A "found poem" from Google search, and other "whole cloth"

We've been walking a dirt road,
but our eyes are opened wide
Now the roads are full of mud,
and we will have to decide
We will have to decide.
Let us confer, and let us agree

It takes all hands
to cast nets
upon the deep of Galilee,
this narrow passage between the ices and fires
of depression economics
this era of sirens
from the mine's mouth's grim choir.

I think we will Agree
More than we disagree
and not just a little, but enough,
--do we not fervently pray?--
enough to take the Tiger's tail
in our hands, together,
No, I'm not lying.

and hold on! hold on!
and Don't get eaten!
Then, bound by solemn oaths,
and 
we will sail! Upon the Tiger's back
through all the wildness, and wonders, of this nation
each occupation, and avocation, and aspiration
Each strike, picket, and protestation
Each vigil, fast, and demonstration
Each debate, each advance,
retreat or negotiation,
each lay down of arms,
each arm linked, each hand shaken
each home visitation
each repudiation of exploitation
Ties on the track
of liberation and
emancipation from ALL slaveries --
Away from there, our destination.



Hold on! Hold on! Don't get eaten!
Through the cities, farms, the rain, the deserts, mountains and the thunder sky
Through the lights, the thrills, 
Through the darkness that can lie, lie, and lie again.
Through the volcanic ash of broken bones, souls and hearts
across the world
Through the terrors and furies
determined to tear us apart.

But, my friend, its farther back down
than it is to high ground
farther back down
than on to high ground
"Don't mourn! Organize!"
"Don't mourn! Organize!"
"As I would not be a slave; so I would not be a master."
Now that expresses our idea of democracy!
Neither shall we  be nature's servant, nor its owner.
As partners, even lovers, WE SAY peoples, like Leviathans,
can glide the oceans of this world in peace,
and who knows, perhaps even to the seas of worlds beyond
our times
to the stardust universe itself
if such is our destiny.

The true currents of working peoples,
the greater object of all their arts and all their works
Their lives and struggles, each a window on a pocket galaxy,
each sacred and each profane, now and forever,
Take a neighbor as a brother,
Take a neighbor as a sister,
and take care of each other,
thats the base, for the vow
To return the just fruits of  labor to their creators
Till the shares of human capital exceed all other shares
lift them up, lift them up, thats the real deal
lift them up, lift them up, thats the real deal

And Thats part one of the communist ideal

And Further more...


We bow to NO ATHORITY --  None but Reason
-- with a dose of socialist imagination --
do we offer for your consideration.
Even when winters go long, and
Even when the hills have been hunted dry, and
You've just outlasted your last woodpile
And the singers sing "only one thing is certain
Everybody, Everybody's hurtin'!"

Even then we respectfully submit
science is worth more than rifles
or gods, titans or heroes.
Doesn't matter who they are:
Marx, Lenin, Jesus, Mohammed,
Ghandi Or Dr Martin Luther King
Lincoln, Washington, Douglas, Dubois,
John Brown or the Roosevelts
or Matthew, Mark, Luke and John if you prefer
No one gets a pass.
No one gets a pass.
Check everyone's work, trust but verify
science is the poetry of reality.

But once you have it done, you will know the time
When you see that no one will save us but ourselves
When you see that against the  nightmares
of broken or savaged societies
we are our own protection.
And to whomever will inquire
What can working people do for themselves?
"The answer is ready," replies Eugene Debs
"They can do all things required."

Then you know.
you gotta go down
You don't have to be alone, but you gotta go down
And join this  union, on your own
on your own
this union of cooperators, mutual aiders,
these proselytizers of friendship
between all workers and all peoples
these champions of equality
of races and nationalities
black, brown, yellow, red, white
from every nation
of women and men
of young and old
These agitators, these first-responders,
for advancing all who do the work of the world,
We Present the case that we should be united.
We Present the case that we should be united

Recall Old Joe Figuerido
from Longshore on the West Coast, way back now,
A short American bolshevik
Stood little more than four foot
But he could holler like an eruption
from a mountainside ---
"If the working people sneeze together
The temples of Wall Street tremble!"
Unity of the multitudes
Unity of the multitudes
Thats the game changer, thats the world changer
thats the change you can feel
Thats the change you can feel

And thats part two of the communist ideal.


