The Poems
The Reformed Gentleman
Sought he her naughtier,
but
Caught he her haughtier,
so
Bought he her Gautier,
and
Taught he her what to hear.
Platitudes
Pithy remarks
when bottled up
and distributed wholesale
tend to spoil.
Fluid ideas
ferment well beyond elegance
the solid waste remaining
settles to the bottom as
pith in vinegar.
© 2004 Jon Holland
Sculptor's Block
I whittled on the tree of life
till I got bored and I quit.
A friend said,
'Carve your life.'
And I did
Until my chisel broke
On the first knot.
© 2004 Jon Holland
Gossip
Go,
Sip a cup of coffee
Socialize
With your friends.
Gossip,
A cup of coffee
Social lies
With your friends.
© 2004 Jon Holland
Pustule of History
'I said,' said Thomas Jefferson,
'I think there is, I think there is one.'
'One what?' I said, 'There is one what?'
'Not what,' he said, 'but rather wen.'
'How when?' I said, 'I wot not when.'
He told me then:
'There is a wen in the corse of human events.'
© 2006 Jon Holland
Glazier's Lament
Here I sit,
All brokenhearted.
Came to fit,
But only sharded.
© 2005 Jon Holland
Spelling Rule 42:1
h-e-a-r-t or h-a-r-t
e before a
except
after the water brook
© 2005 Jon Holland
Life's Syntax
Soul
is greater than
the parse of its hum.
© 2005 Jon Holland
Recovery
While working through
my own set of personal issues
walking the walk
I met a woman
a victim's victim
speaking anguish
as a second languish
accent ague
accent grave
talking the talk.
© 2005 Jon Holland
Commuted
salvation
pastor said
first a whisper
then a breeze
finally a gale
swept away the holy babble
and revealed his trance position
slavation
© 2006 Jon Holland
Depletion
I see tomorrow
as a few
cheer the manic cry
Oil is lost!
We have no energy
to go on.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Domestic Xenophobia
peanut fanciers
fail to attain
cashew
with the nut lovers crowd
© 2006 Jon Holland
Brittle
My door is ajar
with sweet expectations
of your return.
My heart is ajar
with hope.
Close it gently if you must
but please do not slam it shut
and shatter my dreams.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Cause, C'est Libre
If my friends and I
bitched and griped
for a noble and worthy cause
threw rocks
burned property
broke things
and looted stores
throwing a public tantrum
in the middle of the city
police and swat teams advancing
tv and news crews watching
their audiences looking on and crying
or cheering
Then we would have invoked
that universal social ideal
equal riots for all before the law.
© 2006 Jon Holland
My Daddy Said
Everyone knows a person who . . .
We all remember a time when . . .
That always happens whenever I . . .
Personal observations
parlayed to conclusions
bearing the weighty credence
of common sense
our fathers' legacy
anchored in our past
the settled proof of the middle ages
running rampant in our world today
lacking curiosity
mocking rigor
dismissing science
never to change.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Long Lasting Love
Ulysses
returned in rags
after a long day at the office
to find his wife
stringing the beaus along.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Nightmare for Lazarus
aliens
immigrants
not enough fences
not enough detention camps
buildmo
gitmo
© 2006 Jon Holland
Royal Stats
winsome
loosesome
some reigned out
© 2006 Jon Holland
Virtual Burial
Criminitly!
plaintive scene
the light to truth
be calm
Cry my nightly plaint
I've seen the lie
to truth become
She laughed she cried she loved
she died
and the sign
on the cemetery gate says
CLOSED: Do Not Inter
Minimum Rage
Morph for Them
i-n-c-o-m-p-e-t-e-n-t-s
i-n-c-o-m-p-e-t-t-a-n-t-s
i-n-c-o-m-e-p-i-t-t-a-n-c-e
Minimum wage is the
income pittance
promised by the rich
delivered by their lackeys
to the working poor.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Wickedness of a Candle
Waxing ideas
from sense and thought
rise through my mind
and burst into flame
illuminating my life,
perhaps yours.
The wick
is the vehicle.
All the rest is fuel.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Talk Radio
DMZ
Korea has one.
We could too
if we had troops on the border,
but we don't.
So
what M word could we use?
My God!
Will these people never quit?
© 2006 Jon Holland
Looking In
The sound
of my reflection
is the
mere roar
of my mnd
© 2006 Jon Holland
Impediment
For five years
he was Uncle Woger
coming to visit
his damaged niece.
