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Many poets have been sending in poetry on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Post your poetry directly below.
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. Sunday Morning While the World Burns Another something, somewhere, every day Perturbs the practised calm of her routine. Those...
. August 31, 2021 Humpty Dumpty looked at the wallHumpty Dumpty said “This must fall.”Mexican cartels, yes rapists and thugs,Cross...
“A brass abyss of polished hell” — wow.
Well! What an apt title for a collection of aphorisms, or gnomic verses. I love it, and I am envious.…
Well, poems have to be depressing sometimes, and even deeply upsetting. It's just part of life. I do think that…
C.B., I absolutely love these!!! You are a real truth-teller!!!
These are perfect gnomic verses. They follow the tradition of ancient gnomic poetry-- short, concise, and pithy, while packed with…
THROWING A GLASS OF WATER ON A FOREST FIRE
By Roy E. Peterson (February 23, 2022)
I have read the Arab proverb
Of an animal’s intent.
Once a camel gets his head in,
He soon occupies the tent.
Russia’s Ukraine incursion
Is being met with only sanctions.
That won’t stop the Russia beast
From taking military actions
That is what is happening
While the diplomats perspire.
It is like throwing a glass of water
On a forest fire.
Remember the Alamo…Mexican citizens were chased off their settled landWhere no one could lend a handNow Putin tries to conquer parts of the Ukraine and we all know the man is insane…the greed he bestows on the USSR should be captured and put into a huge jar…He madethe barrels so highby June it will reach the sky…All over stolen land we can admit…When will Putin stop this war?When shall he quit????
Jim, some good points that I appreciated reading and right on point, but your first one is inaccurate:
1.) Many Mexicans in the Texas region were convicts sent there. 2.) Few Mexicans wanted to move to the Texas region.
3.) Mexico encouraged American settlers to move there granting them lands not occupied by Mexicans. They were supposed to learn Spanish and convert to Catholicism.
4.) By 1834, American settlers outnumbered Tejanos 4-1.
5.) Santa Anna was a dictator causing many Tejanos to want independence, as well as the new settlers.
https://www.thoughtco.com/causes-of-texas-independence-2136245
Roy, you have completely captured what’s occurring in Ukraine in classic
poetic rhyme. Unfortunately, it’s the civilians who suffer the most.
An enjoyable read. 🙂
I really appreciate that, Tamara!
I read this after submitting my post. It’s great! Thank you. Peace to all.
I like 🙂
WE SHALL HAVE WARS
By Roy E. Peterson (January 26, 2022)
We shall have wars and rumors of wars
While the world will wilt and wail.
The diplomats will not understand
Why all their actions shall fail.
Enemies know when others are weak
That is the time for attack.
With withdrawal from Afghanistan,
Credibility we lack.
The economic threats of our President
Aren’t enough to stop
Russia invading the Ukraine
In a military onslaught.
Only the threat of an all-out war
Could deter Vladimir Putin.
If Russia believes that the west
Still will avoid the shootin’.
Dear LTC Roy Peterson,
Thank you for this venue and your timely and inspiring poems.
I would like to contribute my poem, All Out of Yellow Bricks, to this collection. As a former jr. high teacher of U.S. history and one whose childhood was during the original Cold War, this poem is a reflection on the worldwide stakes of this present global darkness:
All Out of Yellow Bricks
Eagles, and dragons, and bears, “Oh my!”
Eagles, and dragons, and bears!
The forest is dark and fraught with fears.
There is no one to wake us from our poppy sleep.
The fields are cold and our dreams are deep.
The West becomes wicked and the East is dead.
The city of hope is ruled by a head as cruel as it is
dollar green.
The tanks roll and the rockets scream,
soaring through the air like monkeys with wings
or avenging angels punishing our sins.
The world is on fire, melting the ice,
clearly ascertaining floods will suffice
for a second ending or even a third.
Neither bang nor whimper will be heard
in the star-filled room of the universe.
