Poetry in a Global Box

An Ending

2011-02-19T08:51:00.001-08:00

Veneration vanquished by time and space
Resplendent glow tucked softly
In crevices deep, but never far
Untouched, but touched so long ago
Eternally fuels complacent yearning
Coveted not, but pure
     Resigned
          Hopelessly gone
              Never forgotten

From Under

2011-01-22T16:45:00.001-08:00

Starting over
again
from
under
the world
that doesn’t
exist
anymore.

Lost promises
of
youth
of
hope
of peace
failed states
wanton
dreams
of
freedom
almost
found.

Really?

2011-01-21T17:44:00.000-08:00

Suspended in time
so long ago
are the ifs of
tomorrow
turned today

lost in
ocean and gold
remnants
of the softest
kisses
ended.

Spilled Milk

2010-07-28T17:14:00.003-07:00

Sad eyes cast down
on a future
turned sour
like milk on the counter
splashed and left
relentlessly
waiting for someone
else to pick up the pieces
or clean the spill
whichever comes first

weapons for the strong

2010-06-30T13:31:00.000-07:00

nonviolence is a weapon for the strong
gathering on high – gathering on low
forced from and to away from conflict
mired by strife yet victorious
Stoic in responsive passion of
breaths not taken and life unlived
though living prevails through discord.

feed not on the grains of humanity’s blood
seek not for ends of means for aggression gain
dispassionate and humble spirit rise loud
to oblivious voices of reckless leaders
distant to the call of the oppressed masses
clustering…cloistering for the weapon of the strong

Projects

2010-05-09T17:51:00.000-07:00

The only evergreen
Ever green.
Cabrini-Green

Shiny guns
Through torn curtains
In a neighborhood
Lost in the grayness
Cast by
Project’s shadows

Evergreen Avenue
Not well named
Sedgwick Street
Corner of death
Hope begotten
One in the same
As despair

Cabrini-green
The only evergreen
Ever green.

A Gallery Project I Am Working On

2010-03-21T09:17:00.000-07:00

"p"rince

2010-03-16T21:02:00.001-07:00

Perfectly
Placed
Pillows
Hide
Screams in the night

Manacled
Mephistopheles
in
Faust’s form
Flees
Captors
Incapable
of justice found
or justice lost
or any
Justice at all

I Wonder

2010-03-10T15:13:00.001-08:00

I stare out at them

And wonder
What each world is like
Behind the eyes that watch
Me guide them
Through skip counting
And Calabria
With Tomie DePaola
And poaching
With Roald Dahl
And spelling
And journeys around the world
And back again

I wonder
When I see their crisp dresses
Or dirty shirts
Or tear stayed faces
When they come fed
Or hungry
Or bruised
Or not
What their lives are like
And how much more
They need from me
Than reading and writing
And math and science

I wonder
How what goes on
In their lives
And how some of them
Can even concentrate at all.

journey lost

2010-03-04T19:28:00.000-08:00

death surge on the eve
of a nocturnal journey home
piercing, resounding noise sans melody
hidden message of the day
calling hate to reside in hearts
to weak for life and love and harmony

distorted subgenre growls to eden lost
and exodus found on the shores
of blackened blasphemy minus hope
minus worth
minus destiny
minus hope

S.B.S

2010-03-03T18:53:00.000-08:00

I don’t hear them when they shout
I don’t care if they can’t be
I don’t want to make it stop
It doesn’t matter much to me

How long must I look?
How long ‘til you go?
Why can’t you not see?
You don’t matter much to me.

Broken knots and tattered rags
Piled along the crowded sand
Torn apart and cast away
No one left to take a stand

Battle not for me to fight
Battle not for me to care
Battle fought for freedom lost
Battle not for us to share

Rage

2010-03-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

acrimony breeds silence
in the passage of time
lost souls in a vision of rage
profoundly fixed on a caprice
of formidable doubt

disparage the sunrise on the banks of tomorrow
while yesterday gloats of lost dreams
and perfection glazed and toppled
on the banks of the river of dreams

Silent Peace

2010-02-04T20:02:00.001-08:00

The last light fell

And silence swept the sky
The night feel deep
But no one heard their cry
And promises made grave
Are now to rich to save
And all that’s left is done.

They preach to crowds
They billow, spew and urge
They call to him
But practice not his word
And all they need is them.