Now at seven
with focused attention
her lips and tongue just so
Uncle Roger is beaming with surprise.
In five years
when her muscle memory
has taken over
Uncle Roger will have forgotten
his mispronounced self.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Imperial Evangelism
Ambassadors
favor curry with the king.
Settlers
curry favor with the diplomats.
The natives
curtsy to their captors
and suffer their conversion.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Public Stand
Lemma Nayed
Bush Ferment
Sours
Decider
© 2007 Jon Holland
Public Outcry
Lemma Nayed:
Bush Ferment Sours Decider
© 2006 Jon Holland
Kudos for Commerce
Our neck of the woods
had a creek in it
three miles from the highway
pure, potable
proud and perfect.
Now the interstate crosses over
this drainage channel
abraded, bladed, and graded
dressed in concrete
fated to be a relic of my memory.
Our neck of the woods
has a crick in it.
© 2006 Jon Holland
Good Times
Double the first
You get the second
Double the second
You get the fourth
Double the fourth
You get eighth
Firsg and second
You get the third
Double the third
You get the sixth
Second and third
You get the fifth
Double the fifth
You get the tenth
Third and fourth
You get the seventh
Fourth and fifth
You get the ninth
Now you're finished
Now you're done
Good times have just begun
© 2006 Jon Holland
Prolific
His greatest desire
was to write
volumes and volumes and volumes
tantalizing sketches
illuminating glimpses
comprehensive biographies
replete with unimagined detail.
The sole review
of this dyslexic author's
only published work
credited him as
singularly profilic.
© 2006 Jon Holland
...to Draw the Line
Raster is faster
but
Scalable is salable
© 2007 Jon Holland
Floodgates
The floodgates of despair
pushed hard against
the rising tide of confidence
holding back
a creative storm surge
redolent with success
in honesty of expression
and competent execution
The floodgates have collapsed
releasing a vigorous
beckoning odor of hope
a spoonerism
of the mechanism of depression
the good flatus
a new beginning
© 2007 Jon Holland
View from the Back
an old woman
short cropped gray hair
hooded jacket and sneakers
in a wheelchair
at the next table
holding up her left hand
gnarled and twisted with arthritis
waving her fingers
at herself
as if exercising
staring at them
wondering?
what is happening?
© 2007 Jon Holland
Survival
We needed them then
We need them now
protesters
those unkempt
free loving long haired
students calling for
free speech
love, peace, and community
no more war
dow shalt not kill
an end to napalm and agent orange
rejected by their parents
and some of their peers
for their
freedom of expression
outrageous demeanor
hair
uncommon often unruly
persistence and commitment
forced a change
from darkness to cloudy sunshine
a better day.
The skies are graying again
We need the free-wheeling spirit
of that age
their laughs
their libertines
their hirsute preppiness
We needed them then
We need them now
© 2007 Jon Holland
The Burden of Admonitions
I have no illusions
of our reality.
Yet you accuse me of dreaming
wishing
the impossible, the impractical
into our lives.
I consider existence
beyond our common ken
and live there a while
alone together
watching and remembering
as a child learns.
Yes, I am a wistful thinker.
Reptile Diction
In fantasies
of reptile diction
rattlesnakes
are fanger than 'striction.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Truce Denied
Diplomacy is dead:
their heels dug in .
daring one another to falter
neither listening nor yielding,
no common ground to
meet upon and embrace.
There's not a dime's worth
of deference
© 2007 Jon Holland
Escapement
Old and dazed
he slides back into his past
seeking release from
bone pain, forgetfulness, and withering
to a time of
youthful vigor
mental clarity
and aching from hard work.
The olden days
a refuge
as the clock ticks along
© 2007 Jon Holland
Connection
Thanks for calling,
keep it up.
Thanks for listening,
keep it open.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Anthropomorphic Guilt
Ferns and other
vegetative creatures
share asexual
special features
for which they suffer
shame and strife,
sporiety is the
vice of life.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Dimming, then Winking Out
Skeptic calls
of an angry wide-eyed populace
have brought into focus
crime, thuggery, and deceit
lurking in the shadows
This secretive administration
of our White House
bewilders Americans
embarrasses the nation
and darkens the glow
of our shining city on the hill.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Last Twill and Vestment
Take it to the chaplain
and they did:
shame, dishonor, lying, deceit, cheating,
demons, pain, and grief
streams of anguish
webs of dismay
clumps of hatred
floods of stress
punctuated by rays of insight
momentary glimpses of calm.
