Great Re-Set?

LOL!

I mean, seriously…

LOL cubed and cubed again.

That was “Stoop Id” to quote a fellow poet,
assuming it was really him…
not the FBI who took my statement
so many years ago about the Nazi
who called everyone “stoop”
for dropping a potato chip.

He was part of that “Great Re-Set”
fourth Reich, enslave humanity
(especially children for the pedos)
boys’ club…
drifted to hell a few years back.

By “boys” I do mean children
in adult male bodies,
as in “boys will be boys…”,
except real boys – little boys –
are born with compassion.

Great Re-Set my ass!
Boys, we don’t need it.
Really, we don’t.

Yes, I know you think you’re big now.
You believe you’ve grown up.
But, to the rest of us, you’re…
gosh, how do I say it…
spoiled brats, maybe?

That’s a close approximation.

Little boys in big clothes
throwing tantrums –
scripted tantrums –
read out loud by other
“trusted voices”.

We don’t trust them anymore,
and they don’t trust you anymore,
boys.

Seriously, didn’t you think this thing through?

You have some rich guy with a German accent
telling us all how we will be happy, contented slaves
using vaguely floral language
and you expect us to believe it?

Then you come out with bio-warfare
and a cancel culture.
Did you really think my friends
would dump me when FB disapproved
of my truthful, science-based opinion?

Or when Instagram decided I was Russian?

No one believes you, boys.
No one. Not even your talking heads.
They get paid to read the script –
the one they go home and talk about.
“Boy, you wouldn’t believe the bullshit I had to talk about today…”

Next thing you know, you’ll be telling the world my original poetry is AI.

It’s not!
Frankly, most of it isn’t that good,
in my opinion.
But, as we all are,
I am my own worst critic.

Nonetheless, my poetry and my rants are from my organic brain. Thanks.

I am left wondering just one thing…
you’re rich, you’re powerful, you have all you need
and access to all you could ever want.

Why is that not enough?

What do you get out of the notion
of domination over all humanity?
What do you, personally, get out of
our fearful compliance?

Doesn’t it make you sick when you lie?

The rest of us feel the darkness within…
do you not feel the pain of sin?
No? Because Jesus is bearing that pain
for you? To set you free? To sin again
and again and again?

Don’t you think he’s a little tired of bearing your illness?

Imagine him in the afterlife
trudging along with a load,
heavier every day,
while you heap on another bucket
of sludge every Sunday

in exchange for a new neon halo.

How about give the man a break?
And by MAN I mean a mature soul!
One capable of deciding to be good.

What do you do each day, then?

Go home, pour yourself a golden scotch
and think about how you’ve finally got control
over everyone in the world?
You don’t, really. That’s impossible.
I just wonder if that’s your thought…

What do you get out of all the fear mongering?

Votes? Gee, we thought you didn’t need those anymore.
Don’t you guys just choose who gets what office
and leave us to waste time going to the polls
to cast a “vote” that you pretend to count?

Don’t tell me I’m mistaken – I heard it from one of your own.

We don’t need re-setting like we’re a bunch of
microprocessors. Your Fiat system is imploding
as you knew it would – so pay back what you stole!
Yes, it’s that simple. Sell the scotch! Sell the houses!
Sell the cars! Sell the yachts! Free the slaves!

Keep what you need to survive – like the rest of us.

And a bit of wisdom…
If you want to change the world for good,
think in terms of a Hollywood screenplay.
Yes, you have to suspend disbelief –
but no one is going to believe

anything reminiscent of Hitler.

Problem Solving 101

Talk

Think

Be patient

But whatever you do…
don’t create chaos
just to get attention.

Chaos is like the croc
that roils the waters
so no one can see truth.

He lurks there, like
a mountain of death
and destruction…

waiting

watching

hungry

ready to grab the solution
feeding in the shallows…
so the world will never see.

The American Dream

So many seek it here
in America…
in these separate states
with their separate
confusion.

That’s a good thing.

Privileged? No. Not at all.
What is the privilege of
simply being?
Of simply living
as humans?

Simply not a dream.

Pity the bored leadership
whose job it is to create
something to fight for…
to fight over…
to fight about

so that we can be human.

As with all humans,
they, too, seek safety…
seek support…
and an income…
to feed their loves.

They deserve compassion.

Deep within, at the root
of their conscious being,
they fear the dream
of others being more
than a little tiny thing…

A miniscule infant of death.

Not knowing, these divinely
corrupt beings all over
everywhere deny progress
for the beings that dream
of just being human.

The American Dream is.

America is a contract!
Not a person, nor a party,
nor a dreamy philosophy.
America is an obligation
to humanity…

though just paper.

Leaders, fear not, for…
whatever the reason…
fear the word “not”.
Fear it like a whole
ghost pepper, because

oppression is not.

Not nice, not appropriate,
not worthwhile, not effective,
not sustainable, not accurate,
not peaceful, and most of all…
by the power of our earth

not being human.

America, whether living the “dream”
or not, is unmistakably human.
And, so, as much as it is
just paper, it is also
life everlasting,

everywhere. Just live it.