Amity, accord
Speak not now for peace
Repose, repeat
Repent and promise keep
And time will not stand still.

Of a Strange Nature

2010-02-01T19:38:00.000-08:00

Take thy forfeiture
In the cold chill
Of a crimson dawn
Shylock revisited
On the land
That time forgot

Away, away
Lest dawn creep
Lightly into day
Away, away
Lest sons begot
Stand not the fray

A pound of flesh
Beyond reason
Amid the city
That stands beside
Cardboard houses
In place of dreams
Gone by.

My New Book of Poetry

2010-01-31T19:28:00.000-08:00

My new book of poetry Lest We Forget: Poems in Remembrance is out and available on Amazon. I hope all enjoy it! If you read it ... please review it on Amazon.

http://www.amazon.com/

Enjoy!

Seven

2010-01-25T19:18:00.001-08:00

Don’t wish it away
Lest it works in reverse
And captures the stars
In the heavens that fall
While he refuses to shine
And shines no more

Copernicus hasty in decision
Cast celestial spheres on
The brink of discovery
Revolutionary…
For stars
For love
For life
For money.

Heliocentric seven
Proficiency found.

Brothers and Kings Before Them

2010-01-24T18:07:00.000-08:00

Creon defied
Happiness denied
Immutable laws of heaven
Overwritten by man
Once again…in a land removed
From Creon
Under the guise of democracy
Death no longer proclaimed
But life with no relief from eight
While eight stand silent in the many words they speak
Look not on the backs of the brothers
For which she gave her life
For heaven’s mighty call
Life gone but not forgotten.
What are the unimportant little sins
That bare the brunt of time forced and forgotten.
What words are being painted by fain and fair?
Lives of persistence lost and poverty gained for free.
Both fight on the side of humankind
Neither the villain thou villain is he but gone
But gone, but gone, but gone away
Power befallen but rather be gone
Be gone, be gone, be gone
Be gone, but never forgotten.

For a While...

2010-01-23T17:19:00.000-08:00

Once again
The world
Comes together
In the face
Of devastation
Obliteration
Desperation
Of a people
In ruins…

Without hesitation
Humanity matters
Without hesitation
We stand
Side by side
Without hesitation

For a while…
For a while

If only
For a while
Lasted
If only
Humanity mattered
Beyond
For a while.

Homeless No More

2009-09-05T10:21:00.001-07:00

Fast and free she floated
Above the encampment
Blue tarps
Torn
Tattered
Home
A soiled Spiderman blanket
Two cups
One needle
Two blows
Violently vacant
Gone.

Orion

2009-05-21T19:44:00.001-07:00

Friendly naïve
Hunter grand
Point me in the direction
Of Orion.
Celestial asterism
Three kings
Three sisters
Sweep across the heavens
Guide me on my quest
Towards home.

Gant

2009-05-13T21:55:00.000-07:00

One vile full
One sacred vile
Has spilt crimson
Upon the earth
Seeping liquid
Into its pores
Drowning
The souls of sons
Forever lost
On Sudanese soil.

Night

2009-04-23T18:58:00.000-07:00

Gentle night
Softly sleeping
Angry sky
Open to morning
And another day
On the street
Hopeful for the dawn
Hopeful for the sun
Hopeful for a time
When the gentle night
Begets hearth and home
Life sans angry sky.

Stop the Pain

2009-03-31T19:43:00.000-07:00

Stop the pain
Beating in his heart again
Stop the fear
And make it gone
Take the time
From the cell phone, TV,
Dead end peace talks
Take the time
And make it gone

Wipe her tears
Child of no one desert calling
Wipe her tears
And give her hope
Teach them all
The ones who live there
And their callers
Teach them all
To realize

Hide your lies
Painted on pictures smiling children
Hide your lies
And tell no more
Give them hope
Those who anguish
You who trifle
Give them hope
And step aside.

Give

2009-03-31T19:42:00.001-07:00

Affliction, agony, anguish
Deceit, deception, despair
Grief, heartache, torture
Wretchedness sans repair

Suffer not the consequences
Of the world you make
Martyr not your Brutus
Sprawled on wooden stake

Omnipotent, dynamic, forceful
Precursor, piety, greed
Of all the gold in Africa
Of all the lives in need

Call off the Druks
Cast guns aside
Uncross the path
Where worlds collide

Hold hope to heart
Give feed to birth
Give chance to life
Give all their worth.

