These are the poems I read at the recent fundraiser for Bob’s campaign
http://www.takingbackthehouse.org/
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Daily resurrections
…that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes. ~Khalil Gibran
seedlings
take hold to delicate earth
words carve images on empty sheets of verse
the house holds musty
the smell of baking bread
there are three new
poems in the world today
that weren’t here before
I wish
I had more strength
the sap sucked from my limbs
by birds of prey
I lie here before the next attack
and prepare my quiet insurrection
each
breath I take is manifesto
against the huge machine
we have yet to dismantle
I wait
for when we can plan the uprising
the birds picking at my heart
taste the bitterness of my tenacity
if you looked into my eyes
you would see clarity
hope
disguised as tears
to fool the vultures
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twenty-five steps to a stronger portfolio
1. learn to steal
2. disguise debt and theft behind legislation
3. invest in war
4. ignore the greater good
5. deify wealth
6. appreciate the poor you are eating their dinner
7. mismanage the earth and patent nature
8. patently lie
9. call theft industriousness
10. praise greed- name it success – call it spirituality
11. write a book about getting rich and wait for fool to buy it
12. affirm the laws apply to everyone
13. go for short term gains
14. follow in daddy’s footsteps
15. pretend everyone has the same opportunity
16. maintain strict double standards
17. exalt and defend privilege
18. convince the working class to aspire to be you
19. persuade the working class they are responsible for their own situation
20. hide your greed behind the flag – get poor boys to fight for oil -offshore investments – runaway shops – maquiladora labor
21. believe in your own entitlement
22. assume the divinity of privilege
23. call lack of wealth – lack of spirituality
24. invest in disparate opportunity
25. pray for the poor and kick them in the head
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an artists insurrection against impending armageddon
we have reached the end of days
if we listen to the generals
the strange interpretation of biblical text
we are approaching armageddon
there is no room for artist in heaven
along with jews and other infidels
we will all burn in a sea of fire
as the generals and soldiers
these crusaders in a war for oil and empire
march through the gates of heaven
how do they envision paradise?
is there any room for imagination
beyond the brilliant justification for world destruction
these ends of days are like a funeral durge
slow measured frightened and beautiful
we march behind the soldiers
in contrast to their naked brutality
we sell flowers on street corners
chant durges on the steps of city hall
paint our forms in chalk on corporate pavement
there is more for us in paradise
than these hollow promises
we cannot march to the drummers of the death knell
i dance to the sounds of the birds and the wind
the crickets whisper to me the direction to take in battle
we fight with paint brushes brooms and sewing needles
reconstruct from the ashes of their bitterness
a sea of transformation splendor majesty
hope against the fear of sky scrapers
and the destruction of the city commons
where can i meet you
will i see you at the library or the marketplace
we have no space in common anymore
each leaf and blade of grass is patented by monsanto
even my own garden isn’t mine
in defiance i sow forbidden seeds
hide fugitive artists in my garage
stash implements of self expression behind the tomato plants
hide remedy in soup bowls
sneak books of poetry across the border of forbidden thoughts
let us gather our plows and printing presses
march out our army of artisans, poets philosophers
mothers children the disabled
we shall gather in front of the monuments to corporate monopoly
creative, we shall do more than merely redistribute wealth
let us paint a mural against the bitterness of capital
let us dance with fingerprints upon the freshly polished glass
let us reconstruct deconstruct the corporate structure
let us build a monument to hope from the finest marble
gather our finest sculptors to chisel away the corporate greed
let us create a world of wealth not measured in numbers on digital screens
abundance in the depth of paintings sprawled on canvas in children’s art classes
in the prolific dances in newly reclaimed public gardens
in the flowers that bloom organic to meet the paint brushes
in the heart that meets the hands that bridge divides of freeway and distance
the dismantled impositions of capitol and greed
they cannot take you away from me
let us storm the bastille and free those trapped behind stolen opportunities
lost dreams, misplaced hope, false divisions, broken promises
gather the dispossessed and storm the factories of death and theft
let me meet you in the public square after we have dismantled corporate tyranny
taken back our territory granting it to our children in collective perpetuity
we will reclaim this paradise with our hammers and chisels paint brushes keyboards
paint and build and dance and sing through the gates of paradise
an artists insurrection against impending Armageddon
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Comments
bravo these are achingly beautiful
Posted by rheim on 05/19/2006 03:23:54 PM
