Newsletter #4: 9-30-04

[Aaron Graf]

I'm terribly sorry about the long delay in poems, but finally, low and behold, new poets start posting their works on the site. So here they are below. I am so sorry about the two week delay in the newsletter, but now it has been put out again for your reading pleasure:






Poem #1: Oasis of Crimson
Author: Aaron Graf
Username: Aaron Graf
Link: liberalpoetry.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=downwithbush&action=display&thread=1096232487




Oasis of Crimson




[Lyrics]
An oasis been stained crimson by my platoon,
Houses are burned and bodies strewn.
Choking smoke is all that I can see,
The only one alive is me!
Living the American fantasies,
Only in ways not seen on your TV.


Look at me I’m the only one,
Left dehydrated in the blazing sun.
Doing what my leader said,
Surrounded by all those dead.
Mothers and fathers and sons and daughters,
Husbands and wives and friends were our cannon fodder.


[More intense, like you’re screaming out and ready to break down in tears at the same time]
Love. Is this love to you?
Defense. Is this defense to you?
Liberation. Does it look like that?
Where the fuck are the weapons at?
Lies! Told on CNN!
Lies! Told on Fox News!
Lies! From the president!
Lies! To fit the right wing views!
Lies! For Unocal’s Game!
Lies! That made an oasis crimson stained!

[Calm down a bit]
The flag has been misused,
Iraqis have been abused.
So feast your eyes on the only one!
Dying now in the blazing sun.
My family’s lonely now,
My face is falling slowly in the ground.

[Screaming again]
Put yourself in my place!
Put yourself in my taken life!
You who are hiding your face!
Put yourself in my taken life!
Put yourself in my boots,
Put yourself in my clothes.
Put yourself out to die,
Put yourself in bleak land where no sun shows!
With your pulse gone,
Your body turns cold!

[Simmer down the tone softer and softer until the character finally dies in the sand]

Oasis of crimson is what I have found,
Pieces of ashes and rubble covering the ground.
Oasis of crimson I created for you!
Oasis of crimson, just look what I’ll do.
Oasis of crimson is all I see,
Oasis of crimson consuming me!


~ Aaron Graf







Poem #2: I—Speak America
Author: G. Delmar Ratliff
Username: GDelmarRatliff
Link: liberalpoetry.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=dierushdie&action=display&thread=1096424914







I—Speak America

america
who seduced me into citizenship.
i never asked for it—yet still—it registered
digits at the market that same day
i was born—i was given a number—i was free.
nothing of the sort was seen before.
it was a surprise,
a homemade american blackberry pie
popped fresh out of the oven;
now on the incubator-ledge to cool.
it was a boy
dark as a grape—brown-cotton eyed
hair depth black as licorice and inflammatory.

america
in which my early years were in blindness.
cataracts in the form of happiness
in my ears as well—deafening cataracts
installed with love—the desire for
the batter of an eye—it is attractive
just like you before i stumbled
face down in the true—the dominating stripes,
the blood shed—people died for you
and i—wonder why—for a moment i
wanted to—die for you.
of course all little boys play
toy soldiers—for a moment.

america
i grew up to shun you,
i live now—shunning you,
when i age, i will grey—shunning you,
and on a death-bed, i will die—shunning you
with all your offerings of neglectance:
the innocent babies of the famine
who cry at two o'clock in the morning,
an empty plastic bottle by their side
stain coagulated residue at the corners,
the people beneath the real stars
whose faces are touched gently by
the meteorite dust—cardboard-boxes,
benches in the night public park
full of the sidewalk guest
who arrive with no where else to go.
and in store—these are the things for
your nieces and nephews,
who make sure it will all come back
in return—coming back—words—back to you
theatrical—a boomerang of hatred
swift and sharp—severing the necks of aristocracy.

america
i have fed you a diseased spawn.
it is for the sticking of your nose
in places it is quite to big to fit,
it is for the asking of questions
you should never bother with,
it is for the people you made cry
and the sadness in their eye.
by the morning the spawn will be dried thick,
your mouth and nostrils wreak of it.
the after-smell hung in your rooftops.
it was good for me—i am ashamed,
it was true for me—i could not refrain.
the strongest form of desire creates
a poorman—a loner—a poet.
it is love—love with the middle
phalanges up to the crowd—<br>jackasses who cannot react it.
and you america are fucked speechless.
the calm in your lands are soured lies
and i have died—too many times
to die again—for you.

G Delmar Ratliff







Poem #3: Torn of Hate
Author: Glacian
Username: Glacian
Link: liberalpoetry.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=deathtopatrobertson&action=display&thread=1096133074

Hello, Isaiah-I-Am, I say that you should not eat ham
If you erect a golden ram, you shall be forever damned
thou shalt not think, thou shall believe
even if prophets lie and deceive
Paul says that it is justified
That's how I know that he has lied

Would you could you kill your son
If god commanded that it be done?
Would you could you rape a wife
Or take a heathen's worthless life?
The Bible says that it's okay
To beat a slave all through the day

The Bible condones theft and slaughter
And to steal and rape a father's daughter
Would you could you burn a queer
And live your life in fretful fear
Isn't it great that you are not judged by your actions
But on whether or not you are part of the right faction?

