Submit your work, meet writers and drop the ads. Become a member
Sam Bowden Dec 2014
Every time people start to rise up, a whole buncha problematic mess gets thrown around regarding VIOLENCE.
So, what is "violence" really?... It's the use of force. Plain and simple.
What makes folks uncomfortable (who are otherwise comfortable in this system) is that UPRISING IS A SOMETIMES VIOLENT (read: forceful) REACTION TO SYSTEMATIC VIOLENCE: Yes, just like the Hunger Games...
Thus, there are many types of violence...
The fact that we are paying taxes that are funding the genocide and ****** of people of color (here and abroad) is violence.
People with guns (former slave patrols and overseers, now cops) who come from outside our community and treat our folks as criminals on the daily is violence.
Capitalism, i.e. wage/property/ecology-based exploitation in the name of profit is violence.
The fact that LA County spends more $$ than anywhere in the world on prisons and police is violence.
The fact that the US locks up more of its own people than any other country on record is violence.
US aiding/funding the genocide of Palestinians at the hands of Israel is genocidal violence.
From Congress, to the boardrooms, to the classrooms, from the gaze, to the unwanted touching, to the ****, to the pay, Patriarchy everyday, is violence.
A few people jacking some **** at Walmart or breaking a window is really minimal violence in comparison.
A couple people throwing **** at armed cops is not serious violence.
The idea of owning property that other must rent to live is violent.
Systemic, chronic, global insecurity in the form of material poverty is violence.
Wage slavery is violence.
Gentrification is violence.
The War On Youth, i.e. the School-to-Prison pipeline, and, thus the War-on-Drugs with its attending 76% recidivism rate in the prison-industrial complex, whose populations are disproportionately black males, is violence.
The fact that people can't go to the doctor and dentist, or eat food every day is violence.
Deportations are violence.
Homophobia is violence.
The world's largest global military that vaporizes people without due process in dozens of countries violating their biophysical and national sovereignty is violence.
The United States government sanctioning the ****** of non-white, but especially Muslim bodies across the world... is violence.

So, when you condemn violence, do you mean resistance?
Because there is a whole lot of violence you should be condemning instead.

Adapted from Emilio Lacques-Zapien
Derek Yohn Sep 2013
The brambles in the emo forest
grow sharper with the passing days.
Three months deeper into the oatmeal
on the heels of the turtle goddess
and i am compelled to ignore the trees.
i have never been crazy about shrubbery,
being that the majority of my experience
has ended badly for the plant.

**** it.
It would appear that my green thumb *****.

My pillow is a poor substitute
for the warmth of sweatpants
or the comfort of your arms,
but i am locked into the devices
of another two year paper binge.
i would greatly prefer to be
static in my global positioning
as long as i can lose myself
swimming into the recesses of
your vibrant blue Oceania.
i want to hand you my eyes
so you can see my fixation on
the perspectives of action
and identify with my analysis
on the frailty of beauty,
intangible though it may be.

When i was weaker,
i appraised the value of
a man to be intrinsically
linked to the relation
between time and pride.
Driving a parallel path
to the stars, there is
only one thought:
Reality is like a dissected
frog: i poke and ****
and pull and poke and
probe and stare and ****
and pull but i still
can't figure out what all
those little tissues do
when they are turned on.

What if i want to taste the fruits of serendipitous fortune
or walk the garden path of chivalric sunshine?

If i could liquefy my soul,
i would pour you honey-laced
shots of my longing so that
when the darkness of the mid-week
slanders me you can touch
the sea spray of a wave
i have sent to wash away
the fears of circular evolution.

i want to build the hearth
where we can light the fire
of roundabout destiny and cook
the flesh from the slaughter
of our angry cows and bulls
so that we can incorporate
our weaknesses into our strengths.

i want to shape a necklace
out of my scar tissue
and wear it loudly so
that you can see the pain
that enables me to feel yours.

i want to finish my marathon
with my bag of bricks
because it is impossible to
truly win without the
burdens of justice and morality.

i've collected the screams
of my travels in a glass jar.
One day when the sun
struggles over the distant
cold horizon, i
plan to exact revenge
on the container and
make a concerted effort
to buy American.

