they gunned Lennon

[revolutionrabbit]

the day they gunned John Lennon down
the world became a little worse place
imagine, that they are so insecure
in their ability to control the planet
they were out to get that cartoon face

the day they gunned Lennon down
I had a dream the night before
I only saw a person with a gun
I think that night I had had seen the sun
here comes the sun, but they held a gun

John was like the universe
John was singing about peace and love
and I recall seeing the Beatles on TV
not long after they assassinated another
man called John, they gunned another
man down, called John

If you feel the tears that flood in the city lights
on the night John was shot on the street
If you hear the message that was deep in his songs
If you were there when the Beatles first came
along, or if you were not even born, when they
gunned John Lennon down, you still hear and feel
the bright meaning of his beautiful words
forever...strawberry fields

the night they gunned John Lennon down
we all shined on like the moon the stars and the sun
but the world was a little worse place
some moment of true grace had passed
out of the holes in his chest
and though they put his body to rest
they could not crush out the flower of his voice
they could not take away, instant karma
not take away the chance of peace, the chance
we give to it, John said it loud and clear

and today I have another tear, and each one
goes into the ocean of consciousness where John
and us imagine there is no heaven, no country
nothing to kill or die for, and no religion too
we are all dreamers now, and not the only ones

[judih]

excellent tribute, craig

[mnaz]

amen
they tell us
we gotta make a stand sometimes
but you must respect the ocean too

[revolutionrabbit]

was reading on another site Common Dreams comments
about the letter Dylan wrote to the gov. to allow John to
stay in U.S., made me think about that moment of the late
60's that John's imagination became so in sync with the
generation that came out of the 50's the art the poetry
the music that speaks to the heart of the matter, whats
the matter with this world, John just told it like it is, like
Dylan, like Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, and the poets
and artists and music always has to some beat, some
drum, some rhythm, some motion of the spheres, and
still it all comes down to some argument, some rift, some
thing about the human condition, something that needs to
be healed, and John Lennon spoke to that human reality.

As a teenager in the late 60's the only thing I could relate
to was Dylan, Stones, Beatles, and Hendrix that followed
along with the wild man shamanic poet Jim Morrison.I heard
the message, I felt it in my depths, I tripped on it, it was
the book Naked Lunch that really opened me up, when I
was 17 and read some of it, and I really began to see the
world as it is, and the words of Dylan and John, and Jim
and Jimi took on even more resonance, and this is the
awakening of a poetic will, the anger at oppression, at
horrible lies, and disinformation, the cognitive dissonance,
the alienation. Back then it still seemed like a wild will came
from all the poets before, Jim read Nietzsche and Rimbaud
John was a writer too, maybe the only book that I read in
the year before my psychedelic days was John's A Spaniard
in the Works, besides the little reading of text books.That
moment when Love and Peace suddenly became the words
of teenagers, and flashing of the peace sign became maybe
more common then being flipped off when I was hitchhiking.
oh yeah, it was a wild dream on the wind that dared imagine.
that the problem of the human condition might someday be
solved and evolved, and the music and poetry would have
been the stuff that made it all come together.Come together now.
like one comment said..."Long live the late 60's" and long live
now, be here now....and then.

[emel.scott]

Do you believe "the journey is the destination"?

[mnaz]

the destination is also the journey, or so it seems. the corollary...

[revolutionrabbit]

poetry is the journey, the destination is the poetry

hmmm........i guess if i use the poetic view, as it were

then the journey involves many aspects, one enters
the journey, we are given some directions, or some
path or road to go down, and here it gets interesting
which one do you chose? or has it already been chosen
for you.Do you you take the one less traveled? are you
like Alice in wonderland, do you begin to question the
very logic around you, do you make up your own rules
to a game that seems absurd from the start? what is
the meaning of the journey, is it like going to Grandma's
house in the woods? is it like a game children play? Do
we fall down a hole, or enter and cast our fate to the wind
is there a sign pointing in some direction, that maybe has
been tampered with? Yes, I took the pill and one makes
you larger, and one makes you small, and one doesn't
do anything at all, the red one, the blue one, the sugar
cube, the little green capsule, or purple one, you takes
yer chances, and the journey begins, the destination
becomes the journey, and the journey becomes the destination
without hesitation, you jump into the road and begin to move
in some direction, and some destination begins to take on form.
What shape and form it takes depends on how you make the journey.
And so it goes, maybe the map you had became confetti before you
arrive.But if you put one foot in front of the other.....then it follows.

so the answer is yes, take William Jame's phrase 'Stream of Consciousness"
"the unbroken flow of thought and awareness of the waking mind" so the journey
of the mind begins where it left off,the destination is nowhere and everywhere
or you are going toward some infinite point, for John Lennon that point was
perhaps perplexing, but it was also simple, like, all you need is love.But in that
simple truth which would seem to be the final and only real destination, after all.

[.Lucy.]

A great tribute, thank you for sharing those words. I have a collage here on my wall at work and John is one of the many up there who inspire me.

[revolutionrabbit]

thank you, I wrote that poem in about ten minutes,
which makes me think, I could write it over, if I
really got into listening to John's music and concentrated
on it, like song for song.It is difficult to really fathom
the influence of the music of the Beatles and John Lennon.
One can only listen to the music, against the backdrop
of the times and the power to the people, to Imagine!

[saw]

let's hear it for the dreamers !.........nice tribute poem to an extraordinarily public person.....much of his adult life without privacy.....the roller coaster of stardom and having all your decisions on film......it's a wonder anyone in that position can come out the other side......but he did it with flair and grace against the public will to some extent......yoko seemed to a stabilizer

[jim turner]

Fairly new here so went back to the beginning to begin a journey "through" poetry. It might be longer than I can last, but I'll give it a try. Here I must agree that our world that night became a worse place. It was not the first and will not have been the last such night. jim