He heard it all
and gave them everything he had.
Now he lies here spent
loyal to his troops
faithful to his convictions
a quiet hero at rest.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Stewardship
Daddy Quail
came round the corner of the house
past the sculpture
scouting his path to the catclaw tree.
Mom followed looking
left, then right, left again and right,
checking on her four youngsters
not in tow as they were this last spring
but running well off the safe path
testing their youthful wills,
all headed for their family gathering
in the shade.
It's late July now, nearly August,
in September the hunters will arrive
and this family will become a covey.
© 2007 Jon Holland
To the Well Meaning
How dire you project
the outcome of my plans!
Would that you turn to stone
petrifying your sappy
wooden-headedness
and leave me to pursue my dreams.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Confetti
Many of us
looking on the blight
sighed collectively
baffled by
rape, killing, conquest, and imperial plundering
blessed by medieval arrogance,
corporate branches
tightly bound
round the Crawford axe
shredding our constitution
cross cut
Paparazzi in The Hague
America in the perp walk
conviction certain
© 2007 Jon Holland
The Blade in the Bundle
Seek solace in your privy, Liege.
Keep up your merry talk and racy tales
of sin and redemption.
Celebrate your bigot revival
knowing it's hard,
hard to sustain the hot heat of hate,
simpler to let your warm anger ring
numbing the nation with that
innocuous drumming worldwide ringtone:
'The war will never die.'
while troops and citizens
shed their lives and fortunes
for your bottom line.
© 2007 Jon Holland
U Logs
Great...Wonderful...Thoughtful...Kind...
We throw them on the funeral pyre
heaping the altar over with good words
well meaning praise for the dead
a vocal sacrifice
hoping to gain credit for our
beneficent caring after death.
Let us speak of the person's
acts and behavior
encouraging the eulogy to emerge
from the minds of the communicants
filling the sanctuary
with loving empathy and thanks
for a fellow life lived.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Presidential Empathy
Support the war!
Go shopping!
Fill our corporate coffers
with your hard earned dollars.
Sweep those shelves clean
with your war spending sacrifice.
Support the troops!
Shop till they drop
© 2007 Jon Holland
Freed and Exposed
Profound expressions of enduring ideas
too often languish on the pages
of dusty volumes of poetry
shackled by rhyme, meter, and obscure vocabulary
an imagined badge of essential poetic skill.
The sense of the world
sent to us from great minds
undelivered, unopened, and unread
entombed in the forgettable past.
Today the course of poetry
lively and intense
has slammed into free verse
careening through generations
of young writers
speaking in the voice of the populace
exhuming the eternal thought of the ages
for a welcoming consuming audience.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Left? Center? Right?
The question persists
the arguments rage
Which side are you on?
Each burning issue of the day
is a common point of origin
on any of an infinite number of axes
of thought.
The outermost limit
the horizon
of this aggregation of rays
is uncertain and unstable
forever expanding and retreating.
So who can say
with confidence
with finality
where the center is?
© 2007 Jon Holland
Historian and Scholar
Bent over old texts
and obscure source documents
sorting and thinking
he teases out a closer look
at the reality of the past
setting the current popular myth
on its ear,
only to be ridiculed and belittled
by mindless indoctrinated followers
of the old stories
believers in the immutability of history
learned from their fathers.
Those who pore we shall always
have with us
but why the angry?
© 2007 Jon Holland
Evolution of Personal Faith
The pastors
preached their fire and brimstone sermons
expounded their sanctimonious chatter
chiding their congregations
for failing to
pray correctly, devoutly
testify publicly, often enough,
give generously of their pocketbooks,
their meager incomes.
They set themselves up
for a holy ride
their sacred duty
to shepherd flocks of wooly souls
through life's perils
to heavenly rewards.
The CEO of God Incorporated
watching for love
looked over his world
and finding fear
shed his puppeteers
his minions of madness
gone awry.
© 2007 Jon Holland
Pelting Mots
We tell our children
America is a melting pot
a cauldron of simmering
cultures and faiths
softening our social edges
blending our moral values
rendering us all
more or less,
as one people
strengthened by the heat of
national unity.
