Shared with dVerse MTB: The Roundel *’The USA has met its enemy and it is the USA’ was taken from a Substack article I was reading but forgot to note the link.
The USA has met its enemy and it is the USA, every day. No one wants to play with the USA.
The truth is there for everyone to see. All that’s left are the dreams of yesterday. The USA has met its enemy and it is the USA, every day.
They’ve been beaten at their own game, you see, there’s none left outside for them to betray, and so the empire is fading away. The USA has met its enemy and it is the USA, every day. No one wants to play with the USA.
Let’s heighten tensions with China We’ve got to keep them down Grey caps and grey trousers Sweatshops will keep them down We are containers, we are the drivers
Sideways perception Allied ascension Maintained low wages Increased production Therefore profit margins We are the containers, and the drivers
The rhetoric was for two days Maintained headlines for two days Militarised, cold and grey And sold so many papers We are containers, we are the drivers
This is not our town Alienation came from the ground Hard work did not keep them down Hard work bought them the town With their containers and their drivers
J. Ma’s a distant relation Of 1 billion full-time workers So they all said ‘no thanks’ In commune and closed ranks With their containers and their drivers
A wound self-inflicted Partnerships invalidated FOIP – branded strategy Diplomatic engagements ended With AI containers and robot drivers
Shared with dVerse Poetics – Pivot referencing the USA’s Pivot To Asia. For some reason, I had the Fall’s ‘Container Drivers’ stuck in my head and so the poem can be sung along in time with that (if you wish!)
What happens to the words we never say? I’m trying to be understood and all my words seem far too small today to form anything close to good.
A tiny thought soon becomes overwhelmed by the magnitude of the sea so that I will no longer feel compelled to pour these words right out of me.
Uninspired, then soon unmotivated I dam the river with dead wood; never to see this thought celebrated or form anything close to good.
Not quite the dreaded writer’s block. Just the idea that everything can feel inconsequential, shouting into the void. At the time of writing this, I feel like I have read 100 uninspired poems that trigger nothing in me. I purged them from my ‘to-be-read’ folder. At other times, I would have found something within each of them that may have given me some new formation of ideas.
I’ll not stop looking, though. But that’s a different poem.
“my words seem far too small” is linked to the author Jae Rose. I have a feeling I found the first line from elsewhere, too, but I no longer recall where.
Written (after the fact) for the GloPoWriMo Day 10 prompt: write a poem that uses alliteration and punning. See if you can’t work in references to at least one word you have trouble spelling, and one that you’ve never quite been able to perfectly remember the meaning of.
I guess I didn’t really hit this prompt but this is the inspiration that arose from it. Somewhat a manifesto.
Let the water run to make its song echo within these four enclosed walls; Dreams confound the comforts of the dark. The cull begins as the winter calls.
Bowed to god made of trivial light, now singing for a dollar and change. In the cold and damp, the neon’s glare reflects this consensus, fake and strange.
Submitted to unknown intentions, stood together in isolation. The dark is always waiting nearby when confusion led to temptation.
Misunderstandings silently grow, written on the walls of silver and gold. In the darkness deep under the ground are where the prophets’ stories are told.
Teardrops fall like rain just out of reach, to sprout the seeds with the words to teach.
For the Poets and Storytellers United prompt #202 this week, the subject was ‘what I love about the dark’, which led me to investigate the Simon and Garfunkel song ‘The Sound of Silence’, as the first line ‘Hello, darkness, my old friend’ came to mind. My poem references the song, but also the annotations found at genius.com that analyse the meaning of the song. Overall, the poem highlights both the positive and negative aspects of the dark.
Here’s how my poem came together (which I feel like explaining today):
Stanza 1:
Lines 1 and 2 reference this quote from Paul Simon: I used to go off in the bathroom because the bathroom had tiles, so it was a slight echo chamber. I’d turn on the faucet so that water would run — I like that sound, it’s very soothing to me — and I’d play. In the dark. Change carries a double meaning here.
Line 3 references this annotation of the second part of the first verse of the song: These lines lead us to believe that Simon had an inspiring dream, the vision of which can be easily recalled when he seeks out the comfort within the darkness.
Line 4 references the Kennedy assassination, which is thought to be part of the inspiration for the song.
Stanza 2:
Lines 1-4 reference the lyrics and annotations for the second verse …the author has a dream about ten thousand people bowing to a god they made of neon light. The god represents the fake and shallow culture they are building on pop stars and the dollar bill. The author feels as if he is the only one who is not content with living in the fake, trivial culture that was stated.
Stanza 3:
Line 1 references this annotation Silence refers to submission. He reveals how people so foolishly follow rulers without actually knowing a ruler’s true intentions and background.
Line 2 references this annotation …the song’s theme about people’s isolation and failure to communicate with or understand each other.
Lines 3 and 4 continue this idea but try to show that the darkness is there for either ill or good, and it’s up to the individual how they choose to deal with it. Using it as a place to grow and learn, or to remain in ignorance.
Stanza 4
Lines 1 -4 reference this annotation “Writing on the wall” is a biblical reference that refers to a prophecy of doom. Daniel 5:5 tells the story of an arrogant king of the Babylonians who worshipped gods of gold and silver.
Silver also references the subway cars from the lyric in verse 5 And the sign said, “The words of the prophets are written on the subway walls…”
The couplet
These two lines are a rewrite of three lines in verse 4 of the song, and attempt to find a better way of managing the darkness “Hear my words that I might teach you Take my arms that I might reach you but my words, like silent raindrops, fell…”
1994ever 