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Agit Prop 101

Agit Prop Poetry 101

Give us poetry that pushes the envelope, that makes people think, that has edge and heart--and is about important societal issues. Sorry, this ain't the page for poetry about you, your sex life, or how much you drank last night. This page is for poetry about 9/11, Katrina, Iraq, Global Warming, Religious Extremism, Corporate Control. You know the issues--hell, these days even our pets are not safe!

Left wing, right wing, chicken wing...it doesn’t matter. What does matter is passion, anger, and wanting to change this world for the better!

What are we looking for? New: it should be previously unpublished on paper by someone else (websites and self-publishing, send it in). Length?: does size really matter--isn’t it what you do with it? Content: must be about a major public issue (no naval gazing, we don’t care about you or your little dog either!). Submit: by email, with the text of your poems in the body of the email. NO MORE THAN THREE POEMS AT A TIME. Submit to: Victor Schwartzman ( \n victors@mts.net This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or through the link to Victor at the top of the Review page. Do you get paid: I don't know, do you? Can you lend me some money?

Submitters retain all copyrights, apart from us being able to post their work, and with an option to put the poems into a book.

Bring it on! Mission (soon, maybe, eventually) accomplished!



Adrian Potter Print E-mail
User Rating: / 4
 

By Victor Schwartzman, on 12-10-2007 17:58

Views : 748

Published in : OW! Site Content, Agit Prop 101


Adrian Potter likes to rant, and I like what he likes to rant about:

Adrian S. Potter works, writes, and dies a little each day in Minnesota.  Despite the silly questions that idiots ask, he is not related to Harry Potter, but he would pretend to be his cousin for a lucrative book deal or a free pitcher of beer. Additional propaganda can be found at http://adrianspotter.squarespace.com/.From: Apotter Apotter [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]



Just Another Poet Ranting About Revolution

 

The government wants more money for their war

evidently democracy doesn't come cheap

so we measure the cost of the passing months

in the bones of dead soldiers

laid end to end.

 

Education matters, as long as you can buy one

a message taken to heart by the girls I've known

who ended up dancing in strip clubs

to pay for tuition and books,

which is okay by society's standards

since all women have to sell themselves

in one way or another to make it.

 

This country is overrun with families

haunted by the ghosts of deadbeat fathers,

crumbling under the steady weight of unpaid bills,

surviving with one dead car in the driveway

and no means to afford another,

and then we wonder silently

what's happening to our world

as the news reporter mentions

a woman drowning her two children in a bathtub.

 

Look:  we've spent our lives

believing the world's falsehoods without question,

and we are all too fragile to have come this far unscarred,

but the knowledge that nothing will be done by our leaders

places the burden of creating change

squarely on our shoulders.

 

As others have said before me,

the revolution will not be televised;

nor will it be podcasted, documented on blogs,

downloaded and burned on a blank DVD,

or streamed and broadcasted via YouTube

for folks to sit back and view

from the comfort of their homes.

 

This poem is not an act of aggression

for each moment carries the weight of its own brutality

but we need to take the truth, sharpen it

and press it against the president's throat

until he stops pretending that lies

are the answer to every question.

 

 

Stand Up and Sing

 

Huddled like hostages during our transatlantic voyage,

we were relocated to this North American continent

where natives were displaced by manifest destiny,

where we were chained in the name of capitalism,

where we found ourselves sold and traded like cargo,

and yet we still stood up and sang.

 

When separate but unequal remained public policy,

we remained silently resilient just to survive

while prejudice spit venom in our faces,

while sipping water under Colored Only signs,

while refusing to budge from bus seats,

and we still stood up and sang.

 

As society resisted change with dogged stubbornness,

we walked proudly despite any circumstance

through racist protesters to attend better schools,

through inclement weather to boycott transit systems,

through populous penitentiaries and peaceful protests,

and yet we still stood up and sang.

 

And today, as we subscribe to the factual myth

of The Man holding us down,

we are admired and reviled in the same breath,

walking, smooth-talking contradictions

in the pigmented flesh,

the epitome of duality,

tiptoeing around categorization,

equally capable of

staging diner sit-ins or drive-by shootings,

speaking proper English or Ebonics,

standing for something or nothing at all,

and, in spite of all that, we still sing.

 

And we must continue singing,

whether it is glorious gospel music

or rebellious gangster rap,

the twang of plucked guitar

or hum of harmonica breath,

the jubilant jazz of the jumping jook joint,

the eternal boogie that funks up the night,

or old slave songs that once tempered the pain of suffering.