2009-03-22T14:48:00.001-07:00

Poem: Teach Me

2009-03-15T13:18:00.000-07:00

The mind is tool
Breeds peace but knows no love
There is no deed
To help one rise above

You’re holding back
And the reason just doesn’t fit
The world is lost
And you’ve no time for it.

You thought you’d hide away
Your words are deep
But your mind
It just won’t play

Grace is unknown
A word that builds true peace without
Poverty
Reluctance
Greed
Harbors our doubt

Your road is long
Can you find the end
Will peace play through
To back from wince you send.

Touch me
Tell me that the world will find
Need me
Guide me to the end of time
Tell me
How to find there is enough
Show me
How to save mankind
Teach me
Where true peace I’ll find.

Freedom Lost

2009-03-10T21:18:00.001-07:00

Human rights watch
As time ticks away
Broken promises on the backs of children
Forced labor
Here in freedom
Misnomer at best
For what know they
Of freedom found
Or freedom lost
And what know we
Of life, liberty and the freedom
Guaranteed by our forefathers
But so easily taken away.

Hope

2009-03-06T17:08:00.001-08:00

Winter white snowflakes falling down
On a sea of green
Dancing violets hazy blue
Lost inside a dream
Children’s laughter high and light
Circles all inside
Fill our ears with happy bleam
And save this turning tide.

Hope

2009-03-06T17:08:00.000-08:00

She's Gone

2009-03-03T19:23:00.000-08:00

It was a hot and dry September morn
When they locked lives and she was born
Sun was beating on the ground
What once was lost can not be found
It’s gone.

Red light ‘bove the street below
The clock struck 12 it’s time to go
Broken viles and sweat and tears
Broken wings and angel fears
It’s gone.

He’s in her heart
Under one sky
She’ll never live
To hear his lies
It’s gone.

Brilliant green reflects the day
Night keeps demons far away
Rainbow ‘neath the pot of gold
Story new but ages old
It’s gone.

Remember her when he walks by
Remember not and don’t ask why
Take her home if in your mind
And in his heart a peace you’ll find
Only it’s gone.

Mole People

2009-03-01T12:09:00.001-08:00

Deep under the catacombs
Of train and subway tunnels
That run the span of the city
Eighty times and back again
And seven stories deep.
Dark, damp and abandoned
Live a people
Derelict, dirty and isolated.
Self-exiled from the dangers above
Ranks in the thousands
Mole people
Never counted
Never count
Ask and they don’t exist
Least fear creeps above
Glowing eyes under trains.
What if that were you?

Future

2009-02-09T16:09:00.001-08:00

What is the next step
When the factories have gone
And the steel mills have closed
And the mighty smoke stacks of Allentown
Cease to billow and blow?

When Flint is a ghost town
And Sacramento is gridlocked in red ink
When prisons reap more than schoolhouses
And a dollar won’t buy a cup of coffee
Here or in a third world country?

The next step is to stand
To rise above the masked oppression
The next step is to take back our freedom
And live the lives our forefathers intended…
Or is this it?

2009-02-03T18:42:00.001-08:00

Here are the blogs I love:

1. Poetic Dream

2. The Truth to Some Extent

3. THE ART OF FREEVERSE

4. Untold Tales

...and many others.

Auntie Maya

2009-02-02T17:40:00.001-08:00

On the corner
Outside the market
Near the trash can
Where the needles land
Sits Auntie Maya.
Regal as her name
Mighty in her stature
Five foot nothing
And just as wide.
She’s got change
For the faded gumballs
The after school crowd likes so much
They take her change
Or give her theirs spare
Buy the balls
Then dip ‘um in X
Float in the clouds o
Red, blue and green.

Poem: One More for the Road

2009-01-23T18:43:00.000-08:00

They laid her out
A final rest on a cold slab
A man in a whit coat
A curtain pulled
One last look
Ashen, frigid, stiff
A lifeless vessel
Expertly averted eyes
A nod and it’s done
One more for the road

America is back

2009-01-19T17:59:00.001-08:00

On this dawn of a new hope
A new light...
A new truth...
Let freedom ring.

Poem: There is a Time

2009-01-16T17:29:00.001-08:00

There is a time for looking outward
A time for looking in
There is a time for growing older
And a time for living sin.