The myth persists
the melting pot
lingers on our lips
a comforting childhood protection
a defensive distraction from
the reality of senseless wild bigotry
sexual slurs
racial epithets
ethnic stereotypes
petrified words of hate
we hurl at our neighbors
crushing their love
destroying their community
demeaning our brotherhood, our sisterhood.
We are stoning ourselves
to civil and moral death
© 2008 Jon Holland
The And Bigots
We are programmed
by our parents, churches, and schools
to recognize ourselves
in the faces and behaviors
of others like us.
We are the world
We are the doers
We are the message
Those who don't fit
who don't match
our common sense of identity
they are the ampersands
surrounding us in vast meaningless numbers
all those others whose existence
carriy no weight
express no ideas
simply place holders for white space
We are the doers, the speakers
We are the message of the world
© 2008 Jon Holland
Dear, Dear
Does deer hart
fawn
hind stag buck?
© 2008 Jon Holland
Moral Erosion
The rutting of our parents
that animalistic act
conjugation
condemned by pastors and preachers
despised by the church
the sin of the flesh
constrained by marriage
relegated to procreative duty
eternal punishment for
original sin.
Train up a child
set him set her
on the proper path
mindlessly plodding
through life:
the rutting of your child's
mind and spirit
is assured.
© 2008 Jon Holland
Criticism 101
The critic's role
is not to shoo
but give a work
its rightful due.
So keep your wits
don't join the few
who chid off more
than they could boo.
:
© 2008 Jon Holland
Homeless
A sea of human lives
broken and lost
forgotten but for
their damnable presence
silently sharing the same longings
unable to tell their stories
for the lack of an audience
the same loves
the same pain and anguish.
that the rest of us suffer.
We see only an ugly static world
of miscreants and misfits
lazy leeches and worthless wretches
always present
never seeming to change
a slum ocean view of humanity
to be spat upon.
© 2008 Jon Holland
Éteignez mon Âme
toute l'année
les quatre saisons
passé sans joie
mon coeur est cassé
peut-être mes pensées sombres
peuvent faire une brillance
dans ma vie
il n'y a aucun espoir
© 2008 Jon Holland
Legacy
Was it the murder
or Cain's dissemblance
that sent him packing
wandering in the east
expelled and demeaned
but not disgraced
saved from a vengeful death
by that ironic divine mark?
Corporate retailers
clothe us in sweat soaked shirts
exploiting sick and dying children.
Corporate free traders
close factories and export our jobs
rendering whole communities idled and broken.
Corporate union busters
grind our workers into poverty
sending them scraping for sustenance.
Corporate labor sourcers
sell our neighbors into oblivion
shattering families and extinguishing hope.
Our soil is soaked with
children's sweat,
workers' idleness,
laborers' scratching,
vanishing ambition and dreams.
The mark of Cain
emblazoned on America's forehead
shines brightly in this nation
with impunity
begging that impertinent question
'Am I my brother's keeper?'
© 2008 Jon Holland
Victor's Faith
That final thrust
The ultimate resolution
The Viking's trust
A Thor fought conclusion.
© 2008 Jon Holland
Existential Entropy
beset belittled bereft betimes
before betrothed betrayed bestead
beseemed besieged betwixt because
beloved beshrewed bestowed behoof
bethought belated bewildered bemired
beseeched betide besought behest
bestride between beleaguered belays
bereaved
besot
befogged
benign
© 2008 Jon Holland
Writ of Mandate
We invited them
There was no answer
We requested their presence
There was no response
They ignored our subpoenas
Federal court ordered them
'Appear and produce the documents'
They replied in universal indifference
stellar erasure
a black whole
of redacted text.
© 2008 Jon Holland
Priority News LLC
TV's widescreen aspect
enhances the perceived depth
of their thousand word images
only to be obstructed
by a translucent banner
inciting prurient spectacle
beggaring our minds
with creeping crawling distractions
newsworthy distortions
impatient enticements
we just can't afford to miss.
The chyron disappears
when the commercial comes on.
© 2008 Jon Holland
Inured Offense
They promise to help
granting purchased assurances of trust
for a fee.
Their contracts
unregulated and unilateral
replete with ironclad detail
awash in parsed generalities
invite denial of claims
daring the buyers
to grovel and beg
for their rightful due.
© 2008 Jon Holland
Cross Culture Brunch
Pass them syrup tissues, Lee,
But be sly about it son.