 

We must sing

to document our twisted path through history

we must sing

black men

stand up and sing

black women

stand up and sing

sing these blues forever, so their echo never dies.

 

 

 

 

 

 


Last update: 12-10-2007 17:58

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Melissa Hansen: The Devil Print E-mail
User Rating: / 4
 

By Victor Schwartzman, on 20-09-2007 16:17

Views : 815

Published in : OW! Site Content, Agit Prop 101




Melissa submitted this powerful poem.  We need poetry that punches us in the guts--for a positive purpose! 

Melissa lives in San Francisco where she writes stories and poems.You can contact her here: www.myspace.com/quicksecret.


The Devil

 

Sheets of indigenous

people

blood stained,

lucid pictures

drain our memories

we see smiles and

suits with white

faces-men.

 

The dark stay in the night

with women,

faces covered

taped lips

in cities- necropolis

suits with white faces

have conjured- men.

 

These sheets are thick

and have plastered my

body wet,

someone will take

them to wash and

drain my memory clear.


Last update: 20-09-2007 18:51

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Suchoon Mo: Credit Rating Print E-mail
User Rating: / 0
 

By Victor Schwartzman, on 07-09-2007 18:00

Views : 529

Published in : OW! Site Content, Agit Prop 101



Suchoon Mo lives in the semiarid part of Colorado where he writes poetry and composes music.   He can be reached at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  He puts his words where his money is:

Credit Rating

eat now and pay later

drink now and pay later

go to college now and pay later

sing and dance now and pay later

fall in love now and pay later

fall out of window and pay later

make love now and pay later

get sick now and pay later

die now and pay later

 

rot in the ground now

burn in the fire now

go to Heaven now

go to Hell now

and pay later

later later

much later

 

your credit rating

for your salvation

or damnation

or whatever

 


Last update: 08-09-2007 08:49

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Justin Hyde: This Kid Across From Me Print E-mail
User Rating: / 2
 

By Victor Schwartzman, on 03-09-2007 13:12

Views : 528

Published in : OW! Site Content, Agit Prop 101


Justin Hyde is a parole officer living in the US:

//this kid across from me//

twenty-six
fresh off the bus
after ten years
in anamosa
for breaking
some lady's jaw
and stealing her
purse.

he's dead-pan
telling me
george bush
all the politicians
and millionaire businessman
are criminals too
they're just hustling
a slicker-tip
than most of these
dough-boys
slinging piecemeal-rock
and finger-fucking
cracker-jack cash
off the streets.

he's got plans
for flipping
real estate
and otherwise
exploiting
the natural tendency
of people
to seek shelter
within the herd
at the expense
of logic.

as his parole officer
i'm supposed to
disabuse him
of that
train of thought.

supposed to
help him see
it's a
cognitive
distortion.

but i've never
been able to
lie
with a
straight
face.


Last update: 03-09-2007 14:41

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Jack Marlowe Print E-mail
User Rating: / 3
 

By Victor Schwartzman, on 17-08-2007 18:47

Views : 1004

Published in : OW! Site Content, Agit Prop 101


I liked this poem because it fed my conviction that the US is going to the dogs.

 

Jack T. Marlowe is a gentleman rogue from Dallas, Texas.
A writer of poetry and fiction, he is also the host of the
"Outlaws of the Spoken Word" open mic.  Jack's online
stomping ground can be found at: www.inkandblood.net


doggerel

 

trotting 
down the street
fat and happy
down the road
of progress
America's
materialistic tail
wagging
as she goes along

 

unquestioning
and satisfied
with her dog's life
of corporate table scraps
rolling around in toxic waste
and getting an occasional
pat on the head
from her loving owners
in Washington, D.C.

 

or at least
that's how it used to be
and everything
was just fine
until those annoying fleas
showed up
hungry for change
biting her on the ass.

 

that sure got her attention.

 

America doesn't seem
so happy nowadays.

 

she used to be
a nice, quiet little pet
but her owners
aren't quite so sure
about the bitch
when she's scratching
and whining all the time

 

constitutional pedigree
be damned.

 

now the question
of the moment
reverberates
from the White House
to the dog house:
what's it gonna take? 
a flea dip?
or an old-fashioned
brainwashing?



Last update: 20-08-2007 17:54

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