We Know!

Shhhh! We know!
Yes, we all know!
Everyone knows!

Didn’t you know?

Shhhh! He told!
Yes, he told people!
Then everyone heard it!

Didn’t you know

about the list of things
you’re supposed to know
not to know? The stuff

everyone knows?

Hush! Keep it down!
Don’t talk about things
you should know not to know!

It’s a secret!

The Thorn

Jesus Christ!

He wore a whole crown of them
in honor of the one you
stuck in your side.

You did it to yourself,
and now it pains you
to know you did it

to yourself!

I am sad for the pain…
the pain you feel…
the pain that leads you…

the pain that breeds
your disdain for humanity.
I cried for you last week…

for your soul!

You read each day
how the world hates
what you did.

You wonder how
you so enjoyed it,
reveling in your power…

using lust!

Prayers for the ugly
are so difficult,
but the tears were real.

I cried for you last week
as death stands before you.
What will you say when HE

asks about that thorn?

Censorship

Goodness gracious!

It’s a crime… isn’t it?
Last time I checked, yes…

Let me look again. Hold on…
Ah, yes… ACLU, except they’re
left-wing liberal extremists.

Sigh… hold on, let me look again…
Of course! First Amendment!
Except that’s a right-wing extremist
talking point – that and number 2.

We can’t have people questioning
what they don’t know,
or thought they knew about HER!

The wickedly beautiful adulteress
whose claim to fame was

blonde with beautiful lips.

Bwahahahaha!
Come on… come on and grow up.

Fear is unbecoming of the courageous.
Propaganda is ridiculous on the face
of a government that “trusts in God.”

To quote my favorite doctor:
“The time has come!
The time is now!”
Turn your book upright!

It’s upside down.

The Origins of War

Some well paid puppet
with an ear
woke up one day

to hear some other
puppeteer say

“Hey, we need some
fluffy stuff to
fill the air with
hail.”

“Hell, you say!”

He was in
a bad mood.

2023 Poetry Marathon Anthology Updates

We’ve always struggled a little with how to make the anthology work. When there were fewer Poetry Marathoners, it was a hard but sustainable effort. As the marathon grew, we realized we’d have to change our strategic approach to it. That’s why we started to pay guest editors. This helped a little bit, but with Amazon’s continual shifts in terms of how they were running their print on demand operations, things were still fairly complicated. With increasing participants and submissions the anthology become even more unwieldy and increasingly expensive for us to publish and for any of the contributors to get their hands on.

Last year, Jacob and I discussed stopping the Anthology entirely, but decided instead to try and see if hiring two editors made the job more manageable. It very much did help, but it wasn’t enough in the end, and even after hiring others to help with layout the project took much longer than expected, with many things going wrong and the whole process was very expensive. For reasons that Amazon has never disclosed, they still haven’t distributed it properly this year and it is only available on the UK version of the website. Although if you are in Canada, Indigo has it available for order, finally.

It hasn’t helped that we’ve been running a time consuming business (which has made funding all this possible), and have had to face a wide range of personal issues this year.

The anthology was not part of my original vision for the Poetry Marathon, but I have always been grateful for Jacob coming up with the idea, because it is many individual’s first experience with submission and publication and because I love the range and creativity of work in the anthologies.

We’ve put a lot of thoughts into next steps, and we’ve also gotten some very thoughtful feedback from the community on this.

This year is going to be the last time (for the foreseeable future) that we officially put out a Poetry Marathon Anthology, and it’s going to be a little different.

Blessing Omeiza Ojo, a gifted poet and a long time participant in the marathon, will be the editor of this anthology and he will pick between 80-100 poems to publish in the anthology. This means that for the first time submissions will have to be rejected, which is something we were reluctant to do, because our priority with the marathon is to be as open as possible to all.

That being said, based on community feedback, and hopefully with community support, we are asking anyone who is interested in helping edit/produce/publish a digital/online version of the anthology, reach out to us at poets@thepoetrymarathon.com.

Our greatest hope is that someone will put together a board of sorts to support the Poetry Marathon Anthology in the future. This year their focus will only be on curating a digital anthology that hopefully reflects the voices of all poetry marathoners, but going forward they might end up running the Poetry Marathon Anthology as a separate but related entity.

We are very grateful for the insight the community has already provided into this shift, and while we know this change hasn’t been ideal or perfect for anyone (ourselves included), we know that it has to be made. It’s more than the cost for us, but the time and effort we put into the Marathon is already great – and that’s where our focus really needs to be moving forward. The event itself is very much our priority and focus.

We welcome feedback and thoughts on these developments, and we are grateful as always for the community that makes the marathon possible.

 

 

 

 

The 2023 Poetry Marathon Schedule

We will open up to applications for the 2023 Poetry Marathon on August 7th and stay open till August 28th. We except to say yes to all serious applicants, as we do every year.

The marathon itself will take place on September 2nd and 3rd. The first half marathon and full marathon will start at 9 AM ET, and the second half marathon will start at 9 PM ET. The marathon as a whole will be over on September 3rd at 9 AM.