Scott the Poet to perform

The Twisted Tree will be protesting for peace on Sunday, February 10th. I will be one of the performers that day (slotted in for 6:35 as of now). For too long, the Bush Administration and the neo-conservative movement within the Republican Party has been warmongering as a pretend response to 9-11. The war in Iraq was never right and never necessary. It has cost the U.S. close to 4,000 lives and countless more wounded. Iraqi civilians have died to the tune of at least 150,000 people. The number is likely much higher, and does not account for those who are refugees in other areas or countries. Iraq was torn apart on a false premise.

Now the Bush Administration is beating its war drums again as it manufactures a need to attack Iran, simultaneously pretending its surge has done more then served as a time-out for violence. Meanwhile, terror networks grow, we are less safe in the U.S., America's image abroad is at all-time lows, and domestic issues are ignored (except in the context of turning immigration into a hatred of people with brown skin.).

Join me and some wonderful musicians and poets in a protest against the criminal behavior of a government, our government, gone mad.

A message that too often gets lost out of fear

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."

Ben Franklin

Poem: Nothing Gets Better

Tonight, President Bush will lie to the nation one last time about the State of the Union. Oh sure, he's going to lie many more times in the next year, but this is the last official speech before Congress and the people. So, given all the lying he will share in a few moments, I give you ...


Nothing Gets Better

Show me the weapons
No al Qaeda tie
Greeted as liberators?
All was a lie

We helped terror’s spreading
Created chaos and hate
A country unraveled
To an ungoverned state

Pitted Sunni verse Shia
Granted Persia a friend
Too many dying
When will it end?!

We are the violence
Our presence the cause
Nothing gets better
As we break our own laws

The surge was no blessing
Just a misguided ruse
Though reported successful
It’s a fake “pick and choose”

We can thank ethnic cleansing
And the refugees flown
Al Sadr lies waiting
Militias have grown

Years keep on passing
With blood being spilled
It’s a war with no purpose
Yet a lot being killed

No solutions forthcoming
No master plan can arrange
The troops must come home
And the vision must change

Count the dead soldiers
Civilian lives that were lost
Nothing gets better
And it’s too great a cost

Copyright SGW 2008

Poetry Progressive Dinner

I am pushing this up to the top of the page, so as to remind everyone reading to join in the festivities.

On January 30th, various poetic sites will be hosting courses of a sumptuous dinner where a wide array of talented poets' works will be featured(Ok, and apparently lots of other stuff, too, but plenty worth ready nonetheless.). I have contributed pieces to each course. To indulge on the 30th, follow the below-listed links:

Kilroy serving Hors D'oeuvrers and drinks

Change Therapy has the appetizers

Fallen Words for the first course

Anja Merret has the main course

Fiction Scribe with dessert

The Lives and Times ... of Anthony McCune will have after dinner reception

Word Power

I received this blog award from Sandy at Writing in Faith. I now must list three things that make writing good and powerful before then passing the award along.

Writing is healing. Writing reveals the world. Writing touches hearts.




I pass this award along to Fenny's Bla Bla Blog, Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes and Birdsword Poetry.

Poem: Hall of Mirrors

Hall of Mirrors

Multitude of direction
Many luring paths
Each road offering mixed truths
As hope breaks swiftly
Banging into false windows
Showing what seemed real
Nothing more then wounded pride
Conquered yet again


Copyright SGW 2008

Poem: Settings

Settings

My essence burns into you
With uncertain yearning;
Hunger blossoming in stillness;
A Mozart symphony crescendo;
Until perspectives reveal everything,
And ....

Copyright SGW 2008

Poem: Ephemeral

Ephemeral

Ascending from infinite quietude
A whisper breaches darkness,
Speaking with shimmering voice
That draws near a distant shore.
Reflective imprint stands solitary;
Eviscerated of all sentient purpose;
In truth, there, yet not.
A haunting presence illuminating
O’er wanting, outstretched hand.

Copyright SGW 2008

The Wisdom of a Cat

My cat, Boo, likes to slip under the covers in my bed when I am not in it and nap the day away in the center of my mattress. Strangely, when I am in the bed, he taps me on the chin with his paw, waits for me to lift the blanket and then goes under - sometimes. On other occasions, he just wants to make sure "it" is still there, I guess. But I digress.

Earlier this evening, he was having one of his many naps (ah, to be a cat!), so I decided to sneak under the blankets with him to see what the big deal was. We sat nose to nose; him trying to figure out who invited the human. Strangely, it was peaceful; a hidden, removed place, where the big, bad world seemed somewhere faraway. I shared this space with Boo until I got too warm, but the safeness of the spot remains etched in my mind.

Now I understand, Boo, now I understand.

Poem: Black Hole/Faith

Ah, the inner battles that the mind plays out ...


