Favorite Political Poetry

William Blake's Jerusalem:

And did those feet in ancient time
Walk upon England's mountains green?
And was the Holy Lamb of God
On England's pleasant pastures seen?
And did the Countenance Divine
Shine forth upon our clouded hills?
And was Jerusalem builded here
Amongst these dark satanic mills?

Bring me my bow of burning gold
Bring me my arrows of desire
Bring me my spear: O clouds unfold!
Bring me my Chariot of Fire.
I will not cease from mental fight
Nor shall my sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England's green and pleasant land.

 

Here's a sort of Post-9/11 anthem that our band recorded a year and a half ago.


First Rate Hate
©2001 Wes Heppler

You swear you must protect the sacred ground
And no one else can hang around
It’s written in the sand and mud
And so you seal it with the children’s blood

It’s eatin’ up your soul until it’s cold and hazy
Let it take a hold and now you’re ************in’ crazy

Chorus
Hey, hey, that’s a first rate hate there
Yeah man, what do you know?
Hey, hey, your time is runnin’ late there
Yeah, yeah, you’ve got to
Let it go
Let it go

Say that the government’s gone off the path
And now they need the guidance of your wrath
So come militia man and KKK
Who will you kill to make it work your way?

It’s eatin’ up your soul until it’s cold and hazy
Let it take a hold and now you’re ************in’ crazy

second chorus
Hey, hey, that’s a first rate hate there
Yeah man, what do you know?
Hey, hey, your time is runnin’ late there
Yeah, yeah, you’ve got to (Got to)
Let it go
Let it go

Everybody knows it
It has to be enough
It’s time to really show it
All you need is ...
Love

Say your religion is the only one
And just to prove it, well you got a gun
Went out and found a God to understand
If you can kill you’ll reach the Promised Land

It’s eatin’ up your soul until it’s cold and hazy
Let it take a hold and now you’re ************in’ crazy

repeat second chorus

 

There once was a man from Nantucket. . .

 

Who sold "peace, not war" by the bucket...

 

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=sto.../ap/20030130/ap_on_go_pr_wh/poets_white_house

Speaking of poetry.

 

Bent double, like old beggars under sacks,
Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge,
Till on the haunting flares we turned out backs,
And towards our distant rest began to trudge.
Men marched asleep. Many had lost their boots,
But limped on, blood-shod. All went lame, all blind;
Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots
Of gas-shells dropping softly behind.

Gas! GAS! Quick, boys!--An ecstasy of fumbling
Fitting the clumsy helmets just in time,
But someone still was yelling out and stumbling
And flound'ring like a man in fire or lime.--
Dim through the misty panes and thick green light,
As under a green sea, I saw him drowning.

In all my dreams before my helpless sight
He plunges at me, guttering, choking, drowning.

If in some smothering dreams, you too could pace
Behind the wagon that we flung him in,
And watch the white eyes writhing in his face,
His hanging face, like a devil's sick of sin,
If you could hear, at every jolt, the blood
Come gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs
Bitter as the cud
Of vile, incurable sores on innocent tongues,--
My friend, you would not tell with such high zest
To children ardent for some desperate glory,
The old Lie: Dulce et decorum est
Pro patria mori.

-Wilfred Owen

 

How dare you say that of Mike Lastort!

 

"Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards" by Billy Bragg

It may have been Camelot for Jack and Jacqueline
But on the Che Guevara highway filling up with gasoline
Fidel Castro's brother spies a rich lady who's crying
Over luxury's disappointment
So he walks over and he's trying
To sympathise with her but he thinks that he should warn her
That the Third World is just around the corner

In the Soviet Union a scientist is blinded
By the resumption of nuclear testing and he is reminded
That Dr Robert Oppenheimer's optimism fell
At the first hurdle

In the Cheese Pavilion and the only noise I hear
Is the sound of someone stacking chairs
And mopping up spilt beer
And someone asking questions and basking in the light
Of the fifteen fame filled minutes of the fanzine writer

Mixing Pop and Politics he asks me what the use is
I offer him embarrassment and my usual excuses
While looking down the corridor
Out to where the van is waiting
I'm looking for the Great Leap Forwards

Jumble sales are organised and pamphlets have been posted
Even after closing time there's still parties to be hosted
You can be active with the activists
Or sleep in with the sleepers
While you're waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

One leap forward, two leaps back
Will politics get me the sack?