There is a time for stands united
A time to admit the fall
There is a time for glancing backward
And a time to accept the call.

Please bend for America
Live up to her name.
Fix your broken promises
Except your rightful blame.

There is a time for being silent
A time for righteous voice
There is a time for peaceful protest
And a time to make a choice.

There is a time for doing nothing
A time to make amends
There is a time for standing rigid
And a time the branch must bend.

Please bend for America
Live up to her name.
Fix your broken promises
Except your rightful blame.

Poem: The End of the Small Town

2009-01-13T22:23:00.000-08:00

Build on the backs of our fathers
Small towns from sea to sea
A symbol of hard work and freedom
Things our children may never see.
Small towns erased from our memories
Crowded streets and congestion all
My kingdom for the country
Not another mall.

Poem: The New Game

2009-01-13T22:16:00.000-08:00

The world sits courtside
Fixed for news
Of their favorite team
High def visions
From across the world
Winner take all.

Poem: Old Glory

2009-01-08T21:46:00.000-08:00

Glorious in daunted blues
Victorious in red
Tattered edges
Blowing free
Living past the dead.
Draped for freedom
Covering truth
A doubled meaning lies
Glorious in daunted blues
Victorious in red
Tattered edges
Blowing free
Living past the dead.

Poem: The Fall

2008-12-31T09:08:00.001-08:00

Some bright words to ring in the New Year... : )

Is this the fall of Rome?
So to speak…
Or do we dare compare
The short sweet journey
Of a few centuries
To those of the mighty kingdom?

Will this truly be the downfall
Of the last Tarquinian King?
The final fall…Rome forsaken
Rant with decadence and decay
Empty currency – military gone astray?

Corruption…inflation…deflation…
A bankrupt government…
Denial…
Sound familiar…

Perhaps fall is too final…
Rome still exists after all…
Perhaps adapted is better…
Are you ready to adapt
When the fall is our own?

Poem: The Game of War

2008-12-29T16:54:00.000-08:00

Talking trash
Shootin’ low
Street ball rules
Friend or foe
Three point shot
From the line
Leather bumps
Boys at prime
Blasts away
Bim bam boom
Clicked off rounds
End too soon
Game called short
Time to go
Who did win?
No one knows.

Poem: You Just Don't Matter

2008-12-26T10:29:00.001-08:00

Seven figures
And a ball
While some sit
East of the decimal
A week’s work
Lost over juice
While belly’s swell
No rice today
‘Cause on the hill
A world away
You just don’t matter.

Poem: Winds of Change

2008-12-21T09:17:00.001-08:00

Immutable laws guide our faith -- troubled deeply
in the marred confusion of modernity.
A force greater than this guides us from within.
Some possess it on the verge of madness
Others in quite serenity and the forlorned focus
Of insomnia – genius not of our world
Lost…afflicted…damaged souls of borders
Adrift on a sea of obscure and wanton nomads
Clenching tightly their heads – sheltering their ears
From the voices who call loudly on the winds of change.

Poem: Wait

2008-12-18T12:04:00.001-08:00

Lost in time
Frozen still
A heart sans soul
A fever’s chill
Once distraught
A nail for bed
More than not
A cloak to shed
A second skin
An albatross
A nightmare played
On a bloody cross.

Poem: The Fall

2008-12-18T12:03:00.000-08:00

Is this the fall of Rome?
So to speak…
Or do we dare compare
The short sweet journey
Of a few centuries
To those of the mighty kingdom?

Will this truly be the downfall
Of the last Tarquinian King?
The final fall…Rome forsaken
Rant with decadence and decay
Empty currency – military gone astray?

Corruption…inflation…
A bankrupt government…
Denial…
Sound familiar…

Perhaps fall is too final…
Rome still exists after all…
Perhaps adapted is better…
Are you ready to adapt
When the fall is our own?

Poem: Winds of Change

2008-12-15T19:44:00.000-08:00

Poem: Outside In

2008-12-14T15:41:00.000-08:00

A fiber optic lifeline
Instantaneous communication.
Satellite internet
From a missionary’s laptop
On the red Kenyan dirt
To a flat in Chicago
A taste of the world beyond
But no way out.

2008-12-14T15:35:00.000-08:00

Lisa Holdren tagged me for what I believe she called, Seven Swans Aswimming. So, here are my 7 brief things.

