The Mosh Pit of the Sun and Moon (Poetry and video)

I made a little video and wrote a little poem to go with it.  It's titled "The Mosh Pit of the Sun and Moon".

I was strolling along the river near dusk and looked up into the sky and there was a flock of small birds converging and merging.  At times smaller flocks would appear and crash into the larger flock joining them, becoming a part of the controlled chaos of the larger flock.

It went on for quite a while.  Take a look. 

The Pornography Of War (poetry and art by David H. Roche

I've been wondering about the future.  It looks bleak.  We live in a world whose leaders have decided the economy cannot be sustained without war as it's driving force and inspiration.  This is because the world leaders have set it up this way in their projections for the future of society.  War is often the go to option of those in charge of the economy. 

At this link is an earlier post which has some worthwhile links to lectures by Chris Hedges which provide eye-opening accounts about world events.  I posted the poem below in the link above, but today changed a word or two.  The current version is below.

The Pornography Of War

Unfit for young eyes
the XXX news of the last 50 years
has been by persuasion with lies
and supported by cheers.

Parents still cry for children they've lost,

but all involved have agreed,

some must fight and some must die,

some must stay at home and cry

so the marketplace is free.

Newsprint black magic,

spells cast with words

God and country the plea;

call it anything you want,

porn is what I see.

By David H. Roche (C) 2016

The nation has been assaulted.  It has been injured seriously.  But why?  I found this lecture by Lawrence Wilkerson,  the former Chief of Staff for Colin Powell, which opens up an entirely non mainstream interpretation of events that most people did not know. 

In the end we the people are suffering from the activity of those which have leadership positions.  Lawrence Wilkerson has the same questions about the possibility of solving the problem.

Until the problem is solved
there will be war without end

and all the young folk
will want to attend.
Fathers and mothers,
brothers and sisters,
friends and lovers,
will bend their heads and cry

over flag draped caskets
in which they who marched off now lie.

This little poem by Richard Brautigan titled "Star Spangled Nails" pretty much gets to the heart of the situation. When it gets down to skin it's real. 

What are you going to do about it?  It's a question Jim Morrison asked long ago in the midst of another unwinnable and seemingly endless war.  It seems to be an appropriate question to ask again today. 

What can you do to stop war?  The question was asked when I was a young man selected to be cannon fodder.  Here's a response by the anti-war segment of the populace, a neat song and artistic performance  titled "Anthem" by The Hello People which I got to see on the Smother's Brothers show when it happened. 



The Smother's Brothers show was subsequently silenced by the Nixon administration which was pro war.  If you think Obama is bad, his evil twin was Nixon.

Enjoy this trek into the pacifist past. 

article, poetry and art by David H. Roche (C) 2016

(all else belongs to those who made it)

Dissolution (a poem and some art)

Dissolution

All my heroes have died,

the ones who's words made me see,

the ones whose music moved me,

the one's whose moral courage taught me to say 'No'

when everyone was saying 'Yes'..

They've all died

leaving me behind to cry:

"Why didn't you wait for me?"

poetry and art by David H. Roche

Mysteries ... No Clues (more artifacts from the Gray Room)

I put together some of the pictures I've made since the beginning of the year.  I thought it came out pretty good and the music YouTube provided worked really good with it. 

I titled it "Mysteries ... No Clues"  I couldn't think of anything else to name it.  You know it's real, but you don't know what it is.  It's a mystery.

Some Thoughts About The Christic Institute

I had heard the name Christic Institute before, but had no idea about what the organization was up to.  As it turns out I found that the organization was a legal services non-profit  organization which takes on cases of significant public interest.  Some of these have been the Karen Silkwood  case, as well as an investigation into the criminal activities of the Iran Contra affair and the environmental impacts of the nuclear mishap at Three Mile Island. 






In the video Daniel Sheehan explains the work he did for the Christic Institute.  From what I can tell they are good people who were addressing inequities and outright wrongdoing in the public sector. 

In the past some of the most dramatic changes in social practices have come from the religious bodies in the land.  Not all of the activities have been welcomed by all.  When it was the issue of slavery, the abolitionists motivated by religiously based morality opposed the slave owner who opened their bibles to find support for slavery.  Perhaps the most significant revelations made by the institute have to do with drug and gun running.  You can read through the FBI files on this aspect here

I think it would be fair to characterize the Christic Institute as kind of a religious ACLU public advocate.  I had heard the name before from time to time but knew nothing at all about it until today.  It sounds like a pretty good thing for people to be doing.  From what I can tell the organization is being referred to in terms of 'was'.  So I assume it has ceased.  The purpose was noble and what they did was valuable.  In that the structures of power and capital were the objects of the Institute's legal activities I suppose it is to be expected the Institute would find it necessary to close up their doors.  Organizations like this are necessary in a corrupt situation like the world finds itself in today.  The appearance of organizations like the Christic Institute is necessary but when they rise up and obtain justice for the afflicted those with the reins of power often rise up to see that such an event does not happen again.

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Revolt of the Poets: Or Future Wars Should Be Fought By Armies Of Mimes (a new poem)

In a daydream I began to imagine armies of mimes involved in war.  Let that sink in. It would be the kind of war one might expect a Dadaist to conceive of.  That's how the poem came about. 

Compare it to the poem which follows which is older. I wrote the second poem a few days after the invasion of Iraq. 

Enjoy.

Revolt of the Poets:

 Or Future Wars Should Be Fought By Armies Of Mimes

During a poets revolt

wise-men dissemble

old men wail

shake their heads and tremble;

women cry out-loud in fear

of mighty rushing winds

screaming in their ears.

But it's a new dance 

the children dance now

and a new song the children hear.

In a poets revolt

fools take up arms

and the wise dance without fear.

Poetry by David H. Roche (C) 2016