In the hills above the
languishing sticks
i appear to have
dislodged a rock slide.
In my estimation,
the carnage will be
exquisite and swift.
If i survive the
judgement of guilt,
i can visit the friends
already lost to the
perpetual fires of the
sanctioning underbelly.

Why can't i take the
burgeoning petals of the
dark rose and elevate myself
above the sickness i have
seen in the eyes of my
accusers and those who would
trample the silly notions that
are all i have ever owned?

i feel that in the life i have witnessed
there are innate weaknesses in the
system i have supported.

In the instance given,
i have allowed myself
to be collared and
pent up by unspoken
deeds and words.
When my candles flicker
and reform, at least
i will be able to stand up
and clarify the point with
the authority inherently
granted to an elder whom
most ignore or ridicule in
the comfort of a happy living room.

i have seen hints of the futility of
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
prepositions, and conjunctions
because they cannot begin to
express the vertigo i am cursed with
or the gravity that will not allow me to
escape unscathed.

i'm afraid that one day
my ink well will run dry
and my fingers will fuse
together and conspire to
undermine my sanity.

i fear the ticking of
my watch when i can
feel its echo deep inside
the canyons between
my synapses.

i cower and whimper
under the auspices of jest
when my soul is overrun
with desires that cannot
be slaked with water.

i want to detach my
aorta so that i will not
be bothered by the
binding of my skin
to the dry earth.

i need to hum the
melodies of aquatic repose
and bathe my wounded
feet in the streams that
flow to the cliff's edge.

When the time comes
for my foray
into the sublime,
i can fade away into
the arbor mist and
not feel the piercing gaze
i have become accustomed
to during this.

And for so long,
i have fed the horses
and watered the hedges
for everyone,
only to find that
all my livestock
dies within the
fences i have built
to protect the few
things left after
my tornado.

Approaching six full, and
i'm camped outside the
city gates and starving.

i puked when the moon
cycle shifted this time.

i thought that if i
sacrificed fuchsia to the
demon he would mistake
it for acquiescence, but
when the clock struck twelve
my pumpkin only rotted.

Why did you want to see the water?

i'm not going to buy
the dumb tourist act.
You knew the sand
was poisoned.

Nevertheless,
i am 3/5 of a man
when engulfed in
purple madness for
your affection.

the bells have fallen silent,
and i have seen your persuasion,
like an old silent movie.

What of your petty elucidations?
Can you teach me about destiny?
Do you have any watermelons?
If not, why not, or, even better,
who cares?

i don't think you have
seen my rose garden,
the thicket i entered
once to reenter time
and again, lonely and
bleeding, twisting and
turning, with no
right-hand-rule
to guide...

but this isn't your story anymore.
this is an old poem, but i like the narrative...i apologize for its length, i hope it is an easy read.  it was written over a twelve month period, and the course of my life dictated the course of the poem.  I will let the reader draw their own conclusions about that year....
Harper Nov 2012
Shimmering sudden sanctioning
Surfaces right in front of me
Twisting tomorrow’s tongue-tied testimony
Leaving my heart soaked in surrender
Colossal comb tethering in the hair of my offender
I wallowed in things to come while my whole life was spinning undone
Soothe thyself day to day so I won’t fade away
Internal clock knocks on my heartthrob
I am slipping into each moment
Oh I won’t hold it
I let go and slowly slip, swallowing every drip
This is just the tip of all there is
Reawaken each moment in this
Love lapses through me and I collapse into infinity
Struck by my own understanding
Preparing for divinity’s landing
I fall for it again and again
My dreams melting madness motion me onward
Tangible tussles through thick throats turning toward tomorrow
Sorrow leaks and seeps into the eyes of the blind
While they wait in their own mind
Suckling savage frolics as mankind slips into grayness
And blue lips use so much to say so little
Breaking our fiddle over our knees
Longing for hope hitched pleads
As our craze bleeds onto eternity, spun up into me
Creeping carefully so as not to spill this drill yet again
Letting it crack through the incomplete
Flushes back into the see
Finally, once again we arrive and float away with the breeze
Susan Jacob Oct 2016
Brother, Brother what have you done?