I don't want no one to catch on
I'm not one of them, you see.
© 2008 Jon Holland
Facile Fossil
Should you ever consider
calling Longfellow
a dinosaur of poets
given to ancient flights of fancy,
reread Evangeline
and listen to him tear a dactyl
from the pages of Acadian history.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Commitment, Not Glory
Be done with those
proud and pompous orators
self righteous celebrants
of war and destruction
proud parents of dying and suffering children
sacrificed in the name of Honor
enshrined in a pageant of flags and parades
the romance of war
masking brutal savagery.
Think of those
who risked their lives and fortunes
for a new beginning
apart from the crown
bound only to freedom
the rights of mankind
and destined for war
Read their words
feel the urgency
sense the threat
meditate beyond reason
quietly breathe in the heavy air of decision
and weep for them
while they sign their death warrant
One fledgling nation of rebels
throwing down an American glove
before the king.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Sacrificial Duty
Honor
a feather in your cap
dearly purchased public citations
the accumulated capital of personal greed
declaimed before the congregants
by the pharisee
in arrogance
Honor
devoid of humility
the bottom line
of corporatized worship
© 2009 Jon Holland
News Cycle
down in the basement
beyond the stacks
just past arch 4e
that's where we keep
all that old stuff
that nobody ever wants
until the skeletons rattle
waking from the forgetfulness
of a dead public
brought to life on a whim
by a fledgling reporter
scratching the dirt of the past
spindly legs soon to be
fleshed out and toned
running furtively through the night
breaking forth at dawn
glaring in the sunlight
flooding some misguided crooked figure
with light, recognition, and scorn
for a day
before dragging him down to the basement
beyond the stacks
just past arch 4e
to be forgotten like all the others
© 2009 Jon Holland
Réponse pour le Petit Tyran
D'abord
je battrais
l'Âme de l'Âne,
avec la lame de mon âme,
pointu et coupant,
dans le service de justice.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Past Glory
it was on a whim
visiting
sitting in on a local gop meeting
in small town usa
fast and furious
vehement at times
the talk
no
put up a wall against everything they want
the modern spear is a missile with a warhead
remember the serpent's clever promise
of the fruits of the tree of knowledge
listen
fan the winds of change
ignoring the future
dreaming of the past
the return of the lynching rope
bearing its ugly burden
on the tree of ideology
pillars of the community
blinded by faith
loyal to their fathers
they saw only parts
of the elephant in the room
© 2009 Jon Holland
A Sprouted Seed
she said
he said
don't use that tone of voice with me
and mostly I didn't
except now and then
when I paid the price for it
later, much later
unaware
I hurt others with my words
of scorn and anger
condescension and patronizing
a lifetime of bewilderment and puzzlement
alone with acquaintances, not friends
but I never used that tone of voice
with them again
it was too late
© 2009 Jon Holland
Cast Your Lot
Capitalists
roll dice and prey.
Humanitarians
dole rice and stay.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Time Will Tell
History
is the ally of progress
Nostalgia
is its enemy
© 2009 Jon Holland
Reverie
We dream of
gibbetry
and trust us
for all who thwart our efforts
you will be left behind
dangling, swinging wildly
suspended in your
hellish altruism
the failure of hope.
© 2009 Jon Holland
No Longer Silent
They have changed
jeans, not skirts
suits, not frocks
standing firm in their own might
taking their place in the world
rightfully determined to bring
fairness and equality
into our lives
breaking free speaking out
no longer submissive
no longer crying uncle
to their husbands
they have found their voice.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Standing
Revenue
flowing into the coffers
payments, premiums, deposits, fees
fuel for greed
heaped on the asset sheets
the corporate altar
to be leveraged by the gods
on their imaginary fulcrum
Risk
the arrogance of the market
flaunting its ignorance
unsure of its footing
declaims with impunity
the boast of Archimedes
© 2009 Jon Holland
Warning Label
Warning
If you are repugnant
or expect to be repugnant
during the course of this treatment,
tell your doctor.
Unexpected terminations of repugnancy
have been reported
resulting in
free thinking
clarity of mind
and feelings of acceptance
with friends, coworkers, and acquaintances.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Preparedness
Seven devout Christian disciples
gathered outside the supermarket
late one night
after the evening service
a prayer and thanks vigil
seeking sustenance and life's blessings
following God's Word.
