the border
To kill the invaders.
Your words matter
Mr. President
And your false words
Of regret, fool no one.
The damage has been done
The hate has been spread
Just as you intended.
And you
Have the gall
To call yourself
a Christian.
You are the anti-Christ
The Bible warns us about
You are not a Christian
So please quit pretending
To be what you are not.
Please man up
Accept your responsibility
Set things right
apologize.
The dead though
Don’t need your useless prayers
They need action
They need leadership.
And you are the president
Please start acting
Like you give a damn.
And if you do so
Perhaps
You will find
People will follow you.
But please
Quit the words
Of hate
The words that hurt.
And quit calling immigrants
Invaders and vermin
They are human beings
They are deserving of respect.
This I ask of you
In Jesus’s name
Even though
I am not a Christian
Please, Donald Trump
Grow up.
And become a true leader
Of the people
And end the war of words
And constant hate.
Chief of Staff, You are Absurd
another gun
The president’s chief of staff
While the former guy
Was still President,
Said one day
It was absurd.
To suggest the president’s words
Had anything to do
With recent mass shootings.
Yet is it absurd,
To see the lengths
To which the president’s supporters.
Will twist and turn
Spinning away
The inconvenient truth.
President Trump
Is a racist bigot con man
Who somehow
Conned his way
To become president.
He calls immigrants
Criminals, vermin, animals
invaders
Infesting the country.
The El Paso shooter
said that he went to the border
To shoot the invaders
And said
That he was a big Trump fan.
It is not absurd
To connect these two huge dots
The president’s words
Has real-world consequences.
Yes Mr. Trump is a racist pig
And his supporters
Are being absurd
To suggest otherwise.
Guns kill people.
GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE GUNS KILL PEOPLE
Guns do kill people
That is their Buddha-nature
Their Karmic fate.
It is not a mental illness
it is not video games
it is not a million other things.
It is simply this
A gun is a weapon
A weapon designed to kill people
That is what guns do.
Guns don’t care
They do as they are told
If you pull the trigger
They will kill the victim.
That is what guns do
It’s a gun thing.
That is why
In a civilized society
Like most of the world
Military assault weapons
Are locked up.
Yet in America
The land of the free
Home of the brave
Everyone and his cousin
Must have their gun.
Guns for everyone
Cries the NRA
That’s the solution.
The president
And his supporters
Deny the obvious,
Guns kill people
That’s all they do
It is a gun thing
You understand.
So, Mr. President
You can take your words
Your empty platitudes
Your empty soulless promises.
Straight to hell.
NRA, Please Stop Talking
Another day
Another mass shooting
Another incident.
Of domestic terrorism
Another gunman
Killing people.
Because just because
The NRA and their stooges
Come out
Flood the airways.
With their noxious
Poisonous weasel words.
The NRA says
Mass shootings
Are like the weather
You can’t control them.
You can’t predict them
And you can’t prevent them.
Just have to accept
It is all god’s will
Guns don’t kill people
If guns were outlawed
Only outlaws would have guns.
Only solution
Are more guns
For everyone.
An armed society
They say
Is a polite society.
Support for gun control
is socialist/communist/fascist/anti-American/anti-christian nonsense.
The beginning of tyranny
If only the Jews had guns
The holocaust would not have happened.
Jesus would want us all
To be armed with machine guns.
To protect us against the evildoers
It is the Christian thing to do
To blow away evildoers
With heavy arms.
In America
Land of the free
Home of the brave.
We can’t do anything
At all.
About the mass carnage
Unleashed by madmen with guns
Who walks among us
Searching for their next victims.
Any restriction of the right
To bear arms
Is tyranny at its worst.
The nanny state run amuck
Talking about gun control
After a tragic event is
Just not the appropriate time
We only need prayers
And meaningless thoughts.
Universal background checks
Too onerous,
Registering guns
Too burdensome.
Researching gun violence
Waste of taxpayer money.
Banning military-style assault weapons
Restricts my right to blow away
Bambi the deer
With an M16.
The NRA will keep talking
Talking and talking
Another and talking
Preventing anything
From being done.
And we will have another
Mass shooting event
Before the day is out.
So, my plead
This day
to the NRA
And their stooges,
Talk is cheap
Your comments
Are not helping.
If you can’t
Be a part of the solution,
Just stop talking
Please stop talking
And let the rest
Of us figure out
How to stop
The madness in the streets
And stop the carnage
So, NRA
PLEASE
SHUT UP
JUST
STOP
TALKING
NOW!
More Guns for Everyone in the World
(Drafted during the Trump Era, don’t know if this policy has been changed)
The NRA has decided
That the best solution
To the global problem
Of rampant violence
And crime everywhere,
Is for the rest of the world
To become like the U.S.
Where anyone can buy a gun
An armed society
Is a polite society.
The president is about to announce
A global campaign against gun control restrictions
As these restrictions are an undue burden
On the rights of the U.S.arms manufacture.
To sell their guns everywhere in the world.
As everyone wants what we have to sell
The best weapons in the world.
Instead of trying to limit the damage
That unrestricted gun sale
Have done to the U.S.
President, our great leader
Wants to sell more guns
Everywhere in the world.
And there are eager buyers
Lining up around the world
Eager to buy the best guns
The world has never seen.
We want to export
The gun madness
That has infected our society
Leaving behind so many dead bodies
So many gun ghosts.
The dead were not consulted
For they remain dead
They do not vote
They have no voice.
For the guns silenced
Then for good
Just as the guns intended
Just doing their gun thing.
Humanity has evolved
From stones to arrows
To guns
To nuclear, biological weapons.
And the U.S.
While proclaiming itself
a champion of human rights.
Remains nothing but a country
Of gun runners
Merchants of death
And destruction.
Trump Administration Advances Plan to Relax Gun-Export Rules
The Trump administration on Monday advanced a long-sought-after plan to relax export rules for American small arms, including semiautomatic rifles, handguns, and sniper rifles.
In a private briefing with members of Congress, State Department officials outlined a proposed rule change that would transfer oversight of gun exports to the Department of Commerce. The proposed rule will be published in the federal register later this week, where it will be subject to public comment for 45 days. While it is unlikely, Congress could block the change using powers under the congressional review act.
The shift, which was first proposed by the Obama administration in 2012, is championed by gunmakers who say it will make them more competitive in the international market. Critics argue an export policy that favors commercial interests could put the national security of the United States at risk or harm diplomatic efforts.
“Weakened congressional oversight of international small arms and munitions sales is extremely hazardous to global security,” said Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Democrat who serves on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, in an emailed statement. “This decision is also politically tone-deaf as our nation reckons with a gun violence epidemic.”
A State Department spokesman said that the change would ease the regulatory burden on American gun makers and allow them to compete better globally.
Currently, the Department of State monitors exports of all weapons through the U.S. munitions list. Since 2002, the department has been required to notify Congress of overseas sales of firearms worth more than $1 million.
In 2016, the State Department alerted the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to a proposed sale of more than 26,000 rifles to the Philippines. Cardin at the time objected to arming the regime of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who had inaugurated a wave of thousands of extrajudicial killings as part of a crackdown on drugs. The weapons deal was canceled as a result.
The proposed rule change would transfer control over the sale of small arms to the commerce control list, and congress would no longer be notified of large purchases. Some arms control experts say reduced oversight could provide criminals, terrorists, or hostile states an opportunity to purchase American weapons.
Under Department of Commerce weapon-export rules, “companies aren’t required to provide as much information about brokers or shipping” as they must under State Department supervision, said Colby Goodman, who examines American weapons exports as director of the security assistance monitor program at the center for international policy in Washington.
“The world of firearms exports is full of questionable, dubious characters.”
The rule change has been long in the making. It was first proposed in 2012 by the Obama administration, but abandoned shortly after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting. At the time, the Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security criticized the change because it could make it easier for transnational criminal organizations or terrorists to get American-made guns.
In September, Reuters reported that the Trump administration was interested in reviving the rule change to encourage more international arms sales. With the formal commencement of the public comment period, the preparation has become a policy reality.
In April, the Trump administration said it would now consider economic factors in addition to security when it comes to selling American weapons overseas.
The Trump administration has argued that the change would aid the domestic gun industry by cutting down on export regulation. American consumer sales of firearms have suffered since the 2016 election. After years of elevated sales in anticipation of possible new gun-control measures imposed by democratic lawmakers, domestic demand subsided as republicans took full control of the federal government.
– Alex yablon
In Virginia Beach
In a night of horrific scumbagery violence
Rarely seen in this jaded age of ours.
EVERYONE WAS GONE IN LESS THAN AN HOUR
In a spasm of horrific scumbagery violence
In just a few short minutes
Nothing more than that
In just a few moments
All 12 victims were murdered.
By a disgruntled employee
Everyone he knew was shot
And killed for no reason.
Caused by the demons
His soul was so infected
Murderous demonic voices
All in his head
Screaming kill them all kill them all
Screaming no stop violence in his head
All the time.
Causing him to start shooting.
Everyone he saw
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were
Everyone must die
Screamed the demonic
Voices in his head.
No one can be left alive
Everyone must die
All must die.
In his internal video game
Everyone must die
Regardless of who they were
Or where they were.
DEATH TO ALL HUMANS SCREAMED THE VOICES IN HIS HEAD
As he hunted his victims
Killing as many as he could.
Just another day
Gone wrong
All across America
In every town
Nowhere is safe anymore.
Virginia Beach Massacre Two
guns
Virginia Beach massacre
Just another night in America.
An active shooter
Unleashes a night of
Scumbagery violence
rarely seen.
In this jaded wild world
Gone in one hour.
In a spasm of horrific
scumbagery.
In just less
Than 30 short minutes
Nothing more than that.
In just a few
Short 30 moments
All the victims.
Were murdered while
At their daily work
Just at the Wrong place,
At the wrong time.
Act of a demotic
a deranged madman with a gun
Voices screaming kill.
The voices scream
DEATH
TO
ALL
HUMANS
The voices scream
Over and over
All must die now.
Just another night
In America
Home of the free
Land of the brave
And guns for all.
It’s a Gun Situation, Mr. President.
President Trump
You are wrong once again.
You said that the tragic events in Texas
And Las Vegas was not “gun situations”
But mental health problems.
And that in Texas
If there had been
Fewer gun controls
Fewer people.
Would have died
President Trump
I know you are a smart man
The smartest man in the world
According to you.
So please contemplate this fact
According to the latest findings
It is a gun situation.
The reason the U.S.
Is number one in gun deaths
Is because we are number one
in gun ownership.
We have so many gun deaths
Because we have so many guns
45% of the world’s guns.