You have gone up the stairs to be God’s son.

Your voice still echoes in my heart

your smile drives away macabre thoughts.

Brother,Brother why did you take leave

when evil saw you as too naive;

Isn’t it true that death is an inevitable end,

and that you can’t escape the strange trajectory.

Brother,brother don’t consider me selfish,

I didn’t talk to you sorry I was foolish.

I want to express my sadness

but,I don’t know why,I can’t get any tears.

Brother,maybe life has trained me that way,

to stay unshakable when emotions neigh.

The peace your face shows comforts me

as your soul’s mirror is the face only.

But your soul has gone back to it’s origin

your face doesn’t matter,you were ******

of treachery and obstacles and life’s hidden traps

just relax near that power and watch over us.

Brother your presence is much more now,

you might have gone high and low,

surfing the seas jumping the clouds;

disguising as nature’s unknown wonders.

Brother,brother you don’t have a race,

you are the same as a rainbow’s haze,

or the light falling on the cascades,

or the wind that comforted me this evening.

Brother,I know there is destiny

and, that nature doesn’t judge justly.

When your heart slowed it’s beat,

did you wish something?

All I can do is surmise

because,death always lies

that’s how it manipulates it’s victims

only the Angel of death shall listen to your last whisper.

Your soul,will be the same as other beings

we are just animals,the earth always spins.

Brother,it gives you a day

but,never reveals what will succeed.

Happiness is always followed by sadness

success by failures

birth by death

chance by hard-work.

It’s not what you do in life that mounts respect;

instead it’s the display of gratitude when help’s bereft.

That makes you remembered and loved.

Death itself is a miracle never sanctioning a fair chance.

You make promises,my dear brother,

the bringer of end never bothers.

The steps you made created lifes

without any soul even knowing.

Dear brother,your fragments go back to the Earth

your soul to the spinning fire hearth.

Absorbing all the energy like a magnet.

You shall take a new life form,I believe.

Like all the loved ones I have lost

you’ll be my protector,not eternal to the past.

Sorry brother,my breath will be air one day

and,I will be where you are anyway.
feel free to criticize
brandon nagley May 2015
Gusto affairs spiraled to marooned stairs!!

Amphibious angel,
Where art thou own wings?
Apparent your sanctioning is,
Appointee of marital status!!!

Anthropologist of creations new madness,
Armful arousist!!
Arrogant aspirant!!!!

We are all baggage carriers of used goods,
Bestowed to thy own selves thou ******* of crud!!!!!

Very few bonuses this time around,
For the metropolis hath gone broke and choked!!!

For oil runneth this deliveranth!!!

Bind thy own,
You biggot of brigaded quarters!!!
None to coincide with ,
No cognac love to filleth me with cocoa nestled swifts!!!

Engrossment of shufflers, greasers to seventies sneakers,
Esteemed of high retailer goods!!!

Distinction between euphemisms blame!!!
Highed tops to spindle games,

Atrocious calibrations!!!!

Such tiredness flees the crime felt page,
Who's enraged?

Refute novelties of javahouse breaks,
Wherein assemblers are all members of cafe corner states!!!!

Paxilheads to axlehead drinkers,

Some material like,
Some medicinal thinkers!!!