They crawled into their sleeping bags
safe and secure
in the promises of the Lord
awaiting the opening hour
in the morning.
God had spoken to them that night
through the words of their pastor
a retired navy chaplain,
'Lay by a store of groceries'
that you may be nourished
in your time of need.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Our Guide
The miracle of birth
on American soil
thrusts us all
by our parents' proxy
into the role of signatories
to that special social contract
the Constitution of the United States.
Our mutual pledge to one another
obligates us to a
profound social responsibility
to bring to ourselves and our posterity
justice, tranquility, defense, welfare, and liberty
in a perfect union of the people.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Concerto for Kazoo
Found
after a childhood
of parental remonstrance, proscriptions, and insults
after years of drill and rote
devoid of purpose
uninspired and shallow teachers
after a lifetime of
quiet study and thought alone
writing and composing
in the shadows
the silent maestro
meets the misunderstood virtuoso
the long sought hummer.
© 2009 Jon Holland
The Lawyer's Neighbor
Good job, friends, insurance
middle class until
I was beaten and raped
left alone used and discarded
my church responded with sympathy and prayers
not empathy
snap out of it
put it behind you.
and then the dreaded lump
insurance took my livelihood
the bank took my home
bankruptcy led the way
to poverty, minimum wage
starving my children
challenging my will to survive.
Did you see me?
Am I your neighbor?
© 2009 Jon Holland
Blind and Deaf
Why
when that still small voice of God
bellowed out over the flood and raging water
Get in! Over here!
did you refuse?
And the helicopter
did you know
that God would answer your prayer
so you sent it away?
Are you listening to the health care debate
fearful of change
but trusting in the power of prayer?
Are you shouting down
that still small voice of God?
Is He
answering the prayers
of his poor sick and dying children?
Are they listening?
© 2009 Jon Holland
Two Venues
She embraces her violin
caressing the fingerboard
and bows.
He grabs his fiddle
picking his nodes
and saws.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Grand Old Pomposity
life is precious
If you can't afford
to pay the price
to care for it
let it wither away
you don't deserve it
you lose
© 2009 Jon Holland
Tack No More
Furl the storm sails,
Set the main and top.
Scuttle the starboard watch
off to Davy Jones
and come about to port
before the winds of change.
Our destination
is drawing nigh.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Catch and Release
If
{
You were offended;
by my remarks;
}
then
{
I am sorry;
}
else
{
I don't give a damn;
}
END
// End of discussion
© 2009 Jon Holland
Write Off Habeas Corpus
Accusation, indictment, and suspicion
prove guilt.
There are some who say that . . .
This just in, it was reported by an unnamed source . . .
A highly placed official has confirmed . . .
An ad hoc jury appears
in the court of public opinion
peopled by followers of
'Judge not lest ye be judged.'
Hypocrites in their rush
to pass sentence based on
rumor, bias, lies, distortion
and vituperative rage
call for vengeance,
point fingers, and hurl invectives
at their cherry picked defendant
in absentia
What passes for news
wears a mask of hysteria.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Created Equal
Jefferson penned that ideal
in intellectual honesty
only to be quoted glibly ever since
by thoughtless, mindless pundits
ironic apologists
for a national meritocracy
celebrants of rightful arrogance
the gift of station, wealth, and connections
in utter dismissal of those less fortunate souls
struggling with the day to day
vagaries of their existence
Self evident truths
high minded words
linguistic philanthropy
recited from couches of privilege
emollients
for the poor, the not so well off
to soothe a rash of life's inequities
rent, food, power, water, health,
gas, jobs, college, transportation,
survival
momentary relief until the daily mail
brings their creditors' persistent entreaties
pathos
bills
© 2009 Jon Holland
Polar Bear
The traders were eager and confident
that morning
corporate spirits flowed freely
as prices rose
straight up past record highs
for the year
fast and loose casino players
trusting risk
a version of their forward thinking
mindful of profits
but ignorant of loss potential
their mindless dismissal of public cautions
led them to sneer at the prophets.
everyone's up
vix is down
vixens humming
bigger and bigger
profiteeers coming
The largest selloff in history
came too that afternoon
too big to fail did
leading to
massive shrinkage in the market.
© 2009 Jon Holland
Forum over Substance
We talk to one another
and our voices rise and fall
tremble and laugh
cry and scream
or settle into calm assuring tones
as our minds
mutually wrap around the ideas we express.