7. I agree with Lisa the number seven is overrated.

6. 12, now there is a number.

5. Did you know that if you were to purchase all of the items from the 12 days of Christmas it would cost you over $86,000...

4. Knowing that means that someone actually took the time to calculate it...and I actually took the time to know it...why?

3. Back to seven...the seven swans "aswimming" ... fine but the six geese "a-laying..." that is where I have a problem as some of my golf course had to recently hire a man with a dog and a whistle because the geese are so numerous that they are now considered a health hazard.

2. Doesn't anyone eat Christmas goose like Tiny Tim anymore?

1. Speaking of Christmas -- the twelve days are now here -- let the countdown begin.

Poem: Strong...True...Brave

2008-12-06T08:39:00.000-08:00

Amazing purple mountains
Sun bleached sands of gold
Plains all gently swaying
Treasures now unfold.

Red for the blood lost freedom
Blue of the truest test
White thus pure and noble
Giving all our best.

March on the quest for glory
Glory and honor hold chaste
Sparing the lose of our children
Save for the lives that we waste.

On to not more battles
Call them what you might.
A gun, grenade or canon…
A fight is still a fight.

Name not another campaign
Declare our freedom saved
Live by the words they wrote us…
The strong, the true, the brave.

Poem: Like Not Needing Anyone

2008-12-01T12:39:00.000-08:00

Like a day without the night
Like a moon that casts no light
Like a angel without wings
Like a bird that can not sing.

Like a life without a friend
Like a nightmare with no end
Like a world without the sun
Like not needing anyone.

Like a phoenix rising high
Like never asking why
Like a bandit and his gun
Like not needing anyone

Like his lies that need the dark
Like a sparkler with not spark
Like a war where no one dies
We need no more cold lies.

Poem: Let Them Go

2008-11-28T10:32:00.000-08:00

Let them go to war
Those who call for more money
To feed their addiction
Let they who dream
Of victory won
Let them
Be first to take up arms.

Poem: Inhumanosity

2008-11-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

The barbarosity of inhumanosity
Wait is that really a word?
Just like cold-hearted cruelty
The looking glass turned absurd.

Where lies benevolent compassion
When savagery rears its head
What of virtuous humanity
Why must the fire be fed?

On Satan’s wings and a southern drawl
On the fiery scepters sway
Come hence the maniacal monster
And rabbit go away.

The winding road and ticking clocks
The hearts with dancing spears
Fill in the hole – quick shovel strong
And quash a nation’s fears.

Poem: Physics

2008-11-20T13:09:00.001-08:00

Point, line, plane, cube
A dimension on the tip of a pin
Quantum, Einstein, relativity
Gravity weak and thin.

Speculation not perfection
A particle model flip
Dimension defined by science
Heaven now in our grip.

Poem: Perhaps it is Just Missing

2008-11-17T19:09:00.001-08:00

I don’t believe that yesterday
Was any better
Than today

I don’t believe my mother
Or my father
When they say

That days gone by were brighter
That the future’s dried and gone
That hope is all forgotten
That somewhere
Someone
Went wrong.

I don’t believe that hope
Is a misty dream gone by
I don’t believe
Tomorrow
Is a stream
That’s all but dry

I don’t believe
That all hope in the world
Is gone

Perhaps it’s just missing

Poem: Under the Bridge

2008-11-14T11:22:00.000-08:00

Under the bridge
Isolated
Under the bridge
A newspaper and a tin can cup
Under the bridge
Medication in a brown paper bag
Under the bridge
Forgotten
Under the bridge
Cars fly by
On top of the bridge
Never stopping to look
Under the bridge.

Poem: Times

2008-11-11T09:06:00.000-08:00

Promise Stay

2008-11-11T08:56:00.001-08:00

Aragon dreams
Knights in the wind
Begotten now
Reprise the sin

Self proclaimed land
A kingdom anew
Back to the world
Final debut

Fiefdom rings out
Long, strong and near
Vacated hope
Nay pioneer

Silent the words
Promises stay
Evil be gone
Please go away.

Bread Basket

2008-11-11T08:54:00.000-08:00

Gold capped mountains
Set with the sun
As day is devoured
By night’s darkness

The same sun
Casts shadows of dawn
On the endless
Desert horizon

Noontime’s blaze
Triggers hunger’s pangs
In houses of
Wood and cloth and stone

Only under this sun
Or encapsulated
In this blackness
Few will feed
On enough.