How much shalt one taketh before his psyche leaves reclusiveness all behind the robust tower!!!!
Mara W Kayh Jun 2015
In the spirit of progress
Let us not forget  
Love is label free
~
in my preferred world
Love
needs no
man made moderating,
judgement,
or sanctioning.
No, in that expansive world
Love exists purely..
defying
institutions or packaging
Or Supreme Court pandering

<open letter to society>

The kind of love I aspire to
and have discovered
transcends your stamp of approval.
Love Is.
love is lawless xo
Alyssa Nena Apr 2016
I pray to my guardian angels that this world will take.
take time for me
take time for mine.
take time for the un-loved
take time for the scrutinized
take time to love
take time for the whole
universe..
that people keep telling me is mine
its written on paper
I see it with eyes
if only I could open the closed
I find myself awakened
i find it hard to time
time the relevance between what I consider disastrous
fair in mind.
I sometimes think, If only -if only
I had the money to feed my mind with more danger
no self inflicted crimes.
If only I could hide.
would I make more of a difference gone then being in an everyday
charade.
a blanketed expression of zero impression
words fumble around
my fingers tinted with this fake ideology
that one day everything will be okay.
The world that I love and have chosen is all but a false
intensified figment of my imagination.
I think of a thing or a person
and suddenly there my imagination has spoke.
they appear with surprise absolutely no warning.
but what would be life if I could pick different moments
glimmers of sun and hints of darkness
I just hope that one day
I can force the light to see my way
guide my path
knowing that I am the master of my soul
and the passenger on a ship to my lost oh god forsaken whole.
I know but one thing- that this world I have imagined should one day change
if I could only find the gratitude within my being
stomach the love
vibrate the same feeling
make love with two souls
bound with pure love.
a type of see through energy.
only my guardian angels can guide me back to.
I know if I ask then the guide to find my light will be waiting
sanctioning
my world to finally shift and be taken.
Alex Lemieux Jan 2014
The formulaic mist of several aromas
Both sweet and strong
Hovers within the space
Asphyxiating and amalgamating every new smell encountered
Sanctioning an intoxicating bevy of delicious sensations
NuurSeraph May 2014
I circle °§° when I'm attending to high priority problem solving...I get that "call", comes at any hour all the time.  
I am a creative, straightforward problem solver, of that I serve a Use.
I don't sugar coat or concern myself with asinine diplomacy when what needs to be done takes precedence over graceful depositary.
  
I'm the bullseye solution spokeswoman, I see past the distractive story, connect the dots, then go in for the **** of the comfort zone, I do not speak enchanting hokee, to smooth the shock of my delivery.
  
I Call it Out for What it is, then lock my eye on each target who owes explanation to my Question, I go down the board until I'm satisfied, Cold Silence lets them shiver just enough to feel the Cold Choices they sold, then I sit and smile with ease, and Offer plausible suggestions to **** the problem, fast, and with no remorse for their poor professional Choice.

We reconvene within the hour.
I listen to their fumbled excuses, but they always impress with a touching integrity, owning their choices made for reasons I understand, but will not stand...
"Gotta keep the Machine running, even when it's broken."
  
I receive official plan of action which I must always find compromise...but immediate action is immplemented, when I get my way, The take down hits'em where it hurts, the sleezy ****...
the **** is no small fish, the **** are the bleep bleep bleep with sanctioning power, so deft proceedings must start the the transition within reasonable forecast and market stability, but last 8 months showing progressive movement towards bleep bleep speaks louder, never trust the newscasters story, bleep bleep, it's looking like we will pull through, but turbulence is never far away.
  
Buckle up, stay cool, this baby  is clear for landing and a safe arrival.

Still I will °§° circle, seems spinnings my thing.

