Sonnet of the Fallen Swordsman

On a drab day beneath Russian skies

Did falling low evoke unplanned rise.

Entertainers outfitted in period dress

Upstaged at once by sudden duress.

Above the ground but beneath the stage

Cut short thy parry afore thy battle rage.

Over waxed wood with leather soles

Portend a descent into new found holes.

Medieval knight upon poor construction

Slid out of sight sans sword seduction.

At his misfortune compelled to chortle

Am I as he disappears beneath the portal.

May this constant loop of slapstick fate

Not injure dignity as fowl as did it his pate.


(This GIF was the inspiration for the sonnet.)

Defying the Prejudice of Low Expectations

You look at me and think you know just where I have been,

But you have no idea, I do not wear it on my sleeve.

Assumptions fail you, who cannot imagine what I have seen.

I have done so many things that you may not easily conceive.

 

Our obstacles and loves, our friends and family too

The majority of who we are is more than what we show

The threads of an existence are woven through and through

No furtive glance will ever tell you all you ought to know

 

There is more to see in a man than that which is well lit

So much of a life experience hides behind the eyes.

To your prejudice of low expectations, I refuse to submit.

Your superficial judgment clouds your mind with lies.

 

Before you jump to conclusions which usher your demise

Know that there is a higher road to which you may choose to rise.

Obviously

She said you’re not like the other boys

The way you stand up to all the noise

Never heed the pressure to conform

Always find a calm eye in the storm

 

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, the only way I know how to be

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, unapologetically

 

He said why you got to be so strange

I said peer pressure clings to you like mange

Stop trying to follow someone else

And find the courage to just be yourself

 

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, the only way I know how to be

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, one with my liberty

 

They said man you don’t belong

I said no that’s where you’re wrong

We’re all alone together here

Trust yourself and face your fear

 

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, the only way I know how to be

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, only I can set me free

She said you’re not like the other boys

The way you stand up to all the noise

Never heed the pressure to conform

Always find a calm eye in the storm

 

Obviously, Obviously

Obviously, Obviously

Obviously, Obviously

Obviously, it’s up to you to set you free

Woke up one day and I’m feeling low

Like anybody confidence takes a blow

Nobody around to help me out

On my own to face down my doubt

 

Shortcomings that I can’t deny

Want to run and want to cry

Feeling like I am born to fail

Slack tide and windless sail

 

Then saw my reflection in the glass

And knew that feeling had to pass

Nobody is really born to lose

In these moments we get to choose

 

Obviously, unapologetically

Obviously, one with my liberty

Obviously, it’s up to you to set you free

Obviously, only I can set me free

 

She said you’re not like the other boys

The way you stand up to all the noise

Never heed the pressure to conform

Always find a calm eye in the storm

 

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, the only way I know how to be

Obviously, never doubted that is me

Obviously, only I can set me free


Only I can set me free...Obviously

The Call to Arms

De-fund the police? 

De-fund the police?
Armed Robbery in progress!
What now?
Call a priest.

De-fund the police?

De-fund the police?

Domestic violence in progress!

Ma'am when you ask him to stop,

Remember say please.

De-fund the police?

De-fund the police?

Someone stole my car!

Piano man rolls up

Playing Beethoven's Für Elise.

De-fund the police?

De-fund the police?

Someone's shot down,

But sanitation is coming

To clean the street.

Reform the police?

No! What's that tripe?

Safety is paramount.

Down with them pigs!

What's in your pipe?

Reform the police?

Come on, please!

America's burning

Conflated injustice

Pervasive disease!

Reform the police?

But that cop with his knee -

Oh no, he was wrong

And I hear your plea -

How dare you agree!

De-fund the police!

De-fund the police?

But that's not what we mean.

Yet that is what you said?

Reform's what we need.

Lay down your weapons

Let the rhetoric wane

We all value our lives

So let's find common ground

And relieve the pain.

Listen here brother,

Can we stand arm in arm?

It's too brutal out there.

Too much policy wrong,

Too many tactics do harm.

There must be some way

To see eyes to eyes

And with sobered vision

Take the blindfold from Justice

Before another innocent dies.

One bad apple
Toppled that tree.
Seeded mistrust,
And poisoned the fruit
With enraged disease.