Our faces project our mood
pain, joy, displeasure, anger, sadness, sheeer ecstasy
sometimes shouting or whispering
sober, sombre, subdued, and stammering
all governed by the import
of our thoughts
translated into words.
And with sympathy or empathy
we understand.
Method actors and their coaches
have learned to reproduce
this natural intimacy of conversation.
Words, phrases, emotions
facial and other body language
transmitted directly into our friend's minds and souls.
The exchange is the meaning
and if we spoke poetry naturally
we would be as one
bonded
sharing and understanding.
But slamming in the clubs,
big audiences applauding
falling all over themselves
with oohing and aahing
for bombastic drivel
and mindless doggerel
the performance center stage
content obscured by theatrics,
it's the frame in the gallery
getting the accolades
while the painting goes unnoticed.
© 2010 Jon Holland
Stumper Bickering
Back in the day
candidates opposed one another
on soap boxes and tree stumps.
Heated exchanges produced
clever quips and catchy phrases
that lingered on the lips
of audience members for a while
after returning home,
reviving the debate
over pool tables
around office water coolers
in smoke filled rooms after Sunday dinner.
Whole arguments
weighty considerations
living thoughts
their sense and meaning
their original passion
squeezed out
reduced to empty slogans
or funneled into single words
devoid of life.
Political ammunition
to be hurled by true believers
at one another from their
soap boxes and tree stumps.
sharing and understanding.
© 2010 Jon Holland
Carry On!
Is it
a ravenous hunger
an overweening taste
for shriveled rotting flesh
bones to be picked clean
from corpses of middle class dignity
run over and left to die
behind corporate raiders
on an unregulated economic freeway?
Agreed.
The Phony Pundit
rants
then repeats
sham pooh pooh
© 2010 Jon Holland
Stuck
Chicken Little
freely roams
from here to there
between two homes
first clucking wildly
fear the hordes
then cackling, gaggling
ban the swords.
Her work goes on
never done
neither side
has ever won.
© 2010 Jon Holland
Artist's First Loss
Watch me
the child said
Look at what I've done
and some of us did look and watch
but a few saw and understood
or at least tried
to grasp at the message
that child expressed
in a limited vocabulary
unhindered by proper education
an honest exciting perception of reality
proffered freely yet hardly celebrated
lingering for a while
before the ignorant
who sneered and crushed it
© 2010 Jon Holland
House Science & Technology 112
climate change
is winding down on us
it'll blow over
© 2010 Jon Holland
Irony
Poetry that celebrates
the joy of learning
the beauty of truth
the love of humanity
the worth of life
the pleasure of sharing
wisdom that flows
from sound reason and thought
revealing the foolishness
of hypocrisy and false witness
brings from the depths of our souls
profound social understanding
and is not averse to attacking ignorance.
© 2010 Jon Holland
I Rise Today . . .
The next time you hear
of a fine up and coming
young legislator
visualize
what he may be doing
and to whom
or who may be giving him a hand
Just understand
he will soon shrink back
into himself
only to rise and fall
again and again
with his stimulating friends
for us.
© 2012 Jon Holland
Light of Hatred, Salt of Despair
Matthew reported
Jesus said
You are salt and light
Let's decide
Centuries of believers and skeptics
have borne witness to the preservation
of the Gospel
millions of faithful souls
shining forth from their humble heights
in innocent trust of that Word.
Now we see
hatred
bigotrry
lying
Renard blinding us from
satellites
cell towers
cable systems
Renard poisoning our vision
with false witness
doubt and worry
Truth has spoiled
the salt has lost its essence
we are lost
© 2012 Jon Holland
Conversative Business Plan
Three hours:
• Simple minded host
• False premise
• Common sense
• Obvious conclusion
* [Need jerk reaction here]
• Repeat
© 2012 Jon Holland
It's Biblical
Wholly writ by
generations of ancients.
Promises of prophets
bestowed on true believers.
An eternal endowment of
blessings for the faithful.
An eternity of pain and suffering
for others.
A compendium of
stand alone verses
suitable for plucking
from the sacred text
as premises for
syllogistic exercises.
The ultimate authority
on science.
The true instruction book
for life
Twenty-first century armchair scholastics
the premise keepers
battling the world's progress
with their medieval logic,
the proof of the ages.
© 2013 Jon Holland
