Another week, another fantastic collection of poems to struggle to choose a winner from. This week was the hardest pick as all of the submissions were great, but we hope you’ll agree with our choice for the accolade for Poem of the Week.
Let’s take a look at the fantastic runners-up first!
3rd Place
Pete Ak – ‘Riot is an Art Form’
The freedom to discover truth is integral to anarchy.
The right to revolt, deeply sourced in history.
Who knows if revolution can establish a democracy?
At least let us be rid of the slime of this bureaucracy.
–
Lock and load buddy, fire words straight and true
against the artifice of a society in which reward stays overdue.
Let art grow into rebellion; come people, loot the shelves,
there are abundant words and wisdom for us to gorge ourselves.
–
Our ministers of parliament, smart of dress and white of smile,
expenses claimed in government keep them in a style
to which they’re now accustomed.
Champagne deceptions, shirking parties, Cabernet meetings;
that’s them leading by example,
homes and bodies more than ample
as they parade the finest shambles
of privilege and ownership.
While working families raise their kids
to respect a queen and her House of Lords
and watch them preen and screw and feast
on caviare plebs can’t afford.
–
When government becomes criminal,
condemns the weak, ignores the poor,
it’s an invitation, subliminal,
to raise yourself above the law.
It’s ‘they’ that plant the seeds of rebellion,
‘they’ breed mistrust around everything,
‘they’ feed the seed propaganda and repression,
so this enraged poet will sing
anthems that will nourish vagabonds and rebels.
I promise to light stars for revolutionary devils
whose riot is an art-form for men not heard.
We don’t vote politicians into power,
we elect them to serve.
Us.
2nd Place
Teratogenesis by Joshua Mackle
In this singular world
That brims with pain and pleasure,
In this spectrum
That balances on broken glass
And shards of a life once lived,
In this disorder, this colour block
Of confusion, this sky of disarray,
This unspecified future,
The battle of
The monster and the marvel
Rages on.
In this moment,
Every starlit dream
That glimmered in your tears
Has morphed into
A nightmare with serrated edges
That cut the skin and jar on bone
As they fall down your face
And drop silently to the floor.
Every spurt of jagged laughter
That escapes from your mouth
Breaks open the night
And fills the air with poison
That you breathe back in
And taste on your tongue.
Every mistake you make
Either crushes you or someone else,
And that’s the game.
The one we play every day,
Because the battle of
The monster and the marvel
Will never end.
The marvel that our jaws fells for,
That our eyes shimmered under,
Has taken over.
And the monsters that once
Slumbered underneath our beds
Have awakened inside our skin.
1st Place
‘Tea with Joe Hill’ by John Kaniecki
Joe Hill and I had tea
He let his biscuits soak
They say America is free
Man how they love to joke
Ask Sacco and Vanzetti
Ask Red Cloud and Crazy Horse
And the way I see
Is things are getting worse
I said “Joe why ain’t you dead?”
Righteousness is like Love my friend
Laughed Joe as he shook his head
Spirits never die and never end
A thousand tyrants and all their force
In truth could never compete
With the Love that is the source
Of one of my melodies sweet
You see death and life they coexist
Some never die and some never live
So songs of revolution will always persist
For unto themselves my songs give
So open your eyes and organize
Never give in to their lies and organize
Do not hate and despise but organize
Raise your voice in mighty cries and organize
Joe slurped the last of his tea
And bid me a final farewell
Above all fight to be free
You’ll get heaven when you give them hell
In John’s own words:
I write poetry for the enjoyment of the art. I believe that a poet must first establish that they can write in rhyme and rhythm and only then move to the more advanced free verse. I have been published by Struggle Magazine, The Blue Collar Review, Burning Books, Jerry Jazz, IWW Newspaper, Protest Poems, Flute, Black Magnolia, Left Curve, She Mom, Whisper, Vox Poetica and others. Though political or moral in nature I write in various forms. My poems have appeared in over fifty outlets.
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