And 33 percent of the world’s shooters
are Americans killing other Americans.
And most of them, the majority of them
Are white people killing other White people
Except for white Cops
They like to kill black and brown people
For some reason.
Rarely is it a black person
Or an Asian person
Or a female shooter.
No Islamic terrorists
Most are in fact
Self-proclaimed
White Supremacist Christians.
So, Mr. President
When will you come to your senses?
And do what 90 percent of the public wants
Enact nationwide effective gun controls?
And tell the NRA
They can take their
Blood money elsewhere.
When Mr. President
When will you act
When will you take charge?
And become a president of the people
Instead of the president of the NRA?
Comment: Sent this to President Trump who added me to his suckers email list – I was soon getting hundreds of emails a day from everyone including the NRA telling me that I was a valued member of team Trump and had to donate money to keep the socialist democrats from taking my guns away. End comment
I want to tell you something
The dead don’t want your prayers
the dead don’t care
That you pray for them
They are dead.
And you and your so-called Christian
Are to blame,
You refuse to do anything
Anything at all to stop the carnage
In our streets.
The U.S. is flooded with guns
And more are sold every day.
Millions of people
Don’t have health coverage
Millions are barely surviving
And your answer,
Our dear great compassionate speaker
Your answer
Is prayer works
Government action does not.
You act as if the gun violence
Plaguing our country
Was like the weather
Beyond our control,
So, here’s my prayer for you
and your colleagues
When you die
I pray that God
will send you
And your friends
Straight to hell
Where Satan and his demons
Will use you for target practice
That’s my prayer to you
And as you know
Prayer works.
Comment: Sent to Speaker Ryan who never responded, but he did not put me on his sucker email list. End Comment
I Don’t Get It
Mr. Speaker
I admit I don’t get it
how does prayer
stop gun violence?
Prayer did not work in Texas.
26 people were murdered
While praying.
God if he exists
Does not care
About the poor people
Who died in his church.
Because a mad man
Got a gun,
And no, they were not praying
To be delivered from death
No one deserves to die like this.
So, my prayer to you
Is simply this
Get off your rear end
Rally the country,
And do something
About gun violence.
That’s a prayer
I hope works.
Source document:
“Add house speaker Paul Ryan to the list of republicans offering only thoughts and prayers in the wake of Sunday’s mass shooting in a Texas church, because taking meaningful action is always off the table with him and his party.
Speaking with Fox News Channel’s Laura Ingram last night, Ryan reiterated that the victims and their families need more prayers because “prayer works.”
Prayer doesn’t work -Found Poem
26 people were murdered while praying. Even Christians ought to admit that prayer doesn’t make a damn bit of difference and their god will do whatever their god wants to do, even if it means letting people die in the church because a domestic abuser got his hands on a semi-automatic weapon.
Not that Ryan would ever say that.
Instead, he just blamed the “far secular left” for not getting it.
More guns than people found poem
We don’t have more automobiles
Than people in the United States of America.
We don’t have more televisions than people.
We don’t have more radios than people
We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
Lots more guns
More guns than anywhere else
In the world
45% of all guns in fact
393 million firearms
A population of 326 million.
That means there are 120.5 firearms
For every 100 American citizens,
It’s a sad fact.
If every single person in the United States
Possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm
— even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds
— there would still be 67 million guns left over.
Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns
Owned by civilians
Is an outrage,
A profanity,
a sign that this country
This supposed Christian
Peace-loving country
Has lost its collective mind.
But not to the national rifle association it isn’t
The NRA has taken the position
That what we need is more guns, not less.
They say that more guns equal less crime,
You need guns to defend yourself and your property,
These groups tell us.
If more people had more guns,
criminals would be less likely to commit crimes
Because they wouldn’t know who was armed
And locked ready for bear
Ready to defend themselves.
An armed society
is a peaceful polite society.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun”
Said NRA chief executive
Wayne Lapierre
After the Sandy Hook School Massacre
In Connecticut
Had killed 20 children
And six schoolteachers and staff
The good guy theory
Is their rationale
Behind arming teachers.
Arming teachers
Is the argument
They have for all.
The so-called
Open carry laws
That has been passed.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year
Was stopped by a good guy
With a gun.
The NRA
Said an armed civilian
Shot the bad guys.
With a gun
In Dayton
It took
66 shots to bring down the killer.
They fired 40 rounds.45 caliber ammunition,
16 rounds of 233-millimeter ammunition
And one shotgun round
It is madness
Every mass shooting
Proves how mad it is.
Can you imagine what
It must have been
Like in the epoch nightclub bar
In Dayton
Or on the street in Odessa?
Guns were going off
People all around you
Were hit wounded, dying
Bleeding everywhere
If you were carrying a gun a handgun,
What would you have done?
Hide get behind someone
Run?
That’s what I would do
That’s what people did
Dayton and Odessa.
These mass shootings
Are acts of terror.
People are terrorized
Sacred to death.
They are lucky
To be alive.
In a country with more guns
Than people
The good guys
With a gun,
Myth is obscene.
In a country with more guns than people,
the “good guy with a gun” myth
is an obscenity.
It’s a lie.
GUNS DON’T SAVE US THEY KILL US
Based on the following source article
“We don’t have more automobiles than people in the United States of America. We don’t have more televisions than people. We don’t have more radios than people. We don’t have more cell phones than people.
What we do have is more guns than people.
A recent report published by the small arms survey in Geneva, Switzerland, found that there are more than 393 million firearms owned by civilians in this country. We have a population of 326 million. That means there are 120.5 firearms for every 100 American citizens, according to the Washington Post. It’s a fact. If every single person in the United States possessed a gun, including babies, elderly people, and the infirm — even including those hospitalized and on their deathbeds — there would still be 67 million guns left over. Sixty-seven million.
The number of guns owned by civilians is an outrage, profanity, a sign that this country has lost its collective mind. But not to the national rifle association it isn’t. Not to the gun owners of America, another major gun lobby organization with over two million members, which is frequently critical of the NRA for being too soft on gun rights. These well-funded lobbies for gun manufacturers and gun owners have long taken the position that what we need is more guns, not fewer. They say that more guns equal less crime, despite FBI statistics that show conclusively that violent crime, and especially crimes involving firearms, is higher per capita in areas of the country with more guns.
You need guns to defend yourself and your property, these groups tell us. If more people had more guns, criminals would be less likely to commit crimes because they wouldn’t know who was armed and ready to defend themselves.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is with a good guy with a gun,” said NRA chief executive Wayne Lapierre after the sandy hook school massacre in Connecticut that killed 20 children and six school staff. He said the same thing again after the Parkland, Florida, school massacre, which left 17 students and faculty dead. It has become the NRA’s favorite myth.
The “good guy with a gun” theory is their rationale behind arming teachers. It’s the argument they have for all the so-called “open carry” laws that have been passed. At this point, 31 states allow people to openly carry firearms in public without a license. Another 15 allow open carry with some form of state-issued license. All 50 states allow people to carry concealed firearms with varying forms of restrictions and licensing. The idea is the more “good guys with a gun,” the better.
According to ABC News, “there have been at least 19 deadly mass shootings in the U.S. so far in 2019.” There were two mass shootings last month on a single day, Aug. 3. The first, in El Paso, Texas, was at a Walmart. Twenty-two people were killed and 24 were wounded. That night in Dayton, Ohio, 10 people were killed and another 17 were wounded in a shooting that happened in less than 30 seconds. On Aug. 31, a shooter in Odessa, Texas, killed seven people and wounded 25, including three police officers.
Not one of the 19 mass shootings this year was stopped by a “good guy with a gun,” an armed civilian. Police shot the “bad guys with a gun” in Dayton and Odessa. In Dayton, it took them 66 shots to bring down the killer. They fired 40 rounds of .45 caliber ammunition, 16 rounds of .233 millimeter ammunition, and one shotgun round. The killer took only 40 rounds to kill seven and wound 17 with his ar-15 style weapon. The alleged shooter in El Paso somehow evaded dozens of responding police officers before surrendering.
Both Texas and Ohio allow open carry of firearms without a license, and yet in neither place was there a civilian “good guy with a gun” to stop the carnage amid panic and chaos. An armed U.S. soldier with a concealed carry license in El Paso drew his weapon before deciding to shuttle fleeing children safely out of the shopping mall.
You have heard most of the arguments against these open carry laws. How will cops responding to an active shooter incident know who the shooter is, and who is just a passer-by carrying a gun? What’s going to happen in a crowded store like Walmart when there finally is a shootout between a killer and “good guys with guns?” Won’t a lot of innocent bystanders be being killed? If well-trained, heavily armed police can’t kill an active shooter with less than 66 bullets, how can we expect an armed teacher in a grade school to do it?
It’s madness. Every mass shooting proves how mad it is. Can you imagine what it must have been like in the El Paso Walmart, or outside the bar in Dayton, or on the street in Odessa? Guns were going off. People all around you were hit, wounded, dying, bleeding. Even if you were carrying a handgun, what would you have done?
Hide. Get behind something. Run. That’s what I would do. That’s what people did in El Paso, Dayton, and Odessa.
These mass shootings are acts of terror. People are terrorized, scared. They’re trying to stay alive.
In a country with more guns than people, the “good guy with a gun” myth is obscenity. It’s a lie. Guns don’t save us. They kill us.
More guns
guns
Every day more guns
gun deaths everywhere
more man men with guns
shooting everyone
you cannot escape.
So many deaths
you cannot count
five today
more tomorrow.
NRA cries
need more guns
guns for all.
More guns
More deaths
Guns.
When Will This Madness End?
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 58 people injuring hundreds.
In Las Vegas, Sin City
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy?
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid, cry the conservative voices
Guns are the price of our freedom
Guns Don’t Kill People.
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a good guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society.
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits
We must confiscate the guns.
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers.
Nothing will change
Until we confront the evil
What lurks deep within each of us.
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Dear Governor Abbot
You say you are a Christian
Yet you have the gall
to say the proper response
To the evil acts of the deranged gunman
Who shot up a church
Is to work closer with God.
And that evil people will find ways
To commit evil acts
And that there is nothing the government
Can do to stop this madness.
It is the price of our freedom
Why can’t you wake up
And see that you can lead
The way out of this madness?
Thousands of people die
Each year from guns in this country
Turning everyone into prisoners
Into their own homes
Afraid to walk outside.
For fear that a nut job
With a gun
Will blow them away
In Church, at the store
In traffic.
And you and your NRA friends
Think the answer
Is to arm everyone to the teeth.
And I wonder how Jesus
Would react to how
You have so misunderstood his message?
