Poetry Page

RICH MAN? POOR MAN
by Don Shannonhouse

Roll on by in your grand machine
Maybe you think I smell bad or am
Infectious or . . . just too damn
Ignorant to waste a second glance on . . .
Or . . . your world is just too far removed from
The real one the rest of us live in
To allow you a glimpse beyond.

Roll on into oblivion
And when the time comes to sort out
The good from the bad,
Maybe in the infinitesimal turnings of
A universe gone mad . . .
There will be a place for all of us
Where nothing escapes the eyes and
Ears and feelings of anyone . . . and then
You will know what drives us all.

Rich Man -
Poor Man:
Belly full o' pain
Who'll feed the hungry?
Who'll stop the rain?

Wise man -
Odd man:
Politician:

King
When will you realize
We're all one and the
Same?

Who'll free
The Prisoner?
Who'll stop the pain?

Slide on away in your black
Limousine . . .

LAO TSE
(Chinese, 6 th century B.C.)

If there is to be peace in the world,
There must be peace in the nations.
If there is to be peace in the nations,
There must be peace in the cities.
If there is to be peace in the cities,
There must be peace among neighbors.
If there is to be peace among neighbors,
There must be peace in the home.
If there is to be peace in the home,
There must be peace in the heart.
The best captain does not plunge headlong
Nor is the best soldier a fellow hot to fight.
The greatest victor wins without a battle:
He who overcomes men understands them.
There is a quality of quietness
Which quickens people by no stress:
"Fellowship with heaven," as of old,
Is fellowship with men and keeps its hold."

THE STAR WARS SONG
(adapted from The Raging Grannies Songbook   of British Columbia, 1993 and su ng to the tune of "The Yellow Rose of Texas")

The terrorists are coming,
They're dangerous as sin -
Let's strengthen National Defense
To save our precious skin;

We'll need more bombs and bombers
To keep them from our door;
The Cold War may be over
But we've found another war:

Chorus:   More guns and ammunition,
              More soldiers and more wars,
              Will cut the lists of terrorists
              And keep them from our doors!

Let's boost the Star Wars budget,
Let's test another Cruise;
Let's build a bunker-busting-bomb
To show them we can't lose!

There's more profit in munitions
Than making peace with nations;
It keeps our leaders happy
And boosts our Corporations.

Chorus:   More funds for National Defense,
              More jets and battleships,
              More WMD's and no more freeze
              Will stop Apocalypse!

EAGLE VALOR, CHICKEN MIND
by Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962)

Unhappy country, what wings you have! Even here,
Nothing important to protect, and ocean-far from the nearest enemy,
                        what a cloud
Of bombers amazes the coast mountain, what a hornet-swarm of fighters,
And day and night the guns practicing.

Unhappy, eagle wings and beak, chicken brain,
Weep (it is frequent in human affairs), weep for the terrible magnificence
                        of the means.

The ridiculous incompetence of the reasons, the bloody and shabby
Pathos of the result.