Among Jacobins - poem

Lawrence Hall
mhall46184@aol.com
poeticdrivel.blogspot.com

Among Jacobins

“…the thoughts and feelings of each individual who really exists

are unique and cannot be duplicated.”

-Yevtushenko

A connection is not a surrender -
When we connect we exchange, we give 
     and receive
Ideas, jokes, poems, questions, a bit of 
     gossip
Cheesecake recipes and garden vegetables

But to deny the self is to cease to be
And nothing is left but an echoing, hiving 
     We
Galvanic responses instead of thoughts
Useful, obedient, disposable

Among the Jacobins there are no ideas
No poetry, no questions – only obedience

The Forces of Happiness

Lawrence Hall

Mhall46184@aol.com

 

The Forces of Happiness

 

“There will be music, dancing, happiness….By order.”

 

-Town Crier in Dance of the Dead, an episode of The Prisoner

 

The Forces of Happiness are released

To worry out of their burrows those poor

Unfocused souls who mumble about their days

In happy, innocuous solitude

With books and cups of tea and scribbled lines

Of happy wonderings and teasing thoughts.

And such is not acceptable to those

Who suffer not the individual -

To herd him into organized submission

The Forces of Happiness are released.