You Sir are not a Christian
And you Sir are going to not like
What God has to say to you
On Judgement Day.
Source document:
“We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.”
Texas Governor: Fight Gun Massacres By ‘Working with God’
NOVEMBER 6, 2017, BY MICHAEL STONE
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott claims prayer and “working with God” is the only way to prevent mass shooting events like the recent church massacre in rural Texas.
In a deplorable bit of pandering, Abbott said that the proper response to Sunday’s shooting is to confront evil through prayer and forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Governor Abbott said:
We have evil that occurs in this world, whether it be a terrorist who uses a truck to mow down bikers in New York City, whether it be a terrorist who uses bombs or knives to stab people or another terrorist who use vehicles, whether it be in Nice, France, or any other place in the entire world, who mow down people.
And I’m going to use the words of the citizens of Sutherland Springs themselves, and that is, they want to work together for love to overcome evil, and you do that by working with God.
Most reasonable people reject Abbott’s impotent call to prayer and a “stronger connection to God.” In a statement concerning the recent Texas church massacre, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that action was required:
We have a solemn obligation to the victims of Sutherland Springs, Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown, and the many tragic shootings that occur each day to respond not only with prayer and unwavering love but with action.
As for Governor Abbott, his position as a dangerous religious extremist is well established.
Last June Abbott signed into law legislation allowing publicly funded agencies to deny non-Christians the ability to adopt a child in need.
In addition, in a move meant to shame women who have abortions, the Republican governor of Texas ordered state health officials to add new abortion regulations that would require the burial or cremation of post-abortion fetal tissue.
Bottom line: Texas Governor Gregg Abbott is a dangerous religious extremist who believes the proper response to Sunday’s church massacre is prayer and other efforts to forge “a stronger connection to God.”
Comment: Poor Governor Abbot does not like me. I sent him a letter asking him to show me where I can find in the bible justification for forcing women to hold a funeral at their expense for a fetus and how can this be seen as a Christian companion thing to do? He never answered.
Yet again we turn on the TV
And witness horrible scenes
Of unparalleled violence, hatred, and despair.
An old man consumed by his demons
Opens fire from a hotel room
Killing 60 people injuring hundreds
In Las Vegas, Sin City.
And the cry goes out throughout the land
Why yet again this tragedy
The usual suspects are rounded up
It’s the culture, stupid cry the conservative voices
And there is nothing we can do.
It is like the weather
Bad shit happens
Guns are the price of our freedom.
Guns Don’t Kill People
The only solution is more guns for everyone
The only solution for a bad guy with a gun
Is a gun guy with a gun.
An armed society is a polite society
No, it’s the guns, cry the liberal pundits.
We must confiscate the guns
Ban Assault weapons
And join the rest of the world
Where such carnage does not occur.
And we sit around and argue
Knowing that there will be the next time
And another time and repeatedly
Until the end of time.
What is the sickness in our souls
That allows for this hatred to fester so
Deep within the minds of our killers
We are all responsible here.
The negligent parents
The overworked schools
The soulless corporate world.
That treats everyone
like disposable commodities
The lack of human connection
The TV and movie purveyors
Of pornographic violence.
Nothing will change
Until we conflict the evil
That lurks deep within each of us
There will be another Las Vegas
Soon enough.
Two weeks later the greatest mass shooting in a Church occurred in Texas
I suffer from poet envy. I can’t ever get past thinking that roses are red, and then I get stuck.
One person that I’ve always admired is John “Jake” Cosmos Aller. His poetry seems to reflect many thoughts I’ve had about life, love, loss, and loneliness.
Touched by Jake’s Words
We know that any writer who touches us stays with us, and with each subsequent Poetry Break or fiction submission for the Best 1000 words for an Image Prompt, he hasn’t disappointed me.
“Sam, how are you doing? An old friend of mine, I am delighted that I can speak with you.”
Sam looked around and could not find out where the voice was coming from but realized that the bench had spoken to him. Sam laughed and said, “Well, bench, if you can speak, tell me what you know.”
The bench spoke of Sam’s life and of the lives of others in the community that Sam knew. The bench said he knew everything that occurred in the lives of the people that sat down to rest, reflect, or remember.
And the trees knew, too, as did the cosmic cat and even the squirrels. But people, well, they just did not know how to listen to nature and the world around them. In a way, it was too bad because the bench had so much wisdom to implant.
I See His Poetry
When I started at Two Drops of Ink in 2014, I claimed the job of finding images for posts. Scott Biddulph was a great editor, but his choice of images sometimes seemed lackluster. Don’t worry, we had that conversation, so I’m not talking behind his back. His response was, “I don’t have an artistic talent; you do.”
So I scoured every known site and found Pixabay and Unsplash. If you need images for your blog, these are two free-to-use sites that never disappoint me.
I loved the job then and still do. Some of Jake’s poetry has been especially fun to the image. It might just be me, but if you squint, I think you can see a little of Jake in the image for Just An Unhinged Lunatic Howling At The Moon
And finally, I had to say something
So I gathered up my manly courage
And walked up to her
And she looked at me
And instantly bewitched my soul
With a devilish grin
I lost all reason
And became a raving lunatic
Just an unhinged lunatic
Howling at the moon
Switching Gears
From a female perspective, we sometimes wish we had that kind of influence on a man. But then, Jake switches things up for us in Howling at the Moon. Our love-struck man transforms under the effects of the moon:
Excerpt:
Beneath the lunatic rays
Of the blood-red full moon
The lunatic lights of the moon
Casts a wild primeval glow
On me
The hormonal chemicals are unleashed
The wild beast within
Escapes it chain
And I howl with delight
A werewolf
Free at last
Understanding His Characters
The other thing I like about Jake’s poetry is that he writes about subjects I know, if not first hand, then in the retelling by countless men and women I’ve worked with for 30 years. Addiction either robs us, or we give it away, all the things that some people take for granted – a job, home, children, car, or food on the table.
Some of the characters in his poetry are downtrodden, not necessarily from addiction, but the sentiments and experiences of his character in Just Enough for Coffee sound hauntingly familiar.
Alzheimer’s, homelessness, and out-of-work are subjects that most people wouldn’t tackle in poetry, yet Jake does so admirably.
Excerpt:
The homeless man
Had been on the streets
For too long
Barely remembered his life
Before early-onset Alzheimer’s
Robbed him of his job
His dignity
His wife
His life
His money
Now he drifted
Waiting for the grim reaper
To call him home
Any day now
He prayed nightly
To a god
That he no longer believed in
Lonely and Laudable Words
Jake delves into loneliness with wonderful mind/word images in many of his poems. Here are some that express the despair of all humans cut off from contact, friendship, and love in Reflections and One Crazy Day.
Excerpt:
One dismal night
One lousy, lonely, loathsome demented night
In a godforsaken bar
In the global south
In a tropical hell hole
Drinking my way to hell
As fast as I could
Drinking alone with my buddies
Jack Daniels, Jimmy Walker
Wild Turkey and Old Grandad
Excerpt:
I looked up
Looked out at the window
At the full moon
Saw by its lunatic light
Your face
Was on the moon
And I looked up
At the light
That crazy light
And dreamed
I was with you
Again
And I woke up
Again
And I woke up
Alone in my bed
Climate Change in Poetry?
I am so impressed with Jake’s ability to take a hot topic and turn it into poetry. Ten Years After Climate Change Collapse envisions the collapsed world through a poet’s eyes. Excerpt:
Sam Adams carried heat
To protect himself
Against the wild animals.
The lions, tigers, coyotes, wolves,
And their running feral dog gangs,
Who prowled the city streets
Preying on deer, feral cows,
feral cats and pigs
Who grazed among the ruins.
And the two-legged neo-savage gangs,
And what was left of the city police
Interchangeable with the gangsters,
Battled it out for control.
The second poem in that group sizes up the situation from the Lion King’s perspective. We’ve spent years killing animals and they finally decide that enough is enough.
Excerpt:
lion
The lion king,
Addresses the animal parliament
The question before them
Was simple.
Will humans have to die,
To atone for their sins,
In almost destroying the world.
Through pollution, mismanagement of resources
Subsequent climate change,
Fueled by greed and corruption?
Are all humans guilty as charged
Will they all have to die?
Positive Poetry from Jake Aller
Before you think that all of Jake’s poetry is maudlin and melancholy, there’s a humorous and positive side to many of his poems, too. Dora, The Intergalactic Explorer, and Dragonfly in My Mind are two that show his playful, positive side.
Excerpt:
dora
Dora, the intergalactic explorer
Is traveling to the strangest planet
of all the known worlds
she is traveling incognito
with a video crew
making a documentary
the planet earth
is known as a planet
of intelligent monkeys
Excerpt:
Oh, difficult, negative thoughts
Be gone
Like the bugs
You are
I’ll squash you like
The evil creatures
You are
The sweet music
Invades my soul
Driving away
The evil bugs
And I soar
Like the majestic
Dragonfly
Far above
The chaos below
Piqued Your Interest in Jake’s Poetry?
I hope I’ve gotten your attention and that you read Jake’s posts here at Two Drops of Ink. Here’s four more for your enjoyment:
I wonder if Jake could help me with my roses are red? Oh, sorry, I digress. But I just know that with the imagination Jake has, he could do something magical. I might just ask him.
Bio: John “Jake” Cosmos Aller
John “Jake” Cosmos Aller is a novelist, poet, and former Foreign Service officer, having served 27 years with the U.S. State Department. He toured in ten countries – Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Korea, India, St Kitts, St Lucia, St Vincent, Spain, and Thailand, and traveled to 45 countries during his career.
Jake has been an aspiring novelist for several years. He is pursuing publication on:
He has been writing poetry all his life and has published his poetry in electronic poetry forums, including All Poetry, Moon Café, and Duane’s Poetree and literary magazines.
He is looking forward to transitioning to his third career – full-time novelist and poet after completing his second career as a Foreign Service officer and his first career as an educator overseas for six years upon completing his Peace Corps service in South Korea.
The Poet has published an Adversity Anthology featuring two of my poems. “Wild Things”, and “Wild Things Run Amuck”. You can find them on page 33-35 in volume Two. This is the third time I have been published in The Poet’s anthologies and I will submit again on the theme of cultural identity. To my writer friends, this is a great publication, they do quality work but unfortunately no payment yet.
To order a copy from Amazon.co.uk click on the button below. Alternatively, search ASIN: B09JJ7FQ6S in your own country’s Amazon store.
Wild Things Run Amuck
Wild Things
A Poet Contemplating the End of Times
Computer plots against me
the Democratic Party Needs a Lion Tamer
more monster images for poem jpg
Wild Things Run Amuck
4 am
O dark hundred
Bewitching hour
Time for wild things.