Who cares if you save children and feed the poor
Or bring hope to those who have no more
If you don't accept Jesus Christ
Your soul shall be sacrificed

Would you, could you dash babies against the stones
And deafen your ears to their horrid moans?
Would you, could you stone another
If they blaspheme the lord or curse their mother?

Could you ignore all the contradictions
And believe in this work of mythological fiction?
Could you conduct your life by archaic authors
And stuff cash into the church's coffers?

Could you believe that god feels women are to be shamed
That for mankind's faults they are to be blamed?
Could you believe that an infinite being
Who is all knowing and all seeing
Cares at all who you love
As he watches down from up above

Homosexuality God just can't take
That's why they are to be burned at the stake
Along with witches, heathens, and those who inquire
Questions ought not to be asked of those inspired
For all the answers are already there
God did it, question not, if you dare
For questions plant the seeds of doubt
And Christians can't go down that route

Truth: that which God opposes
Instead you subscribe to the lies of Moses
Would you could you believe this tome of hate
That has doomed so many to a hellish fate
Not in the world beyond, but right here on earth
I ask of you: What is the Bible’s worth?

Of all the books burned throughout the ages
All the knowledge lost in the works of sages
I’d rather it have been the Bible’s pages
Torn asunder by heathens in fitful rages
To free mankind from religion’s cages




Poem #4: God Condemns me
Author: Glacian
Username: Glacian
Link:http://liberalpoetry.proboards29.com/index.cgi?board=deathtopatrobertson&action=display&thread=1096133217







God condemns me, this I know
For the Bible tells me so
Pathetic slaves we are to he
Blind with faith, no we can't see

Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
For the Bible tells me so

God will condemn me! This I know
As he condemned many long ago
Taking his flock by the hand
And drowning everyone in the land

Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
For the Bible tells me so

God condemns me still today
I can’t have sex, I can’t be gay
Wanting us to suppress desire
Burning sinners in an eternal pyre

Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
For the Bible tells me so

God condemns me! When I die
To a lake of fire I’m sent to fry
At hell’s mercy for my crimes
I’ll be tortured ‘til the end of times

Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
For the Bible tells me so

God condemns me! He will remain
Lives of suffering spent in vain
Thou hast wasted his entire life
Creating a world of hate and strife

Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
Yes! God condemns me
For the Bible tells me so

[Aaron Graf]

Poem #5: Three Years Ago Today
Author: Aaron Graf
Username: Aaron Graf
Link:





Three Years Ago Today




That horrible day four planes crashed,
Turning two great towers into mere rubble and ash.
The collapse of two buildings by a man whom I despise,
Capturing the image of desperation and sadness in so many peoples eyes.
When the incident was finally over, 3,000 people were dead,
Some of them were foreign and some Americans born and bred.
The nation was wounded, we needed relief.
So we stuck by a "president", who exploited our grief.
He used this tragic moment to set what you can and cannot say,
It was his excuse to challenge your patriotism by bringing up that day.
The whole world was willing to hunt Osama down,
Whether he gets locked up in a jail cell or decaying in the ground.
Six weeks after the attacks he passed a brand new bill,
That was beating our civil liberties and giving them the kill.
To cover up for the intentions it was titled the Patriot Act,
Making America Stalinistic in the name of preventing attack.
But when wondering how we could prevent it Bush wouldn't give any consideration,
To the families of the tragedy asking for an investigation.
But the White House ignored all of their requests,
And then talked about the 9/11 Families to stuff the war chest.
Which would be used for Iraq on claims found untrue,
Was he afraid people would see what was wrong? Or afraid they'd find out he knew.
That he knew the attack would happen, that he was warned repeatedly,
We might have stopped it with much force or even easily.
But the simple fact is, he didn't want to give any time,
To stop these hideous killers from committing this crime.
In 2002, he incited Iraq war fervor,
And claimed that he was democracy's preserver.
He said Saddam had nuclear weapons and links to Osama,
He provided no suitable evidence, but kept riding on our traumas.
So we followed his orders and sent out our brigades,
While leaving almost completely our search in Afghan caves.
The man that he promised had been replaced by Saddam,
Who posed no threat, but his country we bombed.
One year later the fighting persists,
His friends with the oil lobby just couldn't resist.
To have all their projects funded by tax-payer dollars,
While cutting from our soldiers pay and leaving them as cannon-fodder.
A few months later 1,000 Americans crossed the Rubicon,
After being told it was "mission accomplished" but the battle waged on.
A deficit of the 1 trillion replaced the former surplus of the same,
And Enron could get away with anything without feeling shame.
Jobs were being lost to the left and the right,
The media focused mostly on terrorists to invoke panic and fright.
So he found fresh grief and allowed it to be used,
To where it's hard to tell what's worse, whether 9/11 or the way it was abused.
So three years later the trance has barely worn off,
But we still can't question you without a sneer or a scoff.
Trying to make a culture monotone and uniform,
And giving all the news possible meant to propagate and misinform.
The day you used in all cases so that you can get your way,
The tragedy of you taking away our freedom three years ago today.


~ Aaron Graf