Break to planned position...
my service gladly offered overwhelming but I signed on I like the thrill but not much time to chill
human life, the humanity
of unborn babies
all our lives in this early
state

moral difference

die naturally,
proactively ending
sanctioning destruction
to save life, dangerous
territory

moral distinction

aborting for direct benefit
aborting for vague and indirect
purpose

saving lives
the cost of destroying
noble ends do not justify
any means

great promise
great peril
great care

I pray
we wait for the
Amen
The third of found poems from *Decision Points* by George W. Bush.
Stíofáinín Sep 2017
Axe
I linger here in this intense rapture
chasing fireflies I cant ever capture
warped in dark by my unfortunate nature
I am durable
I'll endure this danger
swallowing the words of a volatile stranger;
It's never enough
sanctioning this fixation is my curse
craving for concession with the patience of a saint
a sense of freedom is my only restraint
JP Oct 2016
Walking down the valley
to buy things
expecting a call from bank
of approval of
my dream project
..................finished shopping
walking up
feeling tired
sat on the foot of nearby tree
a bee
came in front of my eyes
dancing...
dancing.......
a communication
might be regarding
the founding of honey
................ bee left
a sign of happiness
followed by a call on mobile
from bank
sanctioning of my proposal
a relief........ a thought
Is am close to nature??
Is bee was the Cosmo way of
communicating of
my incoming happiness...
Onoma Aug 2021
he sat at the shadiest booth

in the diner.

sunglasses tinted to the

thirteenth power,

think Christ with his besties.

he slid some random ****

across the table to no one

visible, and grinned like

a *******.

it was death sanctioning

death to put a hit on death.

as an overly eager waiter

walked over.

ever-present.
Disposition tilts dogma of poetaster
elicits, nevertheless adopting role jester
trending toward vagueness exhibited
by Addams family uncle Fester.

Yours truly makes exception to his
preference for law and order, viz
sanctioning upheaval particularly
avast mayhem curried kindled, biz
zee ness linkedin courtesy divine ****
hard re: coronavirus (COVID-19).

Oh...just a slight digression duration
approximately no longer than left
middle, or... right third eye blind blink
a show of hands via augmented and/or
virtual reality who recall children's pink
cuss Zuckerman lyrics, I roundly think

nonsense verse skidda marinky dinky ****
though a curmudgeonly fella, a catchy tune
me and the boys (at taproom) sing up drink
dated to more apropos synchronize Asia *****
lets the sunshine, thru trumpeting don vizier
touting America upon self destructive brink

allowing, enabling, and providing participation
within convenience er... rather forced lockdown
yet safely and soundly sequestered blame ratfink
microscopic organism (alluded 17) lines above
pitching capitalistic qua Laissez faire economy.

Accordance to crude Dickensian nostrildamus
whose predictions noted for reference to nose
everything about hmm... sax and violins crows
excitedly (pretend ye did not read orgasmically)
as United States of America pushed to breaking
into bajillion pieces metaphorically, aye suppose

executive, judicial, & legislative colluding bozos
feigning, grinning, hobnobbing... arrogant beastie
boys and goo goo dolls sporting snazziest custom
tailored (swiftly) made harried styled fancy clothes
at taxpayers expense of course, but more important
exerting Republican driven power to deprive Negroes

constitutional right to vote
namely i.e. disenfranchisement
especially upcoming 2020
presidential election woes
rendered manifold times
more challenging populace
up in arms vehemently

protesting prolonged quarantine
scrawling, sketching, &
striking garish noir
artist's rendition arrows
(albeit broken) corruptly,
lamentably, pathetically politicos
hell bent upending cradle holding
what dead souls Lord Knows...?

Analogous whim didst flit hither
and yon to & fro within
noggin (mine), the following
representation you envision
whereby governmental representatives
dead set declawing,
maiming, née destroying
Bald Eagle Great Seal symbolizing
The eagle head turned

towards olive branch, on right side,
to symbolize preference for peace.
In beak, eagle clutches
a scroll with motto E pluribus unum
("Out of Many, One"),
The Olive branch and arrows
denote power of peace &
war which exclusively vested in Congress.

— The End —