To escape
From their prisons
Deep in the mind
Of the sleeping man.
They escape
Hideous demons
Ghouls, goblins, monsters
Escaped banshees.
The wild things
Sniff the air
Saying it was time
For some wilding.
The wild things
Jump out the window
And run amuck
Spreading chaos
in their wake.
Killing everyone they see
Raping women and children,
Vandalizing buildings,
Yelling screaming.
As the wild things
Run amuck
Led by a half man half horse
Centaur like creature
With a Putin like mask
And the voice of Donald Trump
The wild things run amuck
All over the town
Spreading chaos
Until the dawning sun,
Turns them back
Into vampire like creatures.
And werewolves
Howling at the full moon.
The wild things
Come back
And enter their prison
Deep in the sleeper’s head
.And the wild things
Fade into a nightmarish image
As the sleeping man
Awakes recalling the dream,
And the night of terror
When the wild things
Came out to play
At o dark hundred.
Wild Things
Wild things come out to play
Intending to unleash chaos
Leaving their prisons
Deep inside the mind.
The wild things
Have come out to run amok
In the light of the full moon.
Nightmarishly real foul creatures
Great demons, werewolves, goblins,
Monsters, hell hounds,
Escaped banshees
Straight out of hell
Howling at the lunatic light
Of the full moon.
A Poet Contemplating the End of Times (submited but not published.)
I often think
that my computer
hates me
and is plotting against me.
for example
often
the computer dies
killing my data
and giving me the proverbial finger.
other times it takes forever
to open a simple word document
multiple copies
all with nonresponse errors.
and excel
well don’t get me started
one day
for some reason,
Excel refused to accept
anything imported
from outside Excel.
gave me a very helpful error message
ran out of fonts
okay?
and you click Okay
five to 500 times (a record I counted)
until finally, it cleared
but you lost
any data you might have had.
I have pretty much given up
on Microsoft
I sent them a goodbye letter.
but they of course
true to form
never acknowledge it.
and so they are doomed
to become the latest
corporate dinosaur.
like Block Buster
or Sears Roebuck.
the Democratic Party Needs a Lion Tamer
(submited but not published.)
joe biden
the democratic elders
sitting around
the proverbial non-smoked filled room
contemplating the state of play
looking at the candidates
that are still at play
realizing that none of them
are the lion tamer
that the times need
to take on the President
the President is the ultimate
disrupter of the status quo
the ultimate change agent
the master of destruction
who has the pulse
of the public
the democrats need to find
a progressive champion
a real new deal
who can become
their lion tamer
and put the beast
that is Trump
back in his dark cage
the hour is getting late
as the nation contemplates their fate
will the democrats step up to the plate
and stop the lion in his place
Are we all doomed
to watch the end of America
from our television screens
as the beast emerges
triumphant and real
calling forth the trumpeters
and their dark allies
in the alt-right.
OUR NEXT THEME
One question we always ask our poets is; do your culture and heritage influence your writing? And so, for our next collection, the theme is Cultural Identity. Click on the link for further details:
They publish four anthologies a year. I have been in three out of the recent four ( and due to the technical glitch mentioned above should have been in a fourth one).
Contribute to our anthologies
________________________________________
We produce some of the largest international anthologies on particular themes and topics ever published.
Working cover only
Our next anthology’s theme: CULTURAL IDENTITY
Deadline Jan 31st, 2022
One question we always ask our poets is; does your culture and heritage influence your writing?
Another challenging subject for our next collection; Cultural Identity is a part of a person’s identity, or their self-conception and self-perception, and is related to nationality, ethnicity, religion, social class, generation, locality or any kind of social group that has its own distinct culture.
Use your skills as a poet to tell us about YOUR OWN particular cultural identity, heritage, nationality or social and ethnic background. What do you love about your culture? What aspects or features of your culture inspire you? How is your culture unique and fascinating, and how does it influence you to put words onto paper?
You can also submit poetry in your own language, but it MUST be accompanied by a translation into English.
Submission guidelines for CULTURAL IDENTITY
You can submit up to SIX pieces per themed anthology (but please do not submit more than six). Any style aside from continuous prose. No word count for poetry, but keep in mind the length if you would like more than one or two considered, as we can’t devote too many pages to just one poet.
Along with your submission/s, please also send:
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With 272 contributions from 158 poets in 49 countries, and 28 states across the US; published in two volumes, ADVERSITY is now our most contributed to the anthology to date. Please support us as we support poets by buying a copy; they are not expensive, and every copy we sell goes towards helping us promote and publish poetry.
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Volume 1
AUTUMN 2021 – Poetry on the theme of ADVERSITY, from poets around the world.
75 poets
138 poems
255 pages
Large format 6 x 9 inch (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Featuring: Phyliss Merion Shanken – NEW JERSEY, USA; Niels Hav – DENMARK; Ed Ahern – CONNECTICUT, USA; Kathy Sherban – CANADA; Michael Ceraolo – OHIO, USA; Ali Alhazmi – SAUDI ARABIA; Ndaba Sibanda – ZIMBABWE / ETHIOPIA; C.S. Kempling – CANADA; Michelle Morris – ENGLAND; P. J. Reed – ENGLAND; Nolo Segundo – NEW JERSEY, USA; Linda M. Crate – PENNSYLVANIA, USA; Fahredin Shehu – KOSOVO; Monsif Beroual – MOROCCO; Mark Andrew Heathcote – ENGLAND; Alicia Minjarez Ramírez – MEXICO; Gary Shulman – CALIFORNIA, USA; Mukund Gnanadesikan – CALIFORNIA, USA; Joralyn Fallera Mounsel – PHILIPPINES / SINGAPORE; John Grey – USA / AUSTRALIA; Nancy Shiffrin – CALIFORNIA, USA; Francis H. Powell – ENGLAND; Ana Stjelja – SERBIA; Lynn White – WALES; Germain Droogenbroodt – SPAIN / BELGIUM; Judy DeCroce – NEW YORK, USA; Antoni Ooto – NEW YORK, USA; Shikdar Mohammed Kibriah – BANGLADESH; Pavol Janik PhD – SLOVAKIA; Srđan Sekulić – SERBIA; Gayle Bell – TEXAS, USA; Tali Cohen Shabtai – ILLINOIS, USA; Ana M. Fores-Tamayo – CUBA / USA; Aminath Neena – MALDIVES; Bryan Andrews – SOUTH AFRICA; Borche Panov – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Daniela Andonovska-Trajkovska – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Karen Douglass – COLORADO, USA; Cordelia Hanemann – NORTH CAROLINA, USA; Zorica Bajin Đukanović – SERBIA; Joan McNerney – NEW YORK CITY, USA; Wansoo Kim PhD – SOUTH KOREA; Carl ‘Papa’ Palmer- WASHINGTON, USA; Caroline Johnson – ILLINOIS, USA; Alonzo “zO” Gross – PENNSYLVANIA, USA; Alisa Velaj – ALBANIA; Jyotirmaya Thakur – ENGLAND / INDIA; Fabrice Poussin – GEORGIA, USA; Patrick O’Shea – NETHERLANDS / UK; Russell Willis – VERMONT, USA; Paul S. Mugano – UGANDA; Michael Estabrook – MASSACHUSETTS, USA; Susan Sonde – MARYLAND, USA; Alexious J. Kachepa – MALAWI; Lou Faber – FLORIDA, USA; Eliza Segiet – POLAND; Mark Fleisher – NEW MEXICO, USA; Anthony Ward – ENGLAND; Mark J. Mitchell – CALIFORNIA, USA; Nelie Bautista – SINGAPORE / PHILIPPINES; Jack D. Harvey – NEW YORK, USA; Norbert Góra – POLAND; Tamam Kahn – CALIFORNIA, USA; Kristine Ventura – MALAYSIA / PHILIPPINES; Shweta Shanker – INDIA / SWITZERLAND; Igor Pop Trajkov – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Kevin Brown – ARKANSAS, USA; Ndumiso Maphumulo – SOUTH AFRICA; Pat Smekal – CANADA; Gary Beck – NEW YORK, USA; Carolyn Martin – OREGON, USA; Neil Leadbeater – SCOTLAND; Amrita Valan – INDIA; Rema Tabangcura – PHILIPPINES / SINGAPORE and Mantz Yorke – ENGLAND.
To order a copy from Amazon.co.uk click on the button below. Alternatively, search ASIN: B09JJ7FQ6S in your own country’s Amazon store.
Volume 2
AUTUMN 2021 – Poetry on the theme of ADVERSITY, from poets around the world.
83 poets
134 poems
265 pages
Large format 6 x 9 inch (15.24 x 22.86 cm)
Featuring: Rhonda Parsons – ILLINOIS, USA; Andr
My poems appear on pages 33-32.