I Don't

2008-11-11T08:53:00.000-08:00

I don’t put sugar on my oatmeal to bridge the gap
I don’t butter my buns to stop the disparity
I don’t watch cable on Fridays so we are equal
I don’t buy Kona when Columbian’s on sale

And sometimes
When it’s really cold
I don’t put on my coat before I go outside
To make us equal you know

I don’t talk on my cell phone when I step over you
I don’t sip on my soda to bring parity
I don’t use my electric blanket so we feel the same
I don’t listen too loudly to the noise that I make

And sometimes
When I bother to look
I don’t think that we’re not alike
But then sometimesI don’t.

Suppression

2008-11-09T23:26:00.001-08:00

Outshine the mighty porcupine
That lives by the river below
Decline the lax supine opine
That set the valley aglow

Stickly…
Prickly…
Dangerous
Settle down and think.

Ickity
Rickety
Scrupulous?
A nod, a flip, a wink.

Outshine the mighty porcupine
That rules with fists of ore
Confine the blackened carbine shrine
Close tight and lock the door.

Wash the Rain

2008-11-09T23:25:00.000-08:00

Wash the rain
before the sun
falls prey
to the clouds
that threaten
encumbrance
of a city.

Scrub the hail
that falls to earth
before the sky
opens up
devouring
a matterless town.

Nothing That We Know

2008-11-09T13:31:00.001-08:00

Rooftop hop
Eagle’s drop
Wings on high
Soldier’s cry
Coming home
Nar to roam again.

Children gone
Forgotten song
Legal barely
Trodden warily
Yet to vote
For those to send
Again

Tweedle Dee
And Tweedle Dum
Were left to run the world
Said Tweedle Dee to Tweedle Dum
Should we our plan unfurl?

Said Tweedle Dee to Tweedle Dum
Our hand how can we show
When we, my Tweedle Deedle Dee
Know nothing that we know.

defcon four

2008-11-09T13:29:00.000-08:00

What is the equivalent
To defcon four
When the enemy rides horses
And fights with fire
And the long cold blade of the machete?

What happens
If neither the fire
Nor the blade can
Disturb our sleep
Without the reality of piercing our skin?

Wait…
What happens is…
We’ll go to the box store
And purchase a toy or two
From the country whose funds
Help sponsor the “conflict”
And cast away thoughts unpretty
On the backs of those
Whose skin can be pierced
In the reality of their own defcon four.

Homeless in America

2008-11-08T08:14:00.000-08:00

She came with a backpack that used to be pink
And ribbons in her hair and a fresh smile to
Match her clean but stubbornly stained dress.
She was eager, friendly and foreign
She held her grandmother’s hand tightly
Until it was time to let go and be with the rest.
She was different in all the ways that mattered
And the same in all the ways that mattered
And neither of those things would ever be noticed
If they weren’t pointed out
By well meaning adults
Who don’t mean so well at all.

Poetry Lessons for Teachers

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Poetry is a great way to engage students of all ages in both reading and writing. Below are links for excellent poetry lessons for all ages:

Poetry Chapbook Template -- Grades 4 and up. I have personnal used this in grades 4, 8 and 11. This was created as an enrichment project for Gifted students and then modified to meet the needs of all students.
Link to a List of Poetry Lessons

Remember

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Remember

Do you fear the bumps deep in the night
When you sleep in my neighborhood?
Is the glow from the moon all but dimmed
From the window in my room where you stood?

Do you, on your pedestal, mighty and tall
Look down upon me and the rest
Who sheltered from the cold night air
And offered your first sweet caress?

Do you forget from whence you came
From whom your loins were born
Falter not and don’t look back
But what when comes the storm?

Remember when your back is turned
And your eyes will not meet mine
Remember that I remember much more
And won’t be burned a second time.

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Tranquility?

Pacify not the conflict
Contention and discord be gone
Dissidence and strife breed warfare
Broken backs, bended knees, sorrow’s song.

Blot upheaval, turmoil, unrest
Nay for accord and serenity now
Find peace and blissful concord
Look beyond politics to show us how.

Tranquility not for freedom
Battle cries to flicker and fade
Scream not from silent proving ground
Sans victory our time allayed.