There’s no escape when the sky starts to burn.
“There’s no place like home”after a nuclear curse.
all that is left is smoldering ash and the remnants
of a world consumed in a flash. by P.C. Scheponik
Thank you again for your platform and for listening.
Sincerely, P.C. Scheponik
P.C. That is a wonderful contribution and deeply sincere. I completely relate to your stimulating thoughts and feelings. Thank you!
RUSSIA OOZING INTO UKRAINE
By Roy E. Peterson (February 22, 2022)
Russia is oozing into
The Ukraine like syrup.
Ukraine is like a dagger
Pointed at the heart of Europe.
Resources of Ukraine
Are among the world’s best.
Putin wins the war of wills
With his first probing test.
Putin sensed the weakness
Fuming in the West.
He knew an invasion
Would not be a contest.
Force must meet with force,
Or the first force has its sway.
Without confrontation
There is no other way.
The diplomats are powerless.
Their words will be in vain.
Only the Ukrainians
Will really feel the pain.
Putin knows there’s sanctions,
But they are worth it all
Just to see an ally
Of the NATO pact fall.
The economic sanctions
Like freezing bank accounts
Are a futile gesture
Regardless of amounts.
This is like the first salvo
In a third world war.
Incursions by our enemies
Is something we’ll see more.
[LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander, monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.]
I WANT TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO
By Roy E. Peterson (February 26)
The world is now destabilized,
The peace has been shattered.
I want to say I told you so,
Not that it has mattered.
How far will Russian tanks go now
Is anybody’s guess.
Suffice it now to say
That this old world is in a mess.
This could be the first blow
At the European Union.
Hegemony has set the stage
For Russia’s new dominion.
The instruments of war have changed
To cyber and nuclear.
The world must now prepare for war
Is something that I fear.
Putin has exposed weaknesses
Of our administration.
One example is the shut down
Our oilfield exploration.
Putin had assessed the time
To attack now was best.
There only would be sanctions
Sponsored by the West.
Some cyberattacks will cripple us,
If they are deployed.
Then the threat of nuclear war
Could then be employed.
If our civilization
Is left standing on this earth,
I want to say I told you so,
For whatever that’s worth.
LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander, monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.
CYBERWAR IS COMING
By Roy E. Peterson (February 26, 2022)
Cyberwar is coming,
I expect it very soon.
Already it’s deployed
In the Ukrainian gloom.
Everything we know
That is technical
We quickly could lose
In war electrical.
That could mean no food
Or water is distributed.
Electric grids would shut down
And be limited.
Banking through our aps
Could be lost to clones.
Everyone would lose
The use of their cellphones.
How long we have to prepare
For such a warfare siege
Could be now or never,
Depending on its reach.
If it should come tomorrow,
I want my friends to know
I sent you this message
To soften up the blow.
LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander, monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.
I could be mistaken, but I believe it should be “apps” in the line “Banking through our aps”.
Thank you for your thought. There are three abbreviations used for applications: 1. aps. 2. apps. 3. apls. The most common is your way of spelling it: app.
INVASION OF UKRAINE USING HITLER’S MODEL
By Roy E. Peterson (February 23, 2022)
The invasion of the Ukraine
Is much like Hitler’s model.
Tell the world they’re peacekeepers
While the diplomats will dawdle,
Then claim historically they were
Part of the Russian Empire.
Like Austria and Sudetenland,
Belonged to Hapsburg power.
Hitler followed the same model
With (Anschluss) annexation.
Russia swiftly recognized
A new Republican nation.
The only difference is
Recognizing Donetsk and Lugansk.*
Most likely they were subject to
Russian subterfuge and plants.
Note: *”Lugansk” is also spelled “Luhansk.” I used the spelling with which I was the most familiar. I have been there.
LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander. monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.
We’re in a fog of non-compliance,
Trying to understand the science!
Sarcasm is apropos in this gem!