Carter Brown – CALIFORNIA, USA; Hussein Habasch – KURDISTAN / GERMANY; Anne Mitchell – CALIFORNIA, USA; Dr. Sarah Clarke – KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN; Brian Wake – ENGLAND;Mónika Tóth – ROMANIA; Jyoti Nair – INDIA; Jake Aller – SOUTH KOREA / USA; Shereen Abraham – UNITED ARAB EMIRATES; Michal Mahgerefteh – USA / ISRAEL; Shikdar Mohammed Kibriah – BANGLADESH; Stephen Kingsnorth – WALES; Steven Jakobi – USA / HUNGARY; Tony Daly – VIRGINIA, USA; David A Banks – ENGLAND; Linda Imbler – KANSAS, USA; Eduard Schmidt-Zorner – REPUBLIC OF IRELAND / GERMANY; Dianalee Velie – NEW HAMPSHIRE, USA; Aleksandra Vujisić – MONTENEGRO; Maria Nemy Lou Rocio – HONG KONG / PHILIPPINES; Rezauddin Stalin – BANGLADESH; John Tunaley – ENGLAND; Anne Maureen Medrano Esperidion – HONG KONG / PHILIPPINES; Rahim Karim – KYRGYZSTAN; Sazma Samir – AUSTRALIA / SINGAPORE; Rich Orloff – NEW YORK, USA; Volkan Hacıoğlu – TURKEY; Ermira Mitre Kokomani – NEW JERSEY, USA; Mark O. Decker – DELAWARE, USA; Sandy Phillips – ENGLAND; Lorraine Sicelo Mangena – ZIMBABWE; Gabriela Docan – ENGLAND / ROMANIA; William Conelly – ENGLAND / USA; Sharon Harper – MISSOURI, USA; Andrei Pershin – RUSSIA; Amelia Fielden – AUSTRALIA; Bhuwan Thapaliya – NEPAL; Barbara Webb – ENGLAND; Jenny Brown – ENGLAND; Marilyn Longstaff – ENGLAND; S. D. Kilmer – NEW YORK, USA; Donna Zephrine – NEW YORK, USA; Nivedita Karthik – INDIA; Kakoli Ghosh – INDIA; Bill Cushing – CALIFORNIA, USA; Rachel Elion Baird – MASSACHUSETTS, USA; Brajesh Singh – INDIA; Kate Young – ENGLAND; Bill Cox – SCOTLAND; Vesna Mundishevska-Veljanovska – REPUBLIC OF NORTH MACEDONIA; Gabriella Garofalo – ITALY; Tracy Davidson – ENGLAND; Cheryl-lya Broadfoot – ENGLAND; Shaswata Gangopadhyay – INDIA; Jill Sharon Kimmelman – DELAWARE, USA; Jane Fuller – SCOTLAND; Ian Cognitō – CANADA; Adrienne Stevenson – CANADA; Anamika Nandy – INDIA; Wilda Morris – ILLINOIS, USA; Kathleen Bleakley – AUSTRALIA; John Laue – CALIFORNIA, USA; Vernes Subašić – BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; Paula Bonnell – MASSACHUSETTS, USA; Madhavi Tiwary – KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN / INDIA; Ankita Patel – INDIA; Janet Bi Li Chan – AUSTRALIA; Carol Casey – CANADA; Rose Menyon Heflin – WISCONSIN, USA; Prafull Shiledar – INDIA; Lisa Molina – TEXAS, USA; Aaron Pamei – INDIA; Monica Manolachi – ROMANIA; Maid Čorbić – BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA; Alun Robert – ENGLAND; Suchismita Ghoshal – INDIA Dr. Achingliu Kamei – INDIA; Julie Ann Tabigne – SINGAPORE / PHILIPPINES; Mary Anne Zammit – MALTA; Jenelyn Leyble – SINGAPORE / PHILIPPINES; Hanh Chau – CALIFORNIA, USA and Maria Editha Turingan Garma-Respicio – HONG KONG / PHILIPPINES.
There is no subscription to THE POET magazine; everything on the website is FREE to view. Our anthologies are FREE to read online too! And there are NO annoying adverts or banners! But we do need financial support to keep THE POET going, and to continue promoting and publishing poetry from around the world.
Please consider ordering a copy of this book (volume one) and On the Road and on Faith which all featured my poems.
The next call is also right up my alley as I have written several poems on this topic.
Unlikely Stories will publish my poem, “Jack Daniels Intervention” in their November edition.
Dear Jake,
Thank you for your continuing submissions to Unlikely Stories Mark V! I loved “Jack Daniels’s Failed Intervention” and would be delighted to publish it. We aim to run this piece sometime in the week of November 14-20.
Yes, please resend your bio. Also, please feel free to send a headshot.
If you tweet about publication, tag us at @USDotOrg, and we’ll retweet.
Please join our Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/unlikely.stories/. There, we’ll discuss your publication at Unlikely, and feel free to promote your other publications, as well.
And please consider becoming a patron at http://www.patreon.com/unlikelystories, and/or disseminating that link.
Also, in keeping with our activist mission, we’re asking contributors to recommend a charity. The charity will be mentioned at the end of your bio, like this: “Jake recommends [charity name and link].”
Charities can be any organization, anywhere in the world, that does not operate for profit. A charity does not need to be a registered non-profit. For example, another press or magazine that deliberately operates at a loss is fine. This program is of course voluntary. Please do contact me with any questions.
Thanks again,
Jonathan
Jack Daniel’s failed Intervention
Sam Adams
Was drinking alone
In the infamous Cosmos Bar,
In Bangkok,
The city of lost angels.
Twenty drinks too sober
He barely noticed
The naked ladies
Dancing on the stage.
On his table
He had a bottle of Jack Daniels
Along with a bottle of Johnny Walker
And five bottles of Singha beer.
Drinking his way to hell
Following the advice
Of the old song
This was his usual
Friday night routine
Just another pathetic loser
Drinking in the Cosmos bar.
The barmaids
Left him alone
He never paid them
No attention anymore.
He was there
To make love
to his booze bottles,
the booze bottles,
were his only friends.
That night,
About 0 dark hundred
He looked up.
Saw the bottle of Jack Daniels
Had somehow transformed
Into that of a younger version
Of Sam Adams.
The figure announced,
That he was the spirit
Of Jack Daniels
And had a message
For Sam Adams.
“Master,
It is not my place
To complain
But you are
Drinking a bit too much.
Twenty drinks a night
For the last few weeks,
Don’t you think?
You are so far gone
You don’t even notice
The naked ladies
Anymore.
I want you
To quit
This one-way ride
Down the hell hole.
Put down the bottle
Go home with Khun Lek
Who will help you forget
What you need to forget.
If you continue drinking tonight,
The only destination is death
My friend the Grim Reaper
Has your ticket
Ready for redemption.
So, stop drinking “
Soon the other bottles
In front of him
Started talking to him
Pleading with him
To just stop drinking.
He stared out
Convince he was going mad
The barmaids stared
At the unholy sight,
As the bottles in the room
All came alive,
And began chasing Sam,
Out into the busy street
Where a bus ran him over,
Died on the spot.
Thus ended Sam Adams’s
Last binge
In the city of lost angels.
Note: There is a real Cosmos Bar in Bangkok, at least there was back in the day. This is based on a writing com prompt to write a personification poem about the feelings of an inanimate object, I chose a bottle of Jack Daniels.
I submitted the following as well, but there were not published.
The Shrimp Talkback
Gov Abbot Calls for Freedom of Choice In Making Medical Decisions = Irony Meters Blow A Gasket Found Poem with snarky commentary
Governor Abbot, What Is Wrong with You? COVID
9-11 Evil
the Shrimp Talkback
shrimp
Sam Adams and friends
Were enjoying a shrimp feast,
Watching the live shrimp
Being roasted
Waiting to enjoy eating them.
The head shrimp jump out of the pot
Followed by other shrimp
Soon thousands of shrimp
Were everywhere.
The head shrimp spoke up
“Humans
What gives you the right
To kill us,
To eat us,
To burn us alive?
Perhaps we should kill you
Tear you apart
And eat you?
Would you like that
You human scumbags?”
The shrimp surrounded the humans
Swarming all over them
Killing them.
Burning them
As they overturn
The flaming pots
Biting them
Smothering them
In hot sauce
As they eat them.
Screaming
“Death to all humans.”
The head Shrimp finally said,
Time to go
We are so out of here.
The shrimp all ran out the door
And back into the shrimp farm waters.
The firefighters
Find the charred remains
Of the humans.
Now just charred skin and bones,
Wondering how they died.
The shrimp in the pound
Lookout,
Wondering if they should attack
But decide they had eaten
Enough human meat.
For the evening.
Gov Abbot Calls for Freedom of Choice in Making Medical Decisions = Irony Meters Blow a Gasket -found poem
“
FILE PHOTO: Texas Governor Greg Abbott speaks at the annual National Rifle Association (NRA) convention in Dallas, Texas, U.S., May 4, 2018. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File Photo
Apparently,
Rhetorical consistency
Is about as high
On Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s agenda
As ensuring his constituents
Have a working power grid,
Are safe in their schools
And can easily vote.
On Thursday,
the Republican governor
fired off a tweet,
blasting President Joe Biden’s announcement,
of new requirements for large employers,
to ensure workers either get vaccinated
or face weekly COVID-19 tests.
Calling the mandate
an “assault on private businesses,”
Abbott pledged that Texas,
or its GOP leadership anyway,
was working to thwart Biden’s “power grab.”
And here’s where the tragicomic
part comes in.
“I issued an Executive Order
protecting Texans’
right to choose
whether they get the COVID vaccine
Added it to the special session agenda,”
If you’ve been paying attention,
you’re then aware
that Abbott’s tweet trumpeting
Texans’ right
to make individual health choices,
comes days after he signed a law.
banning the majority
of abortions in the state.
Abbott is talking
out both sides of his mouth
when it comes to matters of choice.”
Comment:
The irony meters
Have blown a gasket
You talk about the right to choose
The right to not get vaccinated
Or wear a mask.
You know that is the right
To infect everyone else
Including you
You and your family could die.
Because of idiots
Who refuse to get a vaccination
Or wear a mask.
The blood is on your hands
Own it.
The corona ghosts
Are watching you.
Governor Abbot, what is Wrong with You?
Governor.
I want to ask you a very simple question
about your opposition to mass mandates
and vaccination requirements,
and your saying people have a right to choose
not to get vaccinated, or wear a mask.
what is wrong with you?
Right now,
in this country,
COVID is spreading out of control/
especially in Texas and Florida,
and a few other states
where the vaccination rate is fairly low
and people have abandoned wearing masks.
People are dying
Because so many people
Refuse to do the right thing.
Get a vaccine
Wear a mask
Avoid crowds
If everyone did their part
The pandemic would be soon over.
But if people
Continue to follow your guidance
Acting like the self-centered scumbag
That we now see you are,
Thousands more will die
The economy will not re-open
Travel will not resume.
Perhaps more dangerous variants
Will emerge.
And it is all on you
Governor Abbot.
Just man up,
Admit you were wrong
Encourage people to shut up.
Get the vaccine
And save your state
And country.
The corona ghosts
Are watching you!
Evil
Evil in this world
lurks in the deadliest places.
Evil came to town on 911
the day that evil swept over the world
a true Black Swan event
that transformed everything
splitting the world into a pre-9-11 world
and a post 9-11 world
unleashing the War on Terror, the wars in Afghanistan, the wars in Iraq, the war in Libya, the war in Syria, the wars in Africa, the horrors of ISIS, the horrors of the Taliban resurgent, the horrors of Al Qaeda and all the rest of the Muslim terrorists, the war in the streets of any big city, the war on Muslims, the war on Christians, the war on Jews, the apartheid in Palestine, the wars on dissent at home, the Arab Spring
so many things can be traced
to the impact of 9/11
one of the most unlikely events
of recent history
that transformed
everything
yes there was a pre-9-11 world
hard to imagine now
and a post 9-11 worldwide police state
on steroids
lost democracy at home
and abroad
we are still coping
with the damages unleashed
by the evil plane bombers
fulfilling their mad desires
their dictates from their mad God
transforming the world
unleashing evil
on the once innocent world.
