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Jay 1988  Sep 2017
Ribbons
Jay 1988 Sep 2017
As i walk through the city night
And think about all that's been left behind
You could forgive me for wondering why
Anything that happens, happens in this life
Mother made me promise not to think too hard
About what everything means and how to read the signs
That make me think too long anout what they mean to me
So that all the time i think, my eyes don't see
Everything beneath me that's at my feet
And all of the pain, in the people who walk along side of me

Walk with me through these condemmed streets, ribbons lace your golden hair
I look across from the old schoolgrounds, there's ribbons everywhere
I don't know what those ribbons mean, to mourn a loss or to hope for some freedom
Ribbons, ribbons, just ribbons everywhere i look
Ribbons, ribbons, just ribbons all around us
So let me take out those blue ribbons, that flow freely through your hair tonight
Tie them around a gate post and let mourners flock by candle light
You will still look as beautiful as the ribbon that once held hair from your face
And provide something we could never understand to the pople who flock to this place

Missing people posters
A face thats since been left behind
People knock door to door
Fromt pages of newspapers
Desperation of an unknown kind

If you walk past door at night, yellow ribbons are hope for those who have no hope
People scream lost names at night, their face veiled by candle light smoke

Walk with me through this strange world
There's sorrow everywhere
If it makes you feel better, tie those ribbons through your hair
Sometimes they are all that we have
To show we still think about those.we once had

When it's all over, when it's all said and done
They fly with the wind, like an unguided dove
Clings to branches and settles there
Let someone wonder what it's doing there
They can find in it their own meaning and let it bring what comfort to them they need this time

Walk with me through these condemmed streets, where ribbons lace your hair
I look to the sky each night, ribbons everywhere
Geno Cattouse Sep 2013
I peeked in and on her bed in gay profusion lying there.
Lovely ribbons,scarlet ribbons,scarlet ribbons for her hair.

Moonbeams pierced the silent night.
polished her brush bronze cheeks. the ghost of a smile
quivered  her mouth.slowly her lips parted and she said a name . whispered.
still asleep in a dream.

(please lord let me go ahead when we part. What would my purpose be after)

I knew it just then that to live without her would be my hell and so
I laid awake savoring every minute the rise and fall of her chest.Burning
Burning her into my fiber .Laid quietly beside her .
Cursed my mortality.

Scarlet ribbons,lovely ribbons for her hair.
If I live to be one hundred.I will never know from where
Came those ribbons,scarlet ribbons.Scarlet ribbons for her hair.

Lovely ribbons,scarlet ribbons,Scarlet ribbons for her hair.
I will never know from where.
The first two lines are the words from a song that I would hear on the radio as a boy.Usually at night as I sat on our front porch by the sea. It has haunted me. It still does. Harry Belafonte.
TOD HOWARD HAWKS Apr 2020
Give them no ribbons. My dear friend who was following orders in Vietnam
was blown to bits when he tripped a wire. Give him no ribbons. Ribbons and medals will not bring him back to his wife who is now in her mid-70s, whose two sons and one daughter each have families of their own, but have no Grandpa whose knee to sit on and play games with and just have fun and laugh with. Michael Dillinger went to Iraq to fight because W told him to. Unfortunately, his amored truck hit a road mine and killed Michael instantly.
Ribbons? They gave ribbons to Michael's mother before they buried Michael in Arlington? Ribbons, for God's sake! Did those ribbons and medals really help console Michael's mother? Did Cheney ever call her to see how she was doing? No, he was in charge of creating what he called "enhanced interrogation," a gross euphemism for unspeakable torture and terror that went on at countless, secret camps in the countries of our allies, and still goes on at Guantanamo even today. Give them no ribbons. Take all the ribbons and medals you can find that were given to those soldiers who gave their very lives for lies, for all those soldiers now lying in all the VA hospitals throughout our country, their bodies permanently disfigured, their minds completely lost, and dump that pile of ribbons and medals in the front yard of wherever W lives in the suburbs of Dallas.

Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks
A graduate of Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet, a novelist, and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.
JennyFrenzy  Oct 2014
Red Ribbons
JennyFrenzy Oct 2014
Do you remember Red Ribbons
And the fear the world felt inside
Could AIDS be transferred through vision
Was the air contagious outside

Some said the government made it
Others thought it was god's design
AIDS had infected our spirits
Was the air contagious outside

Was AIDS transmitted by touching
"Don't touch him he's gay and you'll die"
Repugnant minds were erupting
Was the air contagious outside

Do you remember Red Ribbons
Was the air contagious outside

I started wearing Red Ribbons
After hearing my friends tragic tales
Of the worst gifts they'd been given
Entombed in a black mourning veil

Our grandmothers they were best friends
You told me, my god I went stale
Sick with anguish for your grave end
Entombed in a black mourning veil

Once surrounded by many, now few
Your frame morphed from buxom to frail
Love you Joy, I bid you adieu
Entombed in a black mourning veil

I started wearing Red Ribbons
Entombed in a black mourning veil
I lost a life long friend to AIDS. Her name has been changed to Joy, because that's what she brought to her friends and family, so much joy...
Leira  Mar 2013
Installation
Leira Mar 2013
I want to tell you a story
One that you’ll remember
A long time ago, I had dream
Wrapped in flowers and scents
A tree stood in the middle with red and white ribbons
Playing leaves
They flowed in the wind
A softness displayed
Wind made the grass roll like waves
You could almost hear music
Eventually, those ribbons fell from branches
Landing on the sea
Slowly, they morphed into beings
They began to dance
Red and white becoming one

Shots rang out, red splattered down
Pale faces surrounded me
A sea of dead bodies
Shaking and trembling
Mourning the loss of those who stood and fought
The cold rain froze our skin
Making it numb like so many other things
But sometimes when it rained; it felt nice
It ran down the neck, over the spine, causing the body to shiver
You knew you were alive then
And maybe not well, but alive and breathing

The images played a million times
Never once leaving the mind
The glazed and open eyes of those who had fallen behind
The blood lost and spent again and again
Maybe it was the dream that kept me going
Every night those ribbons came alive
Danced in the moonlight till dawn
Until the shouts woke me
On the move once more
Believing the end was near
A time to begin
To live again
More time went by
Winters came
Summers passed
As leaves changed
And the grass became green again
The sky would open up and reveal the sun
How warm it could be
But it was in that same bright light
That the crimson shined
As we passed over more land
The grass becoming higher and higher
Reaching waist deep in a sea
Flowing in the wind, I thought of those ribbons
How calming they were to me
Chiming soft tunes in that lost mind
I claimed was mine
My best bud would laugh at me
Calling me girly
For dreaming of such things
He would always say
Why don’t dream of women and me
I couldn't tell him to get his mind out of the gutter
We were in one
So I shrugged it off like none
Months turned into years
He still stood by watching idly sometimes
Then is when I thought he sees it too
Those ribbons in the wind
Leaves to the dead tree limbs

One night…..
I remember seeing him lying there
Recalling the cold rain running down my neck
The salty taste on my lips
The trembling and shaking and regret
No ribbons danced that night
No sleep ever came
But not long after that
A plane took us all away
A train whistled and brimmed to an end
A car slowed down on gravel driveway
The field led me through a sea of grass
To that oak tree
Where I saw her reading
She looked up
A grin broke through
Tears rimmed my eyes
As she ran to me
In her hair, those red and white ribbons dancing in the breeze
She slammed against me
I clutched her blue dress, tight in my hands
Red, white, and blue
So proud, so true
To all who have stood and fought...we thank you. No amount of words could ever express the gratitude this country has for the people who have served and are still serving. Thank you.
Marissa Apr 2016
When I was 5, I met a little ******* the yellow school bus with pigtails and ribbons.
Little did I know that this girl would become my best friend.