Fog fits so well with its many allusions, including the fog of war and those who are in a fog trying to decide how to respond.
https://thewashingtonstandard.com/1-day-after-reporting-on-us-biolabs-in-ukraine-us-embassy-scrubs-all-ukraine-bioweapon-lab-docs-from-website-video/
Republic-rats and Democan’ts
Will come to save the day.
So many ways to rob us blind
Those Bio-Labs will pay.
They’re bombing bio weapons now,
It’s on the Ukraine news.
Biden’s losing one cash cow –
There’re more in many queues.
Burisma’s paying dividends
And wages to his boy.
Northrop Grumman, Raytheon
Are rubbing hands in joy.
Putin is an idiot,
Why fight the New World’s orders?
He should have called up Soros, Xi,
Then opened up his borders.
You are right on point! Witty, yet impactful!
Brilliant, Mike.
Ky’iv in a Winter Evening
by Radice Lebewsu
With reason, guides have praised its beauty and its treasured gifts,
blue waters, green ravines, and blinding landscaped drops and lifts.
Alas, barbarian-destroying hermocopides
are using missiles on the architecture of Ky’iv.
Now scenes of devastation follow streets with spitefulness,
tanks, drunk with power, roll into the city’s frightful mess.
And in the eve of night upon this very anguished hour,
old chestnut trees without their leaves are languishing and dour.
The rubble and the fires have left a horrid string of scars,
yet still it stands, though overcast and emptying of cars.
I can feel the direct pain of this one! I have been there both before and after the retreat of the Russian bear years ago. I had nothing but good experiences in Ky’iv (Kiev).
“tanks, drunk with power” brought to mind the footage I saw of the Russian tank that deliberately rolled over a car with a guy inside. Miraculously, the man survived. I love the reference to the stately “old chestnut trees …”
This tennos draws from a poem “Ky’iv in a Spring Evening” by the fine Neoclassical Ukrainian Modernist Mykola Zerov (1890-1937). But in my contrast, as Mr. Peterson has pointed out, “direct pain” is drawn out in images from February 2022. Ms. Corey loved the reference to the chestnut trees, which are beginning to bloom in Zerov’s poem, but which are “without their leaves…languishing and dour” here.
Just as an historical note: On the night of April 27th-28th 1935, Zerov was arrested, taken to Ky’iv for investigation on May 20th , accused of leading a counter-revolutionary terrorist nationalist organization (déjà vu: like the Americans of January 6th 2021 in DC), and sentenced to ten years in prison. On October 9th 1937, a special troika of the UNKVD sentenced him to death. And he was shot dead, with many others, near the village of Sandarmokh November 3rd 1937.
There once was an angry old bear,
whose cave had lost much of its flair.
So using his muscle
and bully-boy hustle
he increased the size of his lair.
Well said, Paul!
HOW PEACEFUL WAS THE UKRAINE
By Roy E. Peterson (February 26, 2022)
How peaceful was the Ukraine!
I used to travel there
Both before and after
The retreating Russian bear.
I went to Kiev, Rovno, Lugansk,
And to Chernobyl,
Sometimes as an attaché,
Then sometimes for the thrill.
Ukrainians would help us
Avoid the KGB.
They knew who the spies were
Who were keeping track of me.
Why invade a peaceful nation?
Things were going fine.
They will reap the whirlwind,
As the world will decline.
https://thenewamerican.com/george-soros-s-giant-globalist-footprint-in-ukraine-s-turmoil/
https://newspunch.com/vladimir-putin-george-soros-is-wanted-dead-or-alive/
Ukraine’s lovely folk have fallen
For the Soros spell.
He’s taking them from heaven to
Collectivism Hell.
God help the brave Ukrainians
To ring out freedom’s bell.
But as for Open Borders Soros
Send him straight to Hell.
My sentiments, exactly!
I bet you could write books and books on your experiences… I have learned from your poetry. I am no expert on foreign relations, but I do know this is a complex situation. I don’t have much faith in our leaders selecting the right path.