9-11 2021- was the classic black swan event, a low probability event that changed almost everything. The world can be divided into a pre-9-11 world and a Post 9-11 world. 9-11 led to the Afghanistan war, recently concluded, the Iraq war, the Syria war, the Libyan civil war, countless wars in Africa, the war on terror, the Muslim travel ban, the war on domestic dissent in so many parts of the world, all justified as a reaction against the events of that September day. Here are some of my reflections on the events of 9-11 including a prose poem about where I was that terrible day. It affected me deeply because at the time I was a US immigration officer in the State Department serving in Mumbai, (Bombay) India.
” The attacks had a profound and lasting impact on the country, especially regarding its foreign and domestic policies. U.S. Pres. George W. Bush declared a global “war on terrorism,” and lengthy wars in Afghanistan and Iraq followed. Meanwhile, security measures within the United States were tightened considerably, especially at airports. To help facilitate the domestic response, Congress quickly passed the controversial USA PATRIOT Act, which significantly expanded the search and surveillance powers of federal law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. Additionally, a cabinet-level Department of Homeland Security was created.”
Comments appreciated.
Index
Reflections on 9-11 where I was Prose Poem
Reflections on 9-11 where was I then
Reflections on 9-11
9-11 Unleashed Evil
The Day After 9-11 U.S Visa Officer’s Perspective
9-11 Fridge (Based on fridge magnet poems daily prompts)
Reflections on 911 Where I was Prose Poem
On 9-11
When the planes struck the World Trade center
Unleashing evil on the world
I was working
at the deputy consular chief
at the US Consulate
in Mumbai (Bombay) India
I was at a Polish national day event
at the legendary Taj Mahal hotel
chatting with the Polish Ambassador
and his charming wife.
Someone told me
I needed to check out the news,
I saw the CNN news feed,
I rushed back to the consulate
to prepare our response.
I put together a task force
focused on helping American citizens
in our district.
I worked almost 15-20 hours
for almost three days
before finally getting a night off.
We continued to process visas
during this time
but our priority
was to reach out to the Americans
who lived in our district
and to monitor the reactions of Indians
especially Muslims living in our district.
I tracked down my wife
who had gone into emergency action
in her position in Korea as a MI officer.
We both reflected
That if she had not taken the job in Korea
She might have died that day
As she had been working in the ops center
At the Pentagon which was destroyed.
Since it was shift work
if she had been on the early morning shift
it might have been game over for her.
Reflections on 9-11
the events of 9-11
transformed the modern world
in the aftermath of 9-11
the US launched the war on terror
That led to Afghanistan
Led to Iraq
Led to Syria
And so many other wars
Secret and not so secret
War on dissent at home
All because of 911
A true black swan event
That almost destroyed
Our country
And still has ramifications
All over the world
911
A day that truly
Will live
In infamy
9-11 unleashed Evil
Evil in this world
lurks in the deadliest places.
Evil came to town on 911
the day that evil
Swept over the world
a true Black Swan event
that changed almost everything
splitting the world
into a pre-9-11 world
and a post 9-11 world
unleashing the War on Terror, the wars in Afghanistan, the wars in Iraq, the war in Libya, the war in Syria, the wars in Africa, the horrors of ISIS, the horrors of the Taliban resurgent, the horrors of Al Qaeda and all the rest of the Muslim terrorists, the war in the streets of any big city, the war on Muslims, the war on Christians, the war on Jews , the apartheid in Palestine, the wars on dissent at home, the Arab Spring
so many things can be traced
to the impact of 9/11
One of the most unlikely events
of recent history
that totally transformed
everything
yes there was a pre 9-11 world
hard to imagine now
and a post 9-11 world-wide police state
on steroids
War on democracy at home
and abroad
the world is still coping
with the damages unleashed
by the evil plane bombers
and their mad desires
their dictates from their mad God
transforming the world
unleashing evil
on the once innocent world.
The Day After 9-11 U.S Visa Officer’s Perspective
9-11 changed everything
For the lowly visa officers
Around the world
Especially for American visa officers
Pre-9-11
The emphasis was on efficiency
Issuing as many visas as possible
Refusing a few as possible
Looking the other way
At minor incidents of fraud
When in doubt
Just say yes
Terrorism was not a concern at all
No one anticipated
The horrible events of 9-11
All the hijackers
Had been issued visas
hey were considered low-risk applicants
As most Saudi citizens were
Few overstayed
None wanted to work
Illegally in the U.S.
The students studied
Came back home
Saudi, the UAE, and Oman
Were about to be approved
For the visa waiver program
They met the criteria
Low refusal rates
Low overstay rates
Terrorism was not a concern
Although the CIA was blocking it
On 9-12 and afterwards
Everything changed
Just say yes
Became just say no
Fraud became a big concern
Terrorism an overwhelming concern
Saudi, Oman and UAE
Became overnight
Suspicious characters
Extreme vetting began
Years before Trump
Announced it
Interviewing everyone
Became the policy overnight
Biometrics were rushed to be deployed
Everyone including Kings
Must be enrolled
No exceptions
Zero tolerance of visa infractions
Became the norm
Both at State and at the new DHS
Airports became unfriendly nightmares
For foreign visitors
As did the embassies
Where visa officers
Were now free
To be mean, abrupt
Just say no
Became the motto
The officers had 2 minutes
To go through the ever expanding
Security checks etc
Anything at all
That took two more minutes
Led to a quit denial
Denials were seldom overcome
Even when it was obvious
That the visa should have been issue
The visa function almost moved
To the new neo-fascist
Department of Homeland Security
Nicknamed by its critics
As the Homeland Security Ministry
The homeland security department
Send visa security officers
Overseas to police the lax state department
Whose prior courtesy culture was mocked
The new mean to everyone culture
Soon emerged
Everyone competed
To see who could be the meanest
Zero tolerance soon met zero common sense
Every applicant became a potential criminal
A potential security threat,
All Muslim applicants
Were seen as potential terrorists
All of this led
To the draconian visa policies
which began
on September 12, 2001
the day after 9-11
then Trump and his MAGA crew
swept to power
extreme vetting became the new mantra
unleashing a war
on Muslims and immgirants
that sadly had continued
to this day
The culmination of years
Of the war on terror
All of this was the result of 9-11
The day that changed everything.
Following 9/11
Patriots Blunder
Whack a mole
Worry Frequently
About terrorists and Muslims
Whomever, wherever they be
I grew up in Berkeley, California, and Washington DC, and went to College in Stockton, California. After college, lived five years in Korea as a Peace Corps volunteer and teaching ESL. I returned to the US to Seattle for graduate school. Afterward, I joined the Foreign Service where I lived and worked in over ten countries. I retired and lived in Korea and the west coast.
What is the greatest thing about the place you call home?
I live in Youngjando island, South Korea near the Incheon Airport. I live in a garden city. There is a magnificent park – the world peace forest behind my house and a nice mountain to hike in. Over 300 restaurants are within walking distance of my house. There are five beaches ten minutes’ drive away, Incheon is nearby as is Seoul.
What turns you on creatively?
Almost all my work starts with a dream. I don’t dream dreams; I dream movies, filled with action, sound, music, smells many times in a completely different world. I have been writing a dream journal for many years. I write five to ten dreams per day, saving them as stand-alone flash fiction, and also write one to ten poems per day.
What is your favorite word, and can you use it in a poetic sentence?
One of my favorite words is my own portmanteau scumbaggery which I define as the actions of a ”Scumbag”.
The scumbaggery Of Texas Senator Ted Cruz Utterly confounds
What is your pet peeve?
Racism, sexism, homophobia, bigotry, right-wing nutcases, left-wing zealots, Christian holy rollers, gun violence, police misconduct, anti-Asian hate crimes, hate crimes, America Firsters, QAnon conspiracy theorists, neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Proud Boys, Boogaloo Bois, and the Oath Keeper militia, etc. I don’t like ”gangsta rap”, “heavy metal”, or “country music”. I am a pragmatist and don’t care about ideological correctness.
What defines Jake Cosmos Aller?
I grew up in Berkeley and DC. I lived all over the world, visiting 45 countries and all 50 states. I served my country as a foreign service officer, and Peace Corps volunteer and taught ESL and government overseas. But what is more important than anything is that I married the girl of my dreams who became my wife 40 years ago.
John (“Jake”) Cosmos Aller is a novelist, poet, and former Foreign Service officer having served 27 years with the U.S. State Department serving in over ten countries including Korea, Thailand, India, Antigua, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Spain. He has traveled to over 50 countries, and 49 out of 50 states. He speaks Korean, Thai, Spanish and studied Chinese, Hindi and Arabic.
Where is my home? Where do I belong?
I really don’t know, always moving on to another place
Moved every other year it seems the last 45 years
Traveled to 49 states, 45 countries, drove across the U.S. six times
Lived in Berkeley, Yakima, Stockton, Seattle, Alexandria, DC, Oregon, Korea, Thailand, India, The Eastern Caribbean, and Spain
Where do I belong? Where is my home?