When I was 8, this little girl with ribbons walked on the yellow school bus with stitches in her forehead.
Little did I know that the stitches weren't an accident.

When I was 11, the little girl with overalls and ribbons in her hair bothered me, and I ignored her.
Little did I know that all she wanted was someone to talk to.

When I was 13, the little girl with ribbons had bruises scattering her body.
Little did I know that the bruises were from someone whom she loved dearly.

When I was 16, the not-so-little girl got very sick and went to the hospital. And little did I know that she was in the hospital because her yellow school bus turned to black and because she wanted her ribbons to turn to rope.

~mj—k
Seth Cruz  Aug 2012
Ribbons
Seth Cruz Aug 2012
You are the ribbons of my dreams
blowing in the winds of freedom
shined on by rays of faith
You are my ribbons of time
intricately woven
binding my past, present, and future
You are the ribbons of my life
enveloping my mind
enveloping my heart
The voice  Dec 2012
Ribbons
The voice Dec 2012
They fall form the skies to my feet
They glow in the dark and they lead me through a maze
Ribbons of all colors that  play with my emotions
The blue one makes me feel satisfied
Yellow is my peace
Red is what makes me love with passion
Purple are days when it rains and i love the rain
Black is my hope, because the darkest moments,
are my bravest situations

Ribbons
Something that reunites me with something far from home.
Something deep down in my heart.
It is waiting to come out but those ribbons
bring it all out for everyone to see.
Time to quit ribbons, pins, and rubber bands
I don't need them to take a stand
The bracelets cut blood flow to my hands
And the pins just hurt my *******

Red, Blue, Green, white, Pink, Yellow, black
Show just what causes that I back
The rubber bands, just hurt me jack
And the pins....they hurt my *******

Donations work and show my support
But, **** those pins, they really hurt
I'll take the makers all to court
Their pins...they hurt my *******

Most people don't know what they mean
Be it white, or blue or black or green
Wear them all on one side, and you will lean
and those pins..just hurt my *******

I  leave the ribbons home instead
And the bracelets stay beside my bed
The pins go on my hats instead
They done ripped apart my *******
DJ Thomas  May 2010
Gift Wrapped
DJ Thomas May 2010
We each have a voice and life, it is how we use them not how we might!  

Stop glaciers melting
Huge population movements
Death of progeny


The small reductions in carbon emissions being targeted for 2020 or 2050 - are thought to little to late to slow global warming.  The melting polar ice and glaciers together with our changing weather patterns are now fact. The resulting loss of river systems and rising sea levels will mean the desertification or flooding of agricultural lands and famine, then the migration of populations - starting with the skilled and rich seeking safety, to escalate into the terror of armed bands
warring over water, food, women and land.

By 20 20
Lets hope for twenty twenty
A 20 20


There is now the thought that the huge physical change wrought by global warming can be charted by the escalation in earthquake and volcanic activity.  And that this may eventually trigger huge eruptions in the American and Asian continents,
destroying civilisations to create a planetary volcanic winter.

Again fire and cold
The cycle repeats itself
Destroying nature


Was there a civilisation in deep history before the flood, prior to and during the last ice-age?
This has been researched and written about in great detail during the last twenty years
and many now believe it already proven by scientific review of documents and
thousands of archaeological finds, also by scientists having used the exactness
in the astronomical alignments of ancient monuments
to recalculate there greater age.  

Dead sold souls herd us
Lost mindless finger puppets
Vapid witless words


Sadly, the majority put their reliance and faith in
the actions of lawyer-ed politicians, most of whom evidence
a fixation on their own welfare,  selfish self-glorification needs
and an unwillingness to rock-the-boat once in power*

Politicians thwart
Party politics deafen
Propaganda’s herd


Putting off all radical action required until after the next election.  
Many have gifted away the necessary legal control and power to take national radical action
to a political or trade grouping of nations - in effect retaining only national rights
to go to war, put up taxes, borrow and spend monies.

Please no rhetoric
Complete local transition
Forget politics


We each have a voice and life, it is how we use them not how we might!