Here comes the future and you can't run from it
If you've got a blacklist I want to be on it

It's a mighty long way down rock 'n roll
From Top of the Pops to drawing the dole

If no one seems to understand
Start your own revolution and cut out the middleman

In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
But this is reality so give me some room

So join the struggle while you may
The Revolution is just a T-shirt away
Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards

 

It's actually a song. Billy Bragg is England's version of Phil Ochs.

http://www.billybragg.co.uk/

 

Steve Earle's Jersusalem

Jerusalem
(Steve Earle)

I woke up this mornin' and none of the news was good
And death machines were rumblin' 'cross the ground where Jesus stood
And the man on my TV told me that it had always been that way
And there was nothin' anyone could do or say

And I almost listened to him
Yeah, I almost lost my mind
Then I regained my senses again
And looked into my heart to find

That I believe that one fine day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem

Well maybe I'm only dreamin' and maybe I'm just a fool
But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school
But somewhere along the way I strayed and I never looked back again
But I still find some comfort now and then

Then the storm comes rumblin' in
And I can't lay me down
And the drums are drummin' again
And I can't stand the sound

But I believe there'll come a day when the lion and the lamb
Will lie down in peace together in Jerusalem

And there'll be no barricades then
There'll be no wire or walls
And we can wash all this blood from our hands
And all this hatred from our souls

And I believe that on that day all the children of Abraham
Will lay down their swords forever in Jerusalem

 

Re: Our Newest Coward

First off - I don't recall LBJ or Nixon opening up the Blue Room to anti war protesters? You know what the mistake here was - it was in turning an event for the celebration of beautiful literature into political grandstanding.

Second - "Dubyna's" mouthpiece was right - free speech is a right (flame away Maher) - self speech restriction is something which should be practiced. If Maher and D'Souza feel the right to publicly say what was said - then the administration has the free speech right to respond.
Third - Maher was right - lobbing cruise missiles 2000 miles into Iraq was an act of cowardice. But what he did not say - was that that was Clinton's personal decision over the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time - who said that although that was an option - they felt it was not the correct one to deal with the situation. They felt it would display a lack of commitment on the part of the US.

Fourth - D'Souza is correct. The terrororists were not cowards. They blew themselves up to achieve their sense of martyrdom and escape. Unfortunately the WTC and Pentagon and third aircraft victims really did not want to leave this existence with them. They are still terrorists, we still need to deal with the rest of the vermin.

 

I don't know what to think of this situation. On the one hand, I get a little tired of people converting every public event into a political protest. I certainly wouldn't support banning that behavior or anything stupid like that but I think that the constant protests on myriad issues at any event likely to attract a crowd or (more importantly) television cameras does little to change people's minds. The constant buzz of protest seems to weaken the impact and its penetration of so many public events seems intent on ruining any enjoyment of public life. This narrowing of public life into just an ongoing series of political skirmishes seems a poor way to create a civil society.

How many of us stop to learn what the guy carrying the placard is protesting? Do you read the little pamphlets handed out in front of subway stations? This effect seems particularly powerful when coalitions band together to create a protest march or event that is so diverse as to appear like a chaotic assemply of fringe groups. I'm thinking here about some of the events I'm seen in DC like the anti-globalization/IMF/World bank/meat-eating/free-trade/fur/capitalism/Israel/etc. events. The issues become lost in the storm of noise and the more rational arguements swept away under a deluge of extremism.