If the Russians can capture and hang George Soros from whatever lamppost is at hand, I’m all for their invasion. And no, I don’t want to argue with anybody.
Joe… the situation could not have been boiled down any better. I ain’t arguing either… when the winds of war start blowing, madness ensues… and the madness has been endemic for years.
Oh, NOW…he claims to hate debate
When in his customary state
He promulgated MAGA hate
And vices to insinuate
His neural status ain’t too great,
Like some New Jersey potentate,
In deep state panic…contemplate,
And Finland treason facilitate
His responsibilities…abdicate,
Because he’d rather copulate
With scandals…he might not create,
Without a temper fulminate,
Leading to a character trait
Truckers can never see too straight!
https://rumble.com/vy6erp-virtue-signaling-about-ukraine.html
And now apparently the son has taken up the torch.
Thank you for asking. I have written several books on my international experiences: 1. “Fight of the Phoenix” was about my one year in Vietnam targeting the Viet Cong. Notice it is “fight’ and not “flight.” 2. “American Attaché in the Moscow Maelstrom” was about my two years as a Military Attaché in the Soviet Union as a “legal” diplomatic spy. 3. “The Velvethammer” was my nickname and book name about when I had to capture a Soviet missile under the terms of the INF Treaty and then was the moderator for the final protocols between the Soviets and Americans. 4. “Russian Bears/American Affairs” is about my time as the First Foreign Commercial Officer in the Russian Far East and then First IBM Regional Manager. Two other related books I took out of print and incorporated the essence in this fourth book. I do appreciate you mentioning the possibilities.
I have virtually no faith in how we are responding. By the way, if you read my books, you will find I dealt directly with Putin when he was in charge of the Commercial Office in St. Petersburg in 1992. I also believe the President of the Russian Security Council, Dmitriy Medvedev, is the son of the General I met in Votkinsk 30 years ago.
Have you been invited on any talk shows to share your expertise? If not, you should be.
Precious thought, Cheryl! I have been interviewed on what is called the Texas State Networks (Radio).
W A R
It’s not as simple as it looks
On trawling through the history books
(Abundant words on countless reams)
It’s not as clear-cut as it seems –
It’s rank with greed that bleeds from crooks…
Crooks that plot from noble nooks
As trouble brews and chaos cooks.
We’re sold on spin. We buy extremes.
It’s not that simple.
As help arrives in loud chinooks,
And hope tunes in on tenterhooks
To blasts and screams and shredded dreams,
Know swindlers smirk behind the scenes
With airs of care we shouldn’t brook –
It’s not that simple.
Oh come on Vlad for goodness sake,
Why do you have to try and make,
Such ordinary folk like me,
Submit to all this misery,
When all we want’s a simple life,
A quiet evening with the wife,
Not death descending from above,
To snuff the lives of those we love.
So come on Vlad, for life is short,
Why can’t you just invest in sport,
An English football team, they say,
Is something that is bound to pay,
For all the lovely toys you’ve got,
Whilst boozing on your mega-yacht,
The Vodka tonic helps you as,
You contemplate the price of gas.
So come on Vlad, your men are poor,
And sick of all this stink of war,
With missiles crashing into schools,
The desperate acts of stupid fools,
For tyranny can never win,
So come on Vlad, just pack it in.
Great one to which we can all relate!
Roy, thank you so much for your super poetic take on this awful business and for your fascinating back story. You have a great way with words my friend.
What a fine piece!
Really enjoyed this.
Thank you, Patricia!
I really like your poem.
WAR
On the day
The New Big War began
Someone started counting
The dead.
41 : 4
48 : 6
59 : 10
What amazing technology we have.
Two mothers,
One on each side,
Took their broken hearts
And put them on a scale.
They weighed
Exactly the same.
Your poem certainly puts it in perspective.
PREMATURE ELEGY FOR UKRAINE
By Roy E. Peterson (February 27, 2022)
Fair youth of thirty summers gone
Expired this winter all forlorn.
