Poem of the Week: ‘Tea with Joe Hill’ by John Kaniecki

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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