Black Hole

Black hole abounding
Silence confounding
Can’t reach the distance
‘Spite all persistence
Space masks a raging
No calmed assuaging
Borne of a chilling
Emptiness filling


Faith

Hope in submission
Trusting the mission
God’s will is turning
Each day brings learning
Can’t know His meaning
Faith bares redeeming
Time can show glory
Unfinished story


Copyright SGW 2008

Hafiz: There Could Be Holy Fallout

I related to this poem and it brought me the promise of hope.

There Could Be Holy Fallout

We are so often in battle.

So often defending every side of the fort,

It may seem, all alone.

Sit down, my dear,

Take a few deep breaths,

Think about a loyal friend.

Where is your music,

Your pet, a brush?

Surely one who has lasted as long as you

Knows some avenue or place inside

That can give sweet respite.

If you cannot slay your panic,

Then say within

As convincingly as you can,

“It is all God’s will!”

Now pick up your life again.

Let whatever is out there

Come charging in,

Laugh and spit into the air,

There could be holy fallout.

Throw those ladders like tiny match sticks

With “just” phantoms upon them

Who might be trying to scale your heart.

Your love has an eloquent tone.

The sky and I want to hear it!

If you still feel helpless

Give our battle cry again,

Hafiz

Has shouted it a myriad times,

“It is all,

It is all the Beloved’s will!”

What is that luminous rain I see

All around you in the future

Sweeping in from the east plain?

It looks like, O it looks like

Holy fallout

Filling your mouth and palms

With Joy!

Hafiz

Poem: Discomfort

Poets Who Blog's challenge prompt was the word "comfort." I mulled the word over in my mind for a few days before sitting down at a Starbucks and realizing that too much is currently in a state of discomfort for me, and, as such, even my comfort zones have become something less. The poem below was the result.

Discomfort

With cravings of an addict
Lying beyond grasp
Once known, but now elusive

A million contentments fade
Old haunts seem just that
Panic breeds on unmet needs

The pen reveals surprises that are not

Copyright SGW 2008

Poem: On The Twelfth

On The Twelfth

After Eleven the world was our friend.
Our nose had been bloodied but with strength we’d defend
the national interest with a calling to fight.
The enemy was clear and the mission was right.
On Afghani soil lay snakes in the weeds,
And in Saudi madrassahs where terror does breed.
All was aligned for this country to glisten.
A leader would speak and a people would listen.
Change our direction with selfless conviction.
Ask for commitment to end the addiction.

Now six years later and where do we lie?
Afghani chaos and bin Laden won’t die.
Talib resurgence while we chose a distraction.
Iraq was the target for a full-throttled action.
Though never a threat and weapons were naught.
A foe was devised and a nation was caught
in blind, mass hysteria that fed on its fear.
By “patriot’s” fervor for all we’d hold dear.

Yet now through the maelstrom of insurgent division.
“Mission accomplished?!” What a foolish decision!

So the target is shifting within grandeur’s design.
If we fucked up Iraq than Iran’s next in line.
These mad men and women, how they’ve recklessly laid
thousands in grave sites from mistakes that were made.

And where is the progress ‘cept in masquerade charts.
A “Betrayal of Trust” and the losing of hearts.
Once we were mighty, yet now that seems lost.
Our place of high standing paid in torturous cost.

A moment of sacrifice was not asked or demanded.
Kept our addictions and tax cuts were handed
to the richest of cronies who would bath in their wealth.
To hell with the people or the national health.

Rhetorical excess will go on unabated.
Their fervor for war cannot be satiated.
Misdirection as weapons (there they are!) while all facts fell aside.
Constitutional freedoms, bit by bit are denied.

Time is upon us, really long since gone past.
For stopping this cowboy while the dye has been cast.

Copyright SGW 2007

Poem: Kisses Wishes

Kisses Wishes

Taste her lips by thousand glances
Romances in my mind
Feel the warmth of honey laced
Embraced as sweet defined
Stare inside her soulful eyes
Implies some wistful knowing
Hypnotic gaze contains a world
Unfurled in what it’s showing
A craving touch of silken cheeks
Mystique in each caressing
As fingers glide along her jaw
In awe of every blessing
Within a sleep of tender bliss
To kiss, a first enrapture
By calm resolve the course is laid
Conveyed forever after

Copyright SGW 2007

A Political Limerick

Back in April of 2005, I received a site meter hit on the original version of this blog from someone doing a search for "Pervez Musharraf Limerick." I thought it a bit unusual, so I wrote the limerick below. Given Musharraf's inability or interest in rooting out terrorism in Pakistan, the increasing despotism of his rule and the murder of Benezir Bhutto, I decided to re-post it.

Pervez joined our terrorist fight
Though his Pakistan border's a blight
Al Qaeda is free
From all I can see
Seems his battle's more terrorist-lite

Copyright SGW 2005