I'm not afraid of anything... except, perhaps, a poet.

NEW YORK (AP) - The White House said Wednesday it postponed a poetry symposium because of concerns that the event would be politicized. Some poets had said they wanted to protest military action against Iraq. (January 2003)

"I'm not afraid of anything," said Kruschev,
"And they know it!
I'm not afraid of anything
Except, perhaps, a poet."

~ E Y Harburg, "Yevtushenko?", from Rhymes for the Irreverent, 1965

Crucifixion of Disposable People

Democracy, traditionally nailed to the cross
The economic military, the surreptitious boss
No public employment just deployment, the cost
Human-Life, the unforgivable loss

New-Age feudalism fosters economic deprivation, the
Contemporary peasant, the pheasant under glass,
served to the royal-ruling class

The Political-Papacy makes love to the gold jewel
Prostitutes, The Golden Rule
The military tool enshrouded in

Hear, come Santa Claus, hear, come Santa Claus with gifts
Weapons of Mass-Destruction
Merry-Crucifixion, Merry-Crucifixion

Poverty, economical and societal sabotage
Maintained by the struggle for world-power, the facade
Of genocide’s judiciary-legislative-executive entourage

Poverty, the parochial purveyor of democracy
The unilateral collateral for the aristocracy
The Holy Political Empire, the squire and page
Remnant from the patriotic, Dark Age

The poverty-police practitioners petitioning pander
People are prisoners to propagandized slander
Starved into surrender, all for legal-tender

People, the glorious labor-force for globalization
The justification for human immolation
The auspices of world-domination

The Tradition of Perdition, the crusades, the holy wars,
The war cry, the warhead, the welfare of warfare
Is war-fair, Is war-fair. Is war-fair
The war game, the war horse, the warmonger
The war like citadel, protecting vassals, slavery and the
Kingdom of serfdom, the Christian infidel
Secret societies, the pantheon of political hell
The new and improved Code of Silence, knell

Intellectual enterprise is merchandise in disguise as a
Global, culture-vulture, feasting on underdeveloped humanity

~ Josephine Dixon-Banks

Americans Pain

Indeed to be a american is a great pain
every second in war with the world to win
you open your eye lids on a nuclear mine
closing the eyes to truth and beauty - gods twin
'As long as I am OK it is all fine.
God Save America, God bless America' - blemished line
thus begging only for your 'blessed' kith and kin
brutality and egotism is your real skin
monopoly and aggression being a veiled sign
exploitation of one and all a grand evil design;
this will only create few more eleven and nine;
and a thousand more brethren of osama bin
holding and brandishing the policing cane
bombing all corners in a supersonic plane
actions and thoughts being heavily insane
greed and creed are sacred earths bane
meaningless false living is utterly vain;
Ah Brute! Mother Earth is a Gift of God to dance and dine;
will we avoid fear and greed -evil twain? ?
Will simple love and true wisdom ever shine? ?
or is wisdom trivial pleasures, women and wine? ?
with no remorse at this cruel life of sin
still counting everywhere the skeletons slain
(Wrote this poem In a forest -When I met a American Who had left his nation with disgust..)

~ Murali Ramanath,

The War That Men Do

Agreed. It's greed.
Politics is war without bloodshed...
War is politics with bloodshed
Making peace is too harder than making war.
The object of war...
Is not to die for your country
But to make the other b*stard die for his
War is not an adventure
It's a disease within us
We can no more win a war...
Than we win an earthquake
A harvest peace grows...
From a seed of contentment

~ Cynthia Aluning

Gears Of War

politician's tempers burning, burning
the gears of war are turning, turning

tempers flare and fingers point
all the while turning, turning
the gears of war are turning, turning

our young men start to load up
to go fight a war thats about, what?
all the while turning, turning
the gears of war are turning, turning

bullets fly and people die
car bombs go off and people cry
all the while turning, turning
the gears of war are turning, turning

politicians back home argue over money
our soldiers don't think its funny
all the while turning, turning
the gears of war are turning, turning

what exactly is this war for?
must there be more blood and gore?
all the while turning, turning
the gears of war are turning, turning

so many fight and so many die
why must the feds make their families cry?
all the while turning, turning
the gears of war are turning, turning

this is war
and i would like to say,
we don't need any more

SUPPORT OUR TROOPS! !

~ Justin Neifert

We Die A Little Together In War

We die a little together in war
Little by little we keep the score
But more will come to carry on
The fighting to with we belong.
War among human is a common thing
Even though to youth death it brings
Who and why the what for
Human disagreement among themselves the core.
For all of our similarities we seem not to know
But time after time to war we go
Bringing to it all our skills
A better way to kill and kill.
Gods are dumb against this will
But are consulted and prayed to still
To take a side in the daily killing
I question if they could would they be willing
To keep us from the fight?
Some may say to question war during war is not right
That we must support the war goers in their fight
I question man’s degree to understand
That there must be a way to save man
From himself and his war-ful deeds
So hear me know if you please
And let this verse plant a seed
That we are more alike then we agree,
A like in peace a like in war
We have written in blood our memoir
When will all the killing be done
For all times beyond the battle won
When will man come to find
That all life is divine.

~ David E. Patton

Does It Matter?

Does it matter? -- losing your legs? . .
For people will always be kind,
And you need not show that you mind
When the others come in after hunting
To gobble their muffins and eggs.

Does it matter? -- losing your sight? . . .
There's such splendid work for the blind;
And people will always be kind,
As you sit on the terrace remembering
And turning your face to the light.

Do they matter? -- those dreams from the pit?...
You can drink and forget and be glad,
And people won't say that you're mad;
For they'll know you've fought for your country
And no one will worry a bit.

~ Siegfried Sassoon

I Saw a Man

I saw a man without a leg
And when he caught my stare
He said, "I left the mate to this
Buried Over There."

I saw a man without an eye
And when he looked at me
He said, "I gave the other one
To save democracy."

I saw a man without a heart
His hands were soft and clean
He said, "I made my little pile
In Nineteen-seventeen."

~ Unknown

"It's a soldier's job to stop a bullet,"
They say.
And so I stopped a bullet,
And then they stopped my pay.

Should I write to my Congressman?

Friend, a Congressman has two ends:
A sitting end and a thinking end.
And since his job depends upon his Seat,
Why bother?

~ Rhymes for the Irreverent