The youth while taking his last breath
Could not withstand the stabs of death.
He tilled the earth and from the soil
Extracted wealth from sunflower oil.
He had grown stronger every day,
But naught could keep the bear at bay.
It took a week or maybe two
The sinews of his life subdue.
He fought alone, determined, brave,
Yet cast into an early grave.
And so, an elegy of sorts
Is wrangled from the news reports.
Here lies a democratic state
Devoured by a potentate.
“Putin”
The sadness weighing heavy on my heart
Is beyond words. I find it trivial,
Somehow, to conjure up a word or phrase
That forms a rhyme with “homicidal war.”
In 1982 I walked the streets
Of Kyiv (or “Kiev” as it was spelled back then
When the Ukraine was still an S.S.R).
And nearly everywhere I looked I saw
A banner, mural, or a statue of
Leonid Brezhnev staring back at me
As if he were the father of Ukraine—
As if he were omnipotent as God.
And now, another Russian wants to have
His portrait hanging on the streets of Kyiv.
But whether he succeeds of not he will
Have earned his place in hell condemned to spend
Eternity immersed in Seventh Circle’s
Boiling stream of blood as one who feasted
On the flesh and blood of innocents
His name synonymous with “Soulless coward.”
My first time in Ukraine was 1983. Your poem evokes those images in my memory. Your message is extremely well stated. They play directly to my sensibilities.
A COLD WIND BLEW THROUGH UKRAINE FIELDS
By Roy E. Peterson (February 27, 2022)
A cold wind blew through Ukraine fields.
The chestnut trees refused to yield.
The penetrating wind, surprised,
Took longer than the bear surmised.
With suffocating wind, though stark,
The bear went stumbling in the dark.
“The best laid plans of mice and men”
Are subject to defeat again.
The backyard of the bear arose.
The Emperor had lost his clothes.
Will the bear end democracy?
The world will have to wait and see.
I’m in awe of what you’ve composed in short fashion.
Bless you, Cheryl!
BIG BAD BULLY
We take bullying very seriously
We try to discipline a bully
And the ones who are bullied, protect
We teach our children self-respect
So with being bullied they learn to deal
Now they see how bullying is being revealed
On a world stage, as a megalomaniac drunk with power
Bullies Ukraine increasingly by the hour
And all the adults who sit in positions prominent
Watch haplessly at a devastating war imminent
They had told the children to not tolerate
Bullies, when faced with one, instead,
Of trying to fight they stand back
Placing worthless sanctions, without the nerve to hack
The unbridled aggression unleashed by the bully
The plight of the bullied Ukrainians our children see..
*
The world is manipulated by people with power
Is unfortunately the narrative of the hour
We tell our children to pray for the oppressed
But we fail to show them how the bully obsessed
With demonstrating his power we can restrain
I hope we can change the narrative again
And tell our children that bullying is neither going to be
Tolerated in school, or tolerated globally
Well phrased thoughts about bullies at all levels! I agree.
Disputin’ Putin
Whilst we debate the rights
And wrongs of wars young
People die with every word
And homes are blown to
Smithereens. Yesterday
It was Cyprus, Afghanistan
And Iraq to mention a few;
Today the Ukraine and
Tomorrow me and you.
Although, what other means
Do we have but to work through
This unbearable grief and dream
The impossible dream that one
Day soon, Humanity will wake up
And see that war or peace,
Is down to you and me.
Good thoughts and perfect conclusion.
An Old Couple 1000s of Miles from Ukraine
Sitting in front of a warm tv,
watching armageddon.
The theatre of war is free,
explosive skies act leaden.
On a sofa, looking, tense,
their nerves jangle together.
Lost for a moment, a couple of cents
in folds of dark worn leather.
Like refugees, their choice is poor.
Death darkens God’s clear prism.
All futures are, for sure, unsure,
on tips of cataclysm.
They grip their boarding pass for war,
review their catechism.
Nicely said, Damian. As we watch from our sofa, is so fitting for our present perspective.