On the other hand, the White house just appears cowardly and inept when they cancel an event like this. I also understand the difficulty that these groups have in getting the public's attention and the advantage that the administration has due to its bully pulpit and big business has with their ownership of media. Are poets going to shake apart the foundations of the nation? Will a well-designed couplet destroy the war effort and pierce the shield of our national security? Can't the administration's stance defend itself against those who disagree?

I think the poets would have hurt their stance by using the entire event as a chance to protest this one policy. Many Americans still seem to view the First Lady as somehow insulated from the partisan clashes. I have a feeling that those on the fringe would cheer and smile at the antics of the poets while the rest of the country ignored them or looked down on them for the "hijacking" the First Lady's event. No minds changed just an increase in illwill.

 

Borrowing from James Taranto:

There once was a thug named Saddam
Who desired a nuclear bomb
But then President Bush
Kicked Saddam in the tush
And deposed him with quite some aplomb

 

Speaking of Billy Bragg....

Help save the youth of America
Help save them from themselves
Help save the sun-tanned surfer boys
And the California girls

When the lights go out in the rest of the world
What do our cousins say
They're playing in the sun and having fun, fun, fun
Till Daddy takes the gun away

From the Big Church to the Big River
And out to the Shining Sea
This is the Land of Opportunity
And there's a Monkey Trial on TV

A nation with their freezers full
Are dancing in their seats
While outside another nation
Is sleeping in the streets

Don't tell me the old, old story
Tell me the truth this time
Is the Man in the Mask or the Indian
An enemy or a friend of mine

Help save the youth of America
Help save the youth of the world
Help save the boys in uniform
Their mothers and their faithful girls

Listen to the voice of the soldier
Down in the killing zone
Talking about the cost of living
And the price of bringing him home

They're already shipping the body bags
Down by the Rio Grande
But you can fight for democracy at home
And not in some foreign land

And the fate of the great United States
Is entwined in the fate of us all
And the incident at Chernobyl proves
The world we live in is very small

And the cities of Europe have burned before
And they may yet burn again
And if they do I hope you understand
That Washington will burn with them
Omaha will burn with them
Los Alamos will burn with them

 

Alk’idaa’ jini...

I Am He
By Robert Ellis

I am he
that cares too much
and allows this world to penetrate.
I am the man
that loves too deeply,
while others merely perpetrate.
Do you see this man
or the boy inside,
with emotions to great
and plentiful to hide?
They've shorn my hair
and crushed my pride.
Taken my land
and my wife from my side.
A man of honor,
whose spirit remains free
with love to give,
but finding none that need.
So take the hand
of a distant Crow child
and with the Spirit of my fathers,
the wolf will run wild.

 

And still more Billy Bragg....

"The Space Race is Over"

When I was young I told my mum
I'm going to walk on the Moon someday
Armstrong and Aldrin spoke to me
From Houston and Cape Kennedy
And I watched the Eagle landing
On a night when the Moon was full
And as it tugged at the tides, I knew deep inside
I too could feel its pull

I lay in my bed and dreamed I walked
On the Sea of Tranquillity
I knew that someday soon we'd all sail to the moon
On the high tide of technology
But the dreams have all been taken
And the window seats taken too
And 2001 has almost come and gone
What am I supposed to do?

Now that the space race is over
It's been and it's gone and I'll never get to the moon
Because the space race is over
And I can't help but feel we've all grown up too soon

Now my dreams have all been shattered
And my wings are tattered too
And I can still fly but not half as high
As once I wanted to

Now that the space race is over
It's been and it's gone and I'll never get to the moon
Because the space race is over
And I can't help but feel we've all grown up too soon

My son and I stand beneath the great night sky
And gaze up in wonder
I tell him the tale of Apollo And he says
"Why did they ever go?"
It may look like some empty gesture
To go all that way just to come back
But don't offer me a place out in cyberspace
Cos where in the hell's that at?

Now that the space race is over
It's been and it's gone and I'll never get out of my room
Because the space race is over
And I can't help but feel we're all just going nowhere