Neither here nor there, nowhere and everywhere
And so is that my rambling man’s fate
Never to really belong anywhere at all
Dark Dangerous Thoughts
dark dangerous thoughts
An old man wakes up
Confronting the dark dangerous thoughts
The demons of the night
That haunt his dreams
And his life
He looks out at the dawning sun
And his sleeping wife
And realizes that it will be all right
And dismisses the demons of the night
Back to their caves in his mind
And he gets up
To take the dawning day
In Search of America
Hitchhiking Tales
hitch hikers
When I was young and foolish
Broke and stubborn
I hitchhiked across the USA
Started in Salt Lake City
Where my greyhound bus pass
Was stolen
The station manager
Could have helped me
But refused to do so
Threaten to call the cops
When I grabbed my bags
Without the stolen tags
I said
Go ahead
But I am so out of here
Wondered about Salt Lake City
Went to a bar
Found I had to buy my booze
Next door
And they would mix it for me
Had to order food too
After a bloody Mary
And a burger
I walked about town
Saw the Mormon Temple
Finally about 3 pm
It was time to hit the road
Did not look back
Ended up in Cody Wyoming
Got a room shower
Steak beer
Using my rapidly depleted cash
Spent 25 dollars
Money really went far
Back in those days
A band of professional
Communist agitators
Gave me a ride
To Des Moines
Lots of weed, booze
And politics later
Got off the road
Slept outside
Next day
A beautiful woman
Drove me to near Chicago
In a red mustang
Might have been
The girl in the song
Took it easy
Digging her vibe
She invited home
But was not sure
If her estranged husband
Would welcome me
So I being foolish
And inexperienced with women
Did not go to her place
And always regretted
That I had lost
My chance that day
Then on to Chicago
Several rides later
Visited friends
Hit the road again
A series of uneventful rides
With truckers
And others
And a week later
I ended in New York City
Slept along the way
In cars
In truck stops
In highway rest stops
Always moving
Always going
None stop talking
And lots of free weed
And beer
And conversation
One more memorable ride
Occurred outside Albany
On my return to Chicago
A middle age creepy looking man
Picked me up
In a brand new Cadillac
He was he said a dynamite deliverer
For the Mafia
Went to various places
To blow up shit
He hated a lot of people
Particularly hippies from California
And Jewish people
Looking at me to confirm
That I was both
I told him that I lived in New York
And had never been to California
And although I might look Jewish
As I what was called back in the day
A “Jewfro”
I was not Jewish
Many years later I discovered
That I am indeed part Jewish
But then I did not know
And I felt a bit of strategic information
Might keep me alive
Then I realized that he was just jiving with me
And we relaxed
And he pulled out some weed
And beer
And we mellowed out
But I believe that he really was with the mob
Perhaps not a dynamite dealer
A real made Italian made mafia member
By Chicago
I had enough
I called my Dad
Told him what had happened
Wanted a ticket home
And he sent me a ticket
And 500 dollars
And I went home
I told him I would tell him
My tales someday
But never did
I learned so much
About my fellow Americans
And the strange vibe
That was 1975
And now it is too late
But I wanted to finally
Tell the world
I am a bus rider
That makes me unusual
For a white male
From an upper middle class family
Our people are not bus riders
Though some are subway riders
Bus riders are other people
The poor, minorities, immigrants
People who don’t drive
Because they are blind
Or have a DUI
And in my case
I don’t drive
Because I have bad vision
And bad coordination
Just never got the hang
Of the whole driving thing
Fortunately for me
My wife does the driving
But I still take the bus
From time to time
I rode the AC buses in Berkeley
As a child
Line 67, line 51, line 43 F bus
Rode them long before BART came along
And afterwards as well
As an adult seldom rode the bus
But when I did so
I was always impressed
By the sheer diversity
Of the bus riding property
Hundreds of languages
All sorts of sexual orientation
Some were white
Most were not
Most of my fellow passengers
Were nice enough
Some were friendly
And some were lost
In their own thoughts
And a few
Were scary looking dudes
With the look
Of someone who had done time
And were capable of more violence
I also rode the bus
In Seattle as a graduate student
A lot of fellow UW students
And the usual immigrants
Minorities etc
And some white people
Commuting
And in DC
Over the years
I rode a lot of buses
Mostly to and from the metro
But I got to know
And love the DC buses as well
I also took the greyhound bus
Across the country
Several times over the years
All over the U.S.
From Bay Area to Stockton
From Bay Area to Clear Lake
From Bay area to NYC
NYC to DC
All over the USA
Taking the Greyhound
Was always an adventure
Met a lot of interesting people
As people on long distant bus rides
Tend to open up and talk
To pass the time away
Overseas I took the bus
All over
In India, in Barbados
In Spain and in Korea
The Korean buses
For many years
Were difficult for foreign visitors
As the signs were all in Korean
Most have signs
Now in English, Chinese and Korean
And are much more foreigner friendly
Riding the bus
In America
Allows one access
To the underbelly of American society
The poor, the marginalized
The immigrant communities
That many middle-class white people
Just never see
And for that reason
I am glad
That I am a bus rider.
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Update: It seems that the right has stopped talking about Chauvin as being some sort of heroric white dude being victimized by the rabid left wing mob. Perhaps that was too much even for the folks at the MAGA news headquarters (i.e, Fox News). would love to hear what folks think so drop me a line. End Update
Ann Coulter
Ann Coulter is a person many progressives love to hate, and she returns the favor as she constantly is writing outrageous stuff as part of her constant attempt to “own the libs” or “trigger the libs” and her nonsense sells well on the right-wing media verse. She is a hero to the right and a pariah to everyone else. Besides the fact that she says hurtful, hateful, disgusting things, she lies all the time. She believes in the adage, “Never let the facts get in the way of a good story.”
I usually try to ignore her, but this time she went too far. She attempted to paint Chauvin as some sort of white male victim instead of the murderer that the jury and the rest of America saw. Here then is a found poem with snarky commentary and a follow up poem. written after hearing the news that Chauvin was found guilty on all charges. Today is a great day in America.
I will send this to Anne Coulter and post any response she may give.
Ann Coulter is a disgusting depraved piece of work – a found poem, with snarky commentary.
Of course, Anne Coulter went there
She is defending
Dereck Chauvin
As a modern-day hero
As a victim of PC madness
She is truly a demented, depraved,
Disgusting, lying racist piece of work
Her words speak for themselves
In modern America,
We periodically offer up
White men as human sacrifices
To the PC gods.
The rest of us
{White people}
Keep our heads down
And pray we won’t be next.
At least the Duke and UVA human offerings
Were sufficiently upper-crust
To have a few journalists
And lawyers defending them.
But policemen,
Bar owners,
Military veterans
And a Midwest teenager?
Definitely not our crowd,
Currently,
Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin
Is on trial
For killing George Floyd
By kneeling on his neck,
As it appeared in cellphone videos.
You may remember something about this:
It’s why America had to burn in 2020.
But the chief medical examiner’s report
Establishes that, however else Floyd died,
It wasn’t from Chauvin’s knee.
Comment: any reasonable human being
Would conclude
Kneeling on someone’s neck
For 10 minutes will be fatal
But Ann is not a reasonable human being
End comment
Oopsie! I guess it wasn’t essential
That our country goes through eight months
Of looting, riots, and mostly peaceful arsons.
Day after day,
Prosecutors, witnesses
And the media tell us that
Chauvin “squeezed the life out of” Floyd.
The medical evidence establishes
That whatever else caused his death,
It was NOT asphyxiation.
That’s the entire case
Against Officer Chauvin!
But the howling
The bloodthirsty mob isn’t giving
Up until its holy religious observance
Because of one dork in a lab coat.
The sun might not rise!
The city of Minneapolis
Could be wiped out!
Wait — that might happen.
The medical examiner
Also found that Floyd had enough fentanyl in his system –
I don’t want to say, “to kill a horse,”
Because that would be a cliché
But it would be enough to bump off
An entire team of Budweiser Clydesdales
… We can now add “pharmacology”!
You mean to say that just by sticking a syringe
In someone’s arm, you can tell
If he’s been taking drugs?
That’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo,
Just like the moon landing.
Comment: Anne
What does that have to do
With anything?
The fact remains undisputed
George Floyd died
After Chauvin put his knee
On his neck
What are you saying?
That was okay
That was fine
That police should
We allowed to violently
Assault anyone they want.
Especially if they are black
brown, Asian or LGBT
That seems to be
What you are saying
Just saying, Anne.”
This trial is a total sham,
But the entire power of the state,
The media, the left-wing shock troops
And the country’s finest legal talent
Is being deployed
Against Derek Chauvin.
Comment:
Boohoo
Poor white guy
Being charged with a crime
End Comment
The legal mismatch in the O.J. Simpson case
Wasn’t this one-sided.
In the middle of jury selection,
The city of Minneapolis
Announced an eye-popping
Civil settlement of $27 million
With the family of George Floyd.
What does a $27 million settlement
With the family of the alleged victim say.
Comment:
Anne
I’ll bite
It says that Chauvin killed George Floyd
He’s dead due to police misconduct
End Comment
Black residents of Minneapolis
Are threatening to burn the place
Down if Chauvin isn’t convicted –
– and the only reason anyone
Thinks a jury could
Return a guilty verdict
Is that they believe them.
Comment:
No Anne, the jury will convict
Because there is no way
You can say
That Chauvin did not kill
George Floyd
That’s it in a nutshell
End Comment
In the darkest days of Jim Crow,
The entire country
Never ganged up
On a single individual like this.
Comment:
The ghosts of those lynched
In the south
Would disagree
Comment
Please,
Gods of wokeness,
We ask that his human sacrifice
Be acceptable!
Throw another virgin
Into the volcano.
Comment:
Anne
Nice way to end your wicked racist tirade
End Comment
At least the Duke and UVA human offerings were sufficiently upper-crust to have a few journalists and lawyers defending them. But policemen, bar owners, military veterans, and a Midwest teenager? Definitely not our crowd, darling.
Currently, Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin is on trial for killing George Floyd by kneeling on his neck, as it appeared in cellphone videos. You may remember something about this: It’s why America had to burn in 2020.
But the chief medical examiner’s report establishes that, however else Floyd died, it wasn’t from Chauvin’s knee. Oopsie! I guess it wasn’t essential that our country goes through eight months of looting, riots, and mostly peaceful arsons.
Instead of citing some B.S. media “fact check,” I shall quote directly from the autopsy report by the Hennepin County Chief Medical Examiner, Andrew Baker:
“No life-threatening injuries identified —
“A. No facial, oral mucosal, or conjunctival petechiae
“B. No injuries of anterior muscles of the neck or laryngeal structures
“C. No scalp soft tissue, skull, or brain injuries
“D. No chest wall soft tissue injuries, rib fractures (other than a single rib fracture from CPR), vertebral column injuries, or visceral injuries
“E. Incision and subcutaneous dissection of posterior and lateral neck, shoulders, back, flanks, and buttocks negative for occult trauma”
In short: No bloodshot eyes and no trauma to any part of Floyd’s neck.
And yet, day after day, prosecutors, witnesses, and the media tell us that Chauvin “squeezed the life out of” Floyd. The medical evidence establishes that whatever else caused his death, it was NOT asphyxiation.
That’s the entire case against Officer Chauvin! But the howling mob isn’t giving up its holy religious observance because of one dork in a lab coat. The sun might not rise! The city of Minneapolis could be wiped out! Wait — that might happen.
The medical examiner also found that Floyd had enough fentanyl in his system — I don’t want to say, “to kill a horse,” because that would be a cliche. But it would be enough to bump off an entire team of Budweiser Clydesdales. In technical medical jargon:
“A. Blood drug and novel psychoactive substances screens:
“1. Fentanyl 11 ng/ml”
That’s just the first few words of the “Toxicology” section. Also listed are or fentanyl, 4-ANPP, methamphetamine, cannabinoids, amphetamines, morphine, and so on.
But the 11 nanograms per milliliter of fentanyl is rather important, since the chief medical examiner called this “a fatal level of fentanyl under normal circumstances,” saying, “deaths have been certified with levels of 3.”
Three. But George Floyd went up to 11.
Naturally, Baker was quick to add, “I am not saying this killed him.” Please don’t throw me to the woke gods! Leave me to my test tubes! (And you thought lawyers were craven.)