Hold back that hammer,
With your vengeance inflamed!
We need needle and thread
To sew up the flag
That adorns all our dead.

The blue wall of silence
Maims good intent
Gives cover to evil
Until the ghosts of ideals
Are fleetingly spent.

So much policy wrong
Feeds political plight,
With rank and file far afield
Having no clear recourse
Under cover of night.

I know that man.
He lives right next door.
Our kids play together
And we once had a picnic
Down by the shore.

Empower police!
Empower police?
A new vision enthrall
With accountability
And Justice for all.

Police and community
Should not stand alone
With this call to arms
Self-interest is clear
For peace in our homes.

De-fund the police?

No, no you're right.

Every life is so precious

And fleeting at once

Let us join in the light.

Tinsel of Futility

Tinsel of Futility

Comfort in senility

Cold stare of vacancy

Resigned to complacency

Those distant dancing lights
Of listless stargazing nights
The hopes he left un-sated
Detritus of the jaded

By tragedy endowed

Its too late for him now

As this stultifying shell

Encases him in hell

The promise of his past

Once seemed so bold and vast

But he never chose his purpose

Just skimmed across the surface

All those years of breathing

Filled by desperate seething

Never learned to be

Never running free

Never tested evidence

Subservient to dissonance

No life of values traded

Asleep as dreams grew faded

Now he sits alone

In this not so restful home

So many wasted years

End in only tears

Inside his brain is screaming

Regrets infest mind teeming

“Don’t make my mistake

As another human fake

Find fealty in the facts

By obligation to acts

Happiness isn’t magic

You choose not to be tragic

Let what you love be what you do

And work to see it through

All the values that you find

Are values in your mind

Let your soul run loose

Adapt and produce

Be a friend of man

And love yourself, you can

My time gone while yours emerging

Vicariously I watch you surging

Find my meaning inside you

And hope there it finds you too.”

But for him too late it is though

Nowhere that he can go

With his warning lost unheard

Catatonic fleeting words

Those distant dancing lights
Divorced from his plight
Beyond the realm of meaning
His conscience demeaning

Tinsel of futility

No comfort in senility

Cold Stare of vacancy

Trapped by complacency.

Give Me Liberty (Or Give Me Death)

Locked inside forever it seems

A storm raging outside

Time passes slowly and fast all at once

A never-ending tide

Fearful of what cannot be seen

The touch of death all around

New normal but how can this be

Gasping for breath with rasping sound

Life before seems taken for granted

Trapped here forever at home

Somehow trauma realigns the slanted

As we long for the freedom to roam

Lurking unseen the virus remains

Eager to infect some more pain

Swallowed the key to our own chains

Eying the door desperately seems insane

Give me liberty or give me death

No progress comes without action

Freedom is worth every breath

And principles provide traction

Give me liberty or give me death

While shadows tighten the noose

Living free is worth every breath

And fear is no excuse

The food in the pantry starting to thin

Making meals of crackers and dust

Nefarious forces discretely grin

While we grapple with whom to trust

Meanwhile funds also suffer this fate

Drifting away through a sieve

The hour perpetually seeming too late

How much of our lives must we give

Security is what we sought

But in return gained only fear

We wonder now if we should have fought

More boldly for that which we hold dear

That which is precious in home and hearth

Cannot be produced from a void

Man must roam unobstructed on Earth

For his productivity to be deployed

Give me liberty or give me death

No fruits from labors untended

The fight for freedom worth every breath

Until my battle has ended

Give me liberty or give me death

I’ll reap the seeds I’ve sewn

My virtues in life worth every breath

This life of mine I own

Dear Poet (On the Passing of Bill Withers)

Oh lovely poet's window eye

Who's verbal prism made us sigh;

A maple tap upon the soul

Sweetly sung to make us whole,

Sonorously soothing melodic sound

Your beacon voice warm and round

Expressed a melancholy deep and blue

Made hopeful by its finding you - 

Well now your time has come to leave

And I can scarcely bare to grieve. 

You left no room for mournful strife,

Dear Poet, your legacy is life...

Soundcloud Audio: Dear Poet (On the Passing of Bill Withers) by C. Gavin Skeen