Journey to Jeopardy
Ukraine, end of February, 2022
Not yet expensive blitzkrieg rain
but yet there are pre-showers of pain,
broke homes and citizens the same.
Now strained displacement. Now drained sleep.
Now dash to exile. Now rush to keep
distance from the invaders’ claim.
Truth is not the first to go
when aggressors’ juices flow
— it’s the balled aggressors’ shame.
Cars gridlock veined arterial roads.
The heart of living calm corrodes.
Civilian burn is War’s old flame.
Guards halt cars at safety’s border.
They let most walk across but order
fit men to return to win War’s game.
And trains are pausing at each station
to help crowds reach their destination
until the winds of War go tame.
These crowd-packed trains are easy targets
for planes that soon may empty markets —
they mark dead humans as their aim.
Each last train stops at every station
for full goodbyes to land and nation,
to stakes, like them, that lose their name.
Another well-stated sentiment from the point of view of an outside observer musing over the tragedies and pain of such a conflict.
What’s happened to Ukraine… again?
https://www.sott.net/article/278450-At-least-one-Western-journalist-gets-it-right-Its-not-Russia-thats-pushed-Ukraine-to-the-brink-of-war
Absolutely on target, Mike. The neocon attempt to make the Ukraine a NATO outpost and a launching pad for nuclear missiles is what has prompted this Russian action. It is EXACTLY what prompted the United States, in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, to come to the brink of war with the Soviet Union. If we could not tolerate Russian missiles 90 miles away from our mainland, why should the Russians tolerate offensive missiles right on their doorstep?
The larger issue here is George Soros, and the malignant evil that is behind every move he makes. Soros has never disguised his lust to control the Ukraine, and turn it into another LGBT, feminist, de-ethnicized, politically correct “modern” state that he can bleed dry of more cash. The neocons are simply glandularly anti-Russian (just as their Communist parents and grandparents were anti-American), while Soros is simply taking advantage of their belligerence for his own deeper purposes.
I admire the Ukrainians for their bravery and willingness to fight. But let’s not forget a key principle of all Realpolitik: In both diplomacy and war, there are no permanent friends. There are only PERMANENT INTERESTS. It is not in our interest to make an enemy of Russia, which is turning out to be the one Western state that has the guts to stand up against cultural decay and degradation.
This IS a culture war, Joe. I’d love to hear what Roy, an insider, thinks about our line of thinking. Roy?
Gentlemen. May I direct to take some time to watch this presentation, chaired by Dr Reinier Fuellmich. It contains a series of lectures given by various scholars, reseachers, authors ect.
Grand Jury: Day 2, Historical Background.
I will not waste space in giving you both a preamble in way of the content, but urge you most vigorously to watch this. You both will benefit greatly, and no doubt already have some knowledge of this. I shall finish by saying the chronological brilliance of these presentations, the last few centuries up to, and directly leading to what we’ve witnessed the past two years, and now what they’re attempting to orchestrate with their current machinations in the Ukraine.
https://odysee.com/@Grand_Jury:b/GrandJuryDayTwo:8
Yes, Mr Bryant. A cultural war, indeed.
A war between those who value Natural Law, and those who want to dominate it with Artificial Law.
An independent journalist. On the ground in Donbass.
Patrick Lancaster
https://www.youtube.com/c/PatrickLancasterNewsToday
Retired Major John Spencer’s Advice
by War di Belecuse
As skirmishes for the control of Ukraine’s capital,
intensified with airstrikes, and battalions backed its fall,
Retired Major Spencer, West Point’s Urban Warfare chair
has recommended turning Ky’iv into a NightMare,
a porcupine to fight the Russian military blitz
with quills across the city, up and down its many streets,
by filling bridges, blocking them with cars, trucks, wood and stash,
with anything that they can get their hands on, concrete, trash,
and building S-like obstacles to slow the Russians down;
thus turning Ky’iv into a tight dense mess of a town.