Archive for the 'Poetry' Category

Sep 28 2007

WHITMAN RECIDIVIST

Published by cyrano2 under NFL, radicalism, Verse, Poetry, Vanguard Thought

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

bigwalt

by GARY CORSERI

9/28/07

I know I am restless and make others so…
For I confront peace, security, and all the settled laws,
to unsettle them…

~ Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman can’t remember
what he did with America.
It was there in his back pocket
yesterday or the day before:
caroling, brawling, lusty, democratic;
stretching its broadbacked plains
in the sun between seas.
He walks from door to door
selling subscriptions to the Universe.
Who are these sad-eyed does,
this tamed race, moping proletariat?
What are these buildings
yeasting on the plains,
that drone of the cities—
ennui echoing ennui?
Men on the moon, rockets,
telethis and telethat—
but what Vision?—
all the wires entangling:
some hydra-headed nullifidian
sucking the wounds of the eyes,
eating democracy, spitting it out—
these people this land
lost O lost lost.

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Sep 23 2007

REVOLUTION

Published by cyrano2 under Depraved Aristocracy, Plutocracy, Bourgeoisie, Poetry, Revolution

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

guillotine

BY GARY CORSERI

9/23/07

They gave us democracy,
But took our freedom.
We had the right to vote,
But it didn’t matter.
We had the right to refuse to sing
“The Star-Spangled Banner”—
But not if we valued our lives.

We could chant, “Not in my name,”
But they took our names away.
We could work hard,
But they taxed us into the ground.
We could march against War,
But they sent us to War
And taught our children to kill
Someone else’s children.

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Sep 23 2007

The Abducted

Published by cyrano2 under Corporatism, Spiritual Bondage, Wage Slavery, Poetry

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

wage_slave

By Adam Engel

9/23/07

Bright lights.
Screechy scratchy
space gossip:
alien tongues
like insects in debate.
Cold instruments, hard tables.
Paralyzed, mute, helpless.
Steely gadgets telescoped up my –
but back in bed by six.
Clock radio Muzak
alarm, alarm. Alarm. Alarm.

That dream again?
No, look, proof:
tiny scoop-marks on my thigh
and oh my burning bum!
Regardless:
to the shower
the espresso pot
the car my pod my womb
two hours traffic
may I not collapse
on the packed pavement
of my destination or
drop dead
in the cubicle unremarked
till pay day or
stink of personal decay or
impromptu staff meeting.

May I survive this day’s
abduction,
return
home again, home again
to night’s
white light blindness
catatonic lifetimes past
probes unspeakable
alien chit-chat
unidentified fleeting objects
of deliverance.

Adam Engel is a senior contributing editor for Cyrano’s Journal Online and can be reached at:

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Sep 19 2007

REVELATIONS

Published by cyrano2 under American Nightmare, Right Wing Degenerates, Souless Capitalists, Capitalism, War on the Poor, Exploitation, Corporatism, Bourgeoisie, Poetry

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

convention

By Vi Ransel

9/19/07

Corporations seek pockets of poverty
like pit vipers lock on to heat,
taking advantage of cheap, docile labor
and creating corporate fiefs.

The Poor get used as chum
in the roiling economic waters
to attract the sharks of profit
that circle the bottom line’s coffers.

Corporations promise job creation
then run small businesses out of town
along with those original jobs, so in fact,
the number of jobs goes down.

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Sep 16 2007

HOLDING THE LIGHT

Published by cyrano2 under Poverty, War on the Poor, Verse, Poetry

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

neworleansbab

by Mankh (Walter E. Harris III)

9/16/07

What is a gooseneck lamp doing in Carl’s meadow?
Why are the geese crossing the two-way street in suburbia?
Could it be something to do with the jiggy society,
so much pompous and ignoring the circumstances?

Urgency removes doubt,
a human being lifting a car to save a life–
divine adrenaline has not been studied enough,
nor altruism, nor buy one give one free.

Opening an inner door…

towards the end of summer and eyeing October
peppers red as apples
apples red as whatever you want them to be red as…

from New Orleans to Dharamsala to Baghdad to the ghettos of America
the obvious are being overlooked: the poor, the reincarnated, the childlike,
the ones who do not tan from sun because they have been here so long…

and they are all holding the light, in the dankest corners
and in the shallowest pockets of economic warfare they are holding the light…

as a peach on the ground, as a red brick-wall in the afternoon glow,
as the eye in a vision, and the sparrow who grabs on
to the middle of the long, tall stem of a sunflower…

holding the light.

Mankh is a poet, essayist, and small press publisher.
He is co-editor of the forthcoming primal sanities! a Tribute to Walt Whitman an Anthology of Poems and Essays.

His website: www.allbook-books.com

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Sep 02 2007

REDS

Published by cyrano2 under Capitalism, Poetry, Red Scare

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

redrap

By Vi Ransel

9/2/07

Criticism of leaders and government
is not a privilege granted by powers that be.
It’s the duty of every citizen
in a democratic society.

But the badge of ethics and honor
once worn by patriotic dissenters
has been ripped from the breast of Liberty
and replaced with a Scarlet Letter.

Vi Ransel is a contributing editor for Cyrano’s Journal Online who has never developed a strong affinity for capitalism.

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Aug 25 2007

Tête de Cinéma

Published by cyrano2 under Radical Language, Verse, Poetry, Vanguard Thought

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to

bush montage

“imagine pornographic
montage…”

By Adam Engel

8/24/07

That time she said
alright
the future
was a movie
about
life death
prismatic choices
between
life or death
but not like
nothing like
this.
Never
tête de cinéma
imagine pornographic
montage
such
so much of
such
ineffable,
crushing.

Adam Engel is a contributing editor for Cyrano’s Journal Online and can be reached at

donttrust

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