Now we are gathered in a moment
of grave seriousness in our country and world.
in which more socialism in our economics
more democracy in our politics
and more cooperation in our world must prevail
or catastrophe and war of a scope
no one can foresee  lie down the trail.

We are on a dangerous trip.
But its farther back down than on to high ground
We can go around, but We give no ground
We won't go back.

In fact
Its time to prepare
for attack.


Who says there is no future but new empires
and regimes of inequality?

The cynics and bullshitters are not the real people
It was not they who got us this far
There is no pie in the sky.
No big rock candy mountain

But there are wildflowers,
the first to break through spring snows.
Now thats us, my friend,
and when we stand before the sun
even on battlefields
and breath it's elixir for the first time
and know its freedom, and its truth,
that all will soon see
so personal and so universal
from their own ground,
It makes you want to shout!
Who can forget that instant?

So consider further:
from each according to their ability
Now imagine the harvest that THAT can yield
to each according to their needs
when the old tools are laid down
The arts of man bejewel a starry crown
But thats just one more appeal
and part three of the communist ideal

some will ask, is it reform, or revolution?
I guess we won't know
till we get there.
and in either case
 its farther back down, than up to high ground!

From another passage, in another time
Abraham Lincoln, hardened by war
to persevere, spoke to his countrymen:

"With firmness in right, as we are given to see right,
So shall we strive on, and finish this fight
Bind now their wounds who see with the battle sight,
And care for the orphan, and wife

"Through the long night, without malice, but charity
We come flying
We come flying
We come flying to light"


Fredrick Douglas heard these words of Abraham Lincoln
and replied:

"The Almighty has his own purposes.
The Dreadful Calamity came not unbidden,
nor by Accident, nor was the truth from any hidden
Shun not the harvest of blood sown beam-deep

"Seeds of Freedom, sow now  on sacred ground
To tiller and soldier return that which was bound.
The evil now seeks not slavery but degradation
A caste without rights, without land, without nation.
Beware what you do! Forever expel the abomination!

"Come common liberty, and common civilization."


We still await the last chapters of this conversation.
We continue it here.
We cross the valley to the mountaintop
Few who leave will come back
And not all who strive will succeed.
But each performs the hand off
And the seas of lights and torches
shift to the next link
in the chain of human destiny
Will we make it?
Who knows, you and I, what time will decree?
I only know, and believe
Dr King will be believed:
"we as a people will make it to the mountaintop!
As a people we will make it!"

And that's just the next reel
when we do the show for real

like in baseball communism
where all the teams
are owned by the players.
When you stand alone at the plate,
to shine at bat and
bring the multitudes to their feet
who could dream for more?
But we field as a team
and discover there which dreams prevail.

We learn to umpire
To master conflict resolution
To expel foul play from the game.

The game gets better and better
When the play of all gets better and better
Through revenue sharing
When winners invest in losers
And seek the rise of working people
But not to rise above them!

I won't deny it. I admit it!
Its a game field of dreams, like in that movie
where the farmer brings to life all the
generous aspirations of his
family, his comrades, his mentors and his country,
including those gone before

Sing it Out


Paths will be revealed
and we shall be released
from burdens past and vast
as it is given us
and as we strive, to live and breathe
the compassion
of the communist ideal!
Long live, the communist ideal!


--John Case, April 21 2010
Harpers Ferry, WV

thanks to inspirations from Jakob Dylan, Joe Hill, Dr King, Abe Lincoln, Fredrick Douglas, EV Debs,
Diane Gilliam Fisher,  and many others