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Best Poems Written by John Ransburg

Below are the all-time best John Ransburg poems as chosen by PoetrySoup members

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That Which Time Is

Though Time is something we've devised,
Time's hold on us can't be revised.
While Time has time to spend at will,
We question Time when we distill
It into time spent ill or well.
It's just perception - time will tell.

Time can play games within our head,
It's Time we love - and Time we dread.
Time gives us time to think things through,
What to reject - what to pursue.
And, timeliness keeps Time involved -
Sufficient time gets things resolved.

True, Time can grant a host of things -
Good times that well-timed planning brings.
And, timely words - remember when?
Just simple truths, time and again.
Time can expand our views to see
The benefits of what might be.

But, Time can proffer problems too -
With time to kill what should we do?
Time can befriend untimely ways
That dissipate our time-bound days.
Yet, Time won't dwell on what we chose,
Time ventures on - not in repose.

When Time slips by, or fails to wait,
It's Time we tend to castigate.
Despite the time we set aside
Time only serves to be our guide.
Still, Time can help us do our share
As Time goes by with time to spare.

But, Time moves on at its own rate
Unmoved by time to contemplate.
If we take time to stop and look,
Time travels past the time we took.
Yes, Time is always on the run -
Time won't stand still - for anyone.

Details | John Ransburg Poem

In Their Mothers' Eyes

We've come to pay our last respects -
So hard to know what to say next.
It's just harsh truth that we excise
As we convey our last good-byes.

When words alone don't help us grieve
We search for what we can believe.
While facts can foster dissonance,
Emotions field a false defense.

When hate and willfulness combine
Coarse words and actions fall in line
And set the stage for tragedy -
No time to think with clarity.

Teens roaming free with time to spend
Devised a "hit" - with guns from friends;
A drive-by aimed to score revenge
For some "wrong" pride pledged to avenge.

As neighbor's child went out to play
Stray bullets took its life away.
The "mean streets" were its enemy
But grown adults refused to see.

The tales that trend the evening news
Do little more than to confuse -
With homage paid to ad hoc views
They paint a scene with changing hues.

But, we see in their mothers' eyes
An anguished look - they realize
Such grave events can't be reversed;
That day relived as truly cursed.

Details | John Ransburg Poem

We Can't Normalize Gun Violence

How many times must we amend
The gruesome news of death again?
What venue will Fate next abase, 
some hapless, unsuspecting place?
Such acts still shake us to the core -
These senseless slaughters some ignore.
We're told that guns bought "legally"
Are nothing to condemn, you see.
Just guiltless children lying dead,
A tragic scene - their parents' dread.
While in the rooms with blood-stained walls
Lay books unread, deprived from all.

One answer was a thoughtless call:
Guns unrestrained with guns for all!
This stance - such unimagined gall -
Suggests the price is protocol.

Coffin for one - coffins for all;
Of no concern - this awful pall?
What's caused a Right we've held so long
To become tarnished by these wrongs?
Without true insight to reflect,
Without true foresight to correct,
Without true courage to stand tall
Elected "leaders" shift and stall.
Playing the odds in their careers
Have they now closed their eyes and ears?
For "pols" who acquiesce this mess
Their "jobs" should pass to someone else.

The case for change is nothing new -
Will common sense and reason do?
If change won't come then who's to blame?
Ourselves - for sure - and that's the shame.

Now, silenced victims must be heard -
Yes, they should have the final word!

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The Blessed Land

America:
Does the Light Still Shine?

            --------
   
    "Freedom of speech,
     Freedom to worship,
     Freedom from want,
     Freedom from fear."

            --------

Travelers to this Blessed Land
Had many varied tales to tell;
Emigrants from harsh demands

Beset by woes words can't dispel,
Long suffered tragedies emerge:
Exiles condemned for their beliefs,
Scapegoats who fled a rampant purge,
Survivors who sought war's relief,
Elects reviled for social strains
Deplored as being risky foes

Left homes behind with all to gain
And persevered when tests arose.
Now, citizens with Rights-in-hand
Delivered to this Blessed land.

Details | John Ransburg Poem

The Birthright Coin Flip Game

Just flip a coin
And you'll enjoy
A newborn, bouncing baby boy.

Just flip a coin
And find a pearl
A newborn, bouncing baby girl.

Both born co-equal at the start -
Co-equal with a heart, a mind,
Yet differ as their lives unwind.

Yes, down the lengthy road of life
Through messages for roles we send
Co-equal mostly seems to end.

Abilities become obscure
And with that fondest hopes and dreams
Assigned disparate paths it seems.

With such great promises arrayed
To key the very start of things
What cost by loss destiny brings.

Co-equal at the start of life,
Co-equal at the very end,
It's years between time should amend.

Then, what must take place after this
Without in fact assigning "blame"
In this unequal coin flip game?

Details | John Ransburg Poem

Overcoming the Influence of I

"I" lends respectability
To extant personality
And offers much to those it serves -
Perhaps more than it should deserve.

Important as this "I" might be
It lacks depth in humility
And sometimes fails humanity
By being its own efigy.

Beyond the realm we know as "I"
Is that which we identify
As beneficial harmony
That honors truth and equity.

It is a place of selfless grace
With neither gender, class nor race;
No self-proclaimed philosophy
Nor strident religiosity.

It