Living we give voice
So one voice might yet be heard
All being, believe!


We are left holding our eco-inheritance and children’s future in the palm of our hand.
Please let our love and imagination drive us each forward to make change.


Biosphere a greenhouse 
Target the impossible
Please gift some life soon?


So, we each of us have hard personal choices to make, which will encompass both positive and negative
benefits in terms of our time, lifestyle, health and wealth.  I chose to base my choices solely on how it
might benefit the eco-system and the lives of our children.

My choices are grouped under five headings: transport, food, home, lifestyle and further action. They are:
-  

Transport: Rail; Bus; Coach; Bike;
(I pass woods in bud - a Red Kite hunting twisting, unhurried moments).  
To give up ownership of electric / motor vehicles
and to avoid air travel where possible.


Highly vaporous.
Emissions farting -
barrelling vipers
.

Food: To eat meat/fish only once a week at most;
(Slaughteramas greed - industrial carcase-ed meals. Sheep full of cancer)
To study fast methods of vegetarian cooking; buy local organic foodstuffs;
visit local farmers markets and farm shops; grow my own when possible
and help friends establish vegetable/herb gardens.
To not ever feed, cleave and eat!


Fat shopaholics,
a deadly consumerism.
Cancers meat to eat


Home:   A cottage sized for me, friends and neighbours,
overlooking a wooded valley and trout stream.
Like me a little untidy and basic
.

Crossing the shallows
trout fingerling feed at dawn
White dots steep hill path

Dusk - eight painted queue
river paired mare and foal
Foliage lined dark black


Well positioned to capture the morning sun, airy and light.  
Yet insulated to stay cool or warm. With easy access to mountain bike trails
and long distance bus routes, plus several end-of-line train stations
in energetic cycling distance over the mountains


A differing beat
Quickly fading doubled steps -
pulling separate


Life Style:* A thinking poet mountain biker, living organic
not part of the great noisious noxious ribbons of hurtling tired.

Pressured paced life -
impossible  commitments.
Organic living


Further Action: *I intend to give up meat not because of the terrible cruelty involved in ten billion or more animals
being slaughtered every year to feed the human race, but due to
: 1)  animal farming being a major factor in the burning of 50 million year old rainforests at a rate of one and half acres per second to generate huge volumes of greenhouse gases, destroying the richest habitats on Earth and a principal source of oxygen; and 2)  that these billions of farmed animals
are themselves a major source of greenhouse gases
.

Burning rainforests
Feeding to cleave open and eat
Subsistence farming


With ongoing intensive fishing, the world's fisheries already in crisis and climate change,
it could be that we will run out of wild-caught seafood much earlier than 2030!


Conserve energy -
and natural resources
Don’t waste foolishly


Each of us might have a different view of what globalisation is,
for some this word encapsulates the dangers of our global fast food culture, omnipresent brands,
popular culture, changing diets and the growing use of packaged processed foods
.

Freedom to act sought
Globalisation's curses
Octopus suckers!


For many it is the illegal international trade in endangered species of flora and fauna,  
second only in value to the $350 billion a year global drug trafficking trade that now services
perhaps more than 50 million regular users of ******, ******* and synthetic drugs
.

The label 'globalization' can cover the: spread and integration of different cultures;  
industry moving to low per capita income countries; sweatshops supplying this seasons branded goods
to retail outlets worldwide;  complex international interleaved financial trading instruments being developed
by banks and financial institutions to trade worldwide, create profits and pay huge bonuses, without risk to themselves
.

Globalisation -
orchestrated profiteers,
betting our losses


Many see globalisation as being the beneficial spread of free trade, liberty, democracy and capitalism,
involving the efficient allocation of resources and capital through the spread of technology.
Unelected international bodies and institutions such the World Bank actively promulgate globalisation,
a '‘world government’ promoting close economic ties between nations
.