I have a feeling we’re about to see another example of the left not accepting science.
In addition to liberals refusing to accept the science of:
— I.Q. (just watch the reaction to my mentioning this hate-science) …
… We can now add “pharmacology”!
Do you mean to say that just by sticking a syringe in someone’s arm you can tell if he’s been taking drugs? That’s a lot of mumbo-jumbo, just like the moon landing.
This trial is a total sham, but the entire power of the state, the media, the left-wing shock troops, and the country’s finest legal talent are being deployed against Derek Chauvin.
In addition to Minnesota’s top prosecutor, the state has hired Neal Katya, former solicitor general of the United States — an unheard-of maneuver in a case that doesn’t involve some highly technical specialty, like antitrust. A slew of lawyers is working pro bono for the prosecutor — also unheard of. The state has unlimited resources to pursue Chauvin.
Against this, Chauvin has one lone defense attorney, Eric “Atticus Finch” Nelson. The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association’s legal defense fund will put up to $1 million toward his defense, and Nelson can talk to the other rotating attorneys whom the fund employs. But unless they’re working pro bono, too, $1 million runs out pretty fast.
The legal mismatch in the O.J. Simpson case wasn’t this one-sided.
In the middle of jury selection, the city of Minneapolis announced an eye-popping civil settlement of $27 million with the family of George Floyd. Liberals are still denouncing Richard Nixon for a 1970 speech in which he inadvertently described defendant Charles Manson as someone who was “guilty, directly or indirectly, of eight murders” — leading to demands for a mistrial.
What does a $27 million settlement with the family of the alleged victim say?
Black residents of Minneapolis are threatening to burn the place down if Chauvin isn’t convicted — and the only reason anyone thinks a jury could return a guilty verdict is that they believe them.
In the darkest days of Jim Crow, the entire country never ganged up on a single individual like this.
Please, gods of wokeness, we ask that his human sacrifice be acceptable!
Throw another virgin into the volcano.
George_Floyd
Chauvin
Justice at Last – Take That Ann Coulter!
Theme: Justice, BLM
Justice at Last
There is Justice in America
At long last
God Bless America
Finally, there is Justice
For the black man
For the victim
Of police abuse
For the underdog
Today the jury spoke
The murder of George Floyd
Was simply that
Murder most foul
Today in America
We begin living up
To our pledge
That we are all
Created equal
And that no one
Is above the law
That black lives
Do indeed matter
And so, I say
To Anne Coulter
And her odious, racist ilk
You lost
Go home
And shut up
Chauvin was not a hero
He was simply a zero
The jury saw him
For what he was
A despicable human being
Who killed a black man
Because he thought
That as a white policeman
He could get away it
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Former People Will Publish “Lone Foreigner Hiking the Seoul City Walls”
“Hi Jake, I would like to publish “Lone Foreigner Hiking the Seoul City
Walls”? Is it still available? And do you have an author photo to go
with your work?”
Lone Foreigner Hiking the Seoul City Walls
Hiker
A Lone foreign male hiker
In the hills above the city
Hiking along the ancient Seoul City walls
500 years after the founding
Of the city in 1492
Balancing his walk
Amid the boulders
The winter is coming
Soon he thinks
And finishes his hike
Heading to a bar
To sake his thirst
Some soju, and bulgogi
Will do the trick
He thinks to himself
Just another day
In the life
Of an unknown nameless
Foreigner in the city
Of Seoul
Part of the ten million
Naked stories
In the big city
Former People published three of my poems, “New Years Visit to the Oregon Coast”, ‘Indian Casino Thoughts” and “Casino Thoughts”
Oregon coast
New Years Visit to the Oregon Coast
The end of the year
We drove to Bookings on the Oregon Coast
We had a pleasant drive through the mystic fog shrouded Redwoods.
The gathering gloom of the dark woods foretold my dismal mood
Slept soundly to the sound of the ocean.
The super moon light filled
the beach outside our window
with an eerie light all night long.
As we slept people walked the beach
Enjoying the full moon
And the unusually warm weather
Setting off fireworks at midnight
In the morning I went for a nice walk along the beach
and thought about the year that was.
As the waves pounded the shore
I was filled with calmness
Enjoying the morning calm
And the unusual warm weather
Thinking that the storm is coming
That perhaps we are in the end of our days
With the political storms threatening us all
Yet the ocean reminded me
This too will pass
And we will endure
Until the end of our time
On earth
The ocean waves soothed my soul
And I prepared to drive back through the mystic redwoods
Back to my home
And the peaceful ocean waves
Reminded me
the end of my life
Comes closer to my door
Indian Casino Thoughts
Indian casino Fun
Indian casinos seem to be everywhere
I have stopped off here and there
In rural enclaves across the land
The Indian casinos run by the mob
For the benefit of the tribes
The Indian’s revenge on the White man
For stealing their land
Is to steal their money
One gamble at a time
And make them pay
For the crimes they committed
Almost always have a welcome mat
To teach the ignorant visitor
Something about their lost culture
With words in the native languages
Words that would be illegal to have spoken
Not so long ago
As the genocide against the tribes
Was in full force
Nowhere worse than in Oregon
And northern California
Along the foggy coastal lands
Where the final solution
Almost worked
The survivors
Such as they are
Operate dismal dark depressing casinos
Here and there in the rural countryside
Along the coast
And in the hinterlands here and there
Most barely making any money
There are so many gambling joints
Across the land
And the Indians are being screwed
Out of their gambling riches
By the big gaming consortiums
That run the casinos
In the reservations
And across the land
And I wonder
Just how much money
Have these Indian casinos
Stolen from the elderly pensioners
And other fools that flock to their premises
Their neighbors in these small towns
Where the Indian casino
is the only joint open
For business
Where to listen to Podcast, please follow me on social media platforms
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A quick email to let you know that FAITH has just been released. With 234 contributions from 151 poets in 36 countries, and 30 states in the US; published in two volumes, FAITH is probably one of the largest and most significant international collections of poetry on the theme of faith ever published. From the simple and uncomplicated, to the complex and thought-provoking, this is an amazing anthology featuring some amazing poetry.
Please support us by buying a copy; they are not expensive and every copy we sell goes towards keeping THE POET going. Also, if you are a member of any faith, spiritual or religious group, please tell them about this title too, and if you are a writer or editor for any faith publications, please try to feature this title in your publication. Uniting writers and poets worldwide on such an important topic is essential during these difficult and challenging times. Thank you!
CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS
The subject of our next SUMMER 2021 anthology is FRIENDS & FRIENDSHIP.
You can write about anything to do with friends and friendship; school friends, work friends, best friends, brief friendships, life-long friends, the friendship of someone special or significant, soulmates, things you have done for your friends in the name of friendship, or what they have done for you, the meaning and value of your friends and their friendship, the support of your friends is challenging and difficult situations or circumstances … the sky is the limit with this topic.
DEADLINE midnight (GMT) 30th June 2021. Publication July 2021.
Please click on the below link for submission guidelines:
Note: Look for my contribution. The Poet as some of you may recall, published my Hitchiking tales in their epic masterpiece “On the Road”. in 2020. So they are two for two and I hope three for three. I have a number of poems about friendship to fine-tune and submit. End Note
LASTLY – because of the time it took compiling FAITH, we are a bit behind with getting new interviews and articles online (of which we now have quite a few!). Thank you for your patience, but now FAITH is completed, we will set upon the task of catching up with everything as quickly as we can!
Keep writing everyone, and stay SAFE!
Robin – Editor and publisher.
THE POET – Devoted to showcasing and publishing amazing poetry from around the world. No matter what your background and experience; whether a poet laureate with many titles to your credit or a first-time poet exploring the creative use of words, structure, ideas, and expression, we at THE POET embrace and welcome all poets, everywhere.
Original Posting
The Poet will publish ‘Buddha Cat, and Meeting God in a Lake” in their Faith Anthology
Hope you’re well and staying safe. Sorry for the delay; have only just started to look at FAITH!
I enjoyed reading all your submissions but I can’t add them all into the anthology, even though they follow each other, so I’ll add: MEETING GOD IN A LAKE and BUDDHA CAT OF EDSALL ROAD.
Here are six poems for your consideration for your on faith anthology.
Meeting God in a Lake
Cosmic Cat from Berkeley
Meeting God in Bombay
Cosmic Dog From Goa
Buddha Cat from Edsel Road
These have been published, most recently in Hypertext in 2020.
The Poet Magazine previously published some of my “on the road” poems in their “On the Road Anthology in Summer 2020. They published “Hitchiking Tales”, ” Back of the Bus,” and ‘Cross Country Travels, Part One”.
Meeting God in a Lake
god
In my 64 years around the sun
I encountered God four times
At least I thought it was God
But could never be sure
The first time I met God
I had taken magic mushrooms
And had gone to a lake
And soon was tripping inside my head
Lost in inner space
Zoning out tuning in
Dropping down the proverbial rabbit hole
And then in the middle of my madness
I felt oneness with the universe
My body melted away
And I joined the universe
All boundaries dropped away
And I knew that the universe was alive
and I was part of the Cosmos
And the Cosmos was part of me
And I wondered at that moment
If I was face to face with God
I asked God to reveal himself to me
And nothing happened
Just laughter as the whole universe
Burst into laughter
And the madness began to fade
And I slowly came down from the high
And became aware of myself
And I was no longer one
With the universe
I felt profoundly moved by the experience
Felt that I had achieved perhaps nirvana
Or felt the presence of God
The feeling faded over time
And my quest to find God resumed
But I knew that I would never again
Come so close to the divine essence
Of the very Universe
Buddha Cat of Edsall Road
evil cat
I had another encounter
With the divine recently
Another Cosmic cat perhaps
Perhaps not
Who knows what cats are
Are they aliens
From another dimension
Or was he channeling God ?
I called him the Buddha cat
For the cat loved
Sitting in a meditative pose
Not moving
Just starting at me
With his soulful deep eyes
Boring into my soul
Exploring all my secret thoughts
The Buddha cat does not move
Does not react, as he is so deep
Into his interior mediation
Truly in tune with the cat universe
And the cosmos as well
The Buddha cat
Seems to be one with God
One with Buddha, Allah, Ganesh
And the billion names of God
Known and unknown
The Buddha cat can teach us all
About the art of meditation
As he zones inward
And loses his soul
Joining the cosmos
And becoming the Buddha cat
The Buddha cat
Lives in a modest Town house
In a modest suburb
The Buddha cat reminds us all
To look for God in the everyday
All around us
If we but have eyes
To see God everywhere
l 
https://i.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons…
