Life Poems, Inequities

Life poems and inequities. It's the nature of Poets to rage about their particular ox and who's goring it. Poetry was probably invented specifically for this purpose because it gave work to the less attractive, who found it unprofitable to moon about under some chick's window.

I'm no different, except for being incredibly handsome . . .

• The Blind Side
  Sports metaphor is not really my thing, but we all are subject to getting blind-sided.
• Children Locked Away
  The world's insensitivity to Africa just stuns me and this poem comes out of that.
• Diana
  The delightful princess was still alive when I wrote this, shaking her mane like a thoroughbred filly.
• Drums Stilled
  Africa of course was and still largely is a tribal world, but so was America at one time.
• Follow the Money
• If I have an underlying philosophy, it is that nearly everything can be better understood if we but follow the money.
• Get the Story
  The story is deep and complicated, with many facets, but the journalist is a hit-man with another victim on tomorrow's schedule.
• In Sidelong Glances
  We are seen and see the world, not with clarity, but from the weakness of our own position.
• It's All the Rage
  For me, this poem puts today's world in a very personal perspective where, alas, my warts are likely to show.
• Just Another Kid
  The slum highrises of Chicago are full of these stories or, more likely, the same story told again and again.
• Law is not Justice
  A trite title for what (I think) is quite an elegantly thought through poem.
• New Iron Curtains
  The emerging game in this freed-from-communism country sports new odds on the old payoff.
• No Place to Go
  My take on the kid dealing drugs on a wintry Chicago corner.
• Of Course I Wrote
  This is the poem that came closest to being my life, but for a personal leap of faith.
• Punk Haircut
  Written years before 9/11 and yet it's prophetic.
• Scant Ration
  Another harking back to tribal cultures, where my prejudice tells me that the less civilized life is the more civil.
• Soft Landing
  I believe this and so it becomes intimidating in its own way, because its sometimes more comfortable to hide behind words.
• That Was Long Ago
  Although really it wasn't all that long ago and the reality is that nations have to be very forgiving or they end up like Bosnia.
• Upswung
  Watching my country from afar brings clarity, but confusion as well.
• Walking in Chicago
  My God, I love the windy city. If there is a heartland city in America it is surely Chicago.