Enculturation
Our sad indoctrination
Globalization
  

The anti-globalisation movements dislike the corporate and political nature of globalisation,
protesting the resultant harm done to the biosphere, a more rapid and extensive deterioration of the environment
and the unintended but very real consequences of globalisation: the erosion of traditional culture
resulting in social disintegration; a breakdown of democracy; the spread of new diseases;
changes in diet; increasing poverty.
.

I view globalisation and it's propagation as leading to the final destruction
of the world's cultures and civilisations by locked us into a
dogmatic world political doctrine secured through
trade and political alliances of states, institutions
and corporations that remain hell bent on
imposing this world governance. Such
that individual countries governments
cannot consider making substantive
radical change to avert the planet
being pushed into a natural cycle
that will end the human race
.

Caged in Fools World
The people hear heroic call  
Each one a hero
!

The peoples and cultures of the world need perhaps just one western country to
break the legal chains of globalisation and adopt a radical economic regeneration program
designed to make the total transition to a dynamic culture of localised
clean communities centred on the individual not competition*  

Only one tool
National taxation for -
economic change.


Here I begin discussing how global, regional and national economies might
be based on the growth of small organic local economies.
not the repeated foolishness involved in chasing lower cost base manufacture -
each time at great cost to the economy it has migrated from!
Then a further culture becoming totally reliant
on the transport of foodstuffs and goods -
I can here you saying
:

"Oh **** this guy is -
talking about change, changing -
the world we live in!"


Yes, I am and do we have a choice?  But such change will be organic and involve business
in the restructuring and regeneration of economies till we share green economies.  
In small part his is already happening slowly!


Unlock taxation,  
survivals powerful tool.  
Needed now for change!


This is why we need to consider doing something that many of today's
plutocrats, economists, bureaucrats and politicians, would dismiss out of hand or
discuss endlessly in terms of perfectly competitive markets, perverse economic incentives etc


Major solution
National taxation change
Human extinction



WORK in HAND

This haiku sequenced eco-haibun is an ongoing project being penned day-by-day by many that care and take action. Your reactions are all welcome, thank you


**Take back control now.  
Cease all squabbling, achieve act - decisively!

Globalisation's, global control cut away.
Diversity sought

Promote well being.  Act with imagination -
for ecology!

Creating employment -
with local utilities, local food and transport

Incentivise tax,  to create local benefits.
Gain prosperity

Income taxation -  value added tax, aged -
dangerous mistake

Local licensing.  Lead don't follow excuses.
Saviour taxation

Imaginative - energy, food and transport -
local licensing

An alternative - energetic strategy,
greening business

Organic foodstuffs - out compete processed food.
Life promoting health

Healthy government - a healthy population. 
Zero income tax!

Locally taxed - by distance it travelled -
and category

Products bar coded.  Point of agreed production -
and category

Local added tax, by distance it travelled -
and category

Local energy, initiatives supplant.  
Replacing at risk

User energy, capture and storage.  
Eco-dwelling plan

Local water works,  supplanting initiative.
Replace the at risk

User water need.  Capturing and storing half.
Securing supply

Communications, local initiatives.
Protecting our needs

Local healthy food, life saving initiative.
Planting guaranteed

Sort unemployment, local work available.
Agriculture base

Radical transport - initiatives needed.
Change made possible

Season’s colours blur - in ageing contemplation
chilling warm breezes

Ganges dried mud - dust
Armed hungry thirsty tide
Generations despair,  lost

Our politicians -
squabble condemn progeny.
Flee panic and die

HAIKU SEQUENCE FINISHED

HAIBUN PROSE BEING ADDED
Day by Day
This haiku sequenced eco-haibun needs prose and additional haiku added day by day.  Contributing comment and reactions considered for inclusion...

copyright©DJThomas@inbox.com 2010
Sarah Michelle  Jun 2015
Ribbons
Sarah Michelle Jun 2015
Ribbons calling against the wind,
stronger than our fences.
   Ribbons crawling to our feet
speak of our potential--
   They break our defenses
Might be a love poem.

— The End —