Thursday, October 28, 2010

Nostalgia

Lazily drifting through an autumn river
amidst fragrant fiery reds, delicious glistening golds, and a remnant of spring green
a nippy chill creeps up my arm
I absentmindedly pull at my jacket
though I don't mind it much

Memories fade to fantasy as the present pours in
Tomorrows are patient enough

Friday, October 22, 2010

For Gonzo

Why don't I feel ok to be me?
Why did I delete that line the first time I wrote it?
I think you convinced me that I am weird
You told me a plethora of times, but I never got the memo
Then I found like minds
I still feel insecure
Will the lines rhyme?
Can they feel me as I bear my soul?
Probably not.
To you these are the useless meanderings of a lost soul
At best, a terrorist
To me, I am me
Simple, aesthetic, and counter-cultural me.

I don't want to be like you
I want to make speeches, paint walls, and bring others down:
I want you to be like me
Free.
Well as free as you let me be
Which isn't that free
I don't believe in America
I don't believe in progress
and because I do not talk like you, dress like you, paint like you, sing like you, write like you
smoke like you, tear my family apart like you, keep secrets like you, you make me feel ashamed
“He is no Picasso”
Damn straight! And he is no me
“His work is languid and full of angst”
Your work is boring, monotonous, and inhuman.
You should be trying to impress me
Yet here I am
Sitting in a dark room
alone
Wondering what you think of me

Do not pity me America
For I pity you
our hopes and dreams do not rest in the wallets of the CEO's and Presidents
They are carried forward on the hands and knees of those you demoralized
Again, the slave carries the burden of us all!
But we look just enough like you that we hide in plain sight
Some rebel
Some shrink
Some kill themselves
Kick a puppy long enough and he starts to think he deserved it
I am not your bitch
I am the Da Vinci of my universe and you a Medici-mind of mine

Why am I different?
Because I believe in something other than profits, money, wars, cars, dinners, sex, success, clothes, and celebrity?
I feel outside because I am
and, honey, the weather is fine
Come,
s
e
e

t
h
e

s
u
n

s
e
t

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Insanity

“Save us! Save us!”
Dust off those rugged old shoes
And wind this trek of hardship into a spire of redemptive glory

“Harken! Patriots, assemble!
Money trees, securities, dividends, and democracy!”
(Can you hear the cornered elephant whisper a devil's errand ?)
Stony bread and fishy snakes for everyone!

“Off with his..” (!)
Heads or tails?

Serpents glisten gold as a Midas touch
But a devil is a devil is a devil...
no matter how you dress him

Sunday, October 17, 2010

No Boys Allowed

Sitting
seemingly aimless
stomach rumbling
pondering on the invisible edge

Mama's tears stain the pillows
Papa abuses Jack till he can't speak
Baby watches TV
learning how to want

“What's for dinner?”
The consumer asks
Dreams of tomorrow...

Wanderers in their own home
Laborers glued, stagnant
Opportunity knocks?
At a heavy oak door encrusted with jewels
No boys allowed

The Narrow Way

You have been deceived by a foreign way
But I will show you a narrow path
Winding through the hills of temperament
Opening up to the valley of peace

Those lagging will surely go astray
Ragged and decrepit
diverting from the course whenever the trek proves arduous

Those Free are free of commitment
Ever leading toward the promised land

Forward American soldier!
Leave your treasures
Forsake your “homes”
Listen, breath, and find where your heart leads you
Turn not your head from the light
Bright she may shine
But clear she guides the way

Peace, security, and other adulterated promises
What have they brought you?
The heart of man and woman burn with the fire of discontent
But are quenched with illusion

“Death to the unbeliever!”
Wisdom bows her head humbly and quietly marches on
Agreement is a bond too fickle to endure
But freedom leads her children home
with the bread crumbs of joy

All you need is love
yourself
your neighbor
Who else is there?

You have given over to a foreign way
But I will show you a narrow path
Winding through the hills of temperament
Opening up to the valley of peace

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Saturated Inspiration by Larry Swetman

A thousand ideas and a trillion words
Depression, suppression, and regression they go
Who am I urging headlong, my call?
I am a god among men
I have tasted forbidden fair
and serve it warm, glowing, and stagnant
Beatniks, freakniks, wear-travelers and beach tricks
Words lay flat under the weight of gravity
We breath life and fly away on a whisper of smoke
Ever expanding, reversing entropy
Fusing light into matter and verse into rain
Trickling with time and lathered in shame
Breath in my breath, run amuck... tear down my imagination
Saturated Inspiration
Woo me sweet muse
Out there
Here

Saturday, October 2, 2010

Why I Cry at Night by Larry Swetman

I cry
because blood runs in the streets where children used to play
because daddys cant come home cause their resting in their graves
because bombs fall at night while families try to sleep
because I can hear their stomachs rumbling... thousands of miles away
because policy can build walls but not bring them down
because black is white and 2+2=5

I cry
because my prayers fall on deaf ears
because a loving inclination reeks of treason and sedition
because they pit us against each other like puppeteers in a cruel show of irony
because lies permeate air waves like a AIDS... infecting, destroying, and alienating
because you don't

War is a cash cow
Lionizing the green serpent until he is fat on the lifeblood of the innocent
No!
Freedom glares like sunlight off the eagle's back
It gently caresses and kisses the cheek of an infant



I cry because lies have become the truth
And we haven't even noticed

FBI Targets Peace Activists For Supporting Terrorism (NPR)

This article can be found at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130274688

More than a dozen peace activists in the Midwest will face a federal grand jury in Chicago in the next few weeks, in an investigation related to terrorism.

The FBI searched the activists' homes last week, confiscating computers, photographs and other materials that the search warrants suggest could be evidence of "material support" of terrorist organizations.

One activist, Joe Iosbaker, says that before 7 a.m. last Friday, he heard a loud, sharp knock on the door of his Chicago home. "When I came down the stairs, there were, I don't know, 7, 8, 10 agents standing on our front porch," he says. "And I thought they were Jehovah's Witnesses. And I opened the door — and they showed me a search warrant."

Iosbaker, a labor organizer, says the agents came in and started searching the house, every inch of it.

Iosbaker's wife, Stephanie Weiner, says as many as 25 agents came through their house throughout the day, searching and removing items for 10 hours. "The house was turned upside-down, tip-to-toe, to such an extent that boxes from the '70s and '80s in our attic were brought down and looked through," she says.

Weiner, a community college teacher, says the agents went through their teenage sons' belongings, including notebooks and posters. They even inspected the words and designs on their T-shirts.

"It was a shocker. Um, we were stunned," she says. "I think I have to say we've suffered through a trauma."

At first, the couple was perplexed about why they were being singled out. But as the day went on, they realized they weren't the only ones to have been targeted.

Another home was being searched in Chicago, belonging to the executive director of the Arab American Action Network. And in Minneapolis-St. Paul, six more homes of anti-war activists were searched, along with the offices of the Minnesota Anti-War Committee. An anti-war activist in North Carolina says his home was searched by the FBI last Friday, too.

The search warrants were issued by the Joint Terrorism Task Force and signed by a federal judge. They sought "evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism."

Investigators appear to be looking for links between the activists and overseas groups the government classifies as terrorist organizations. The groups include the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine — and in at least a couple of cases, Hezbollah.

Iosbaker and Weiner say they've spoken out against U.S. foreign policy in Latin America and the Middle East, but they deny they've done anything that can be construed as "material" support for those groups.

Weiner calls the searches an attack on a political movement.

"It was truly to intimidate, to divide, to silence and separate the movement," she says.

After the searches, hundreds of anti-war activists protested outside the FBI's field headquarters in Minneapolis, Chicago and other cities, to denounce what they contend is an effort to squash free speech against U.S. policy.

But Chicago FBI spokesman Ross Rice says that's not what's going on.

"The FBI investigates allegations of violations of federal criminal law," he says. "We do not investigate any person or group because of their political persuasion or beliefs, and we support and defend the right of every citizen to peaceably assemble and protest."

Rice and the U.S. attorney's office in Chicago would add only that this is an ongoing criminal investigation, and no arrests have been made.

Several of those subpoenaed are to appear before a federal grand jury in the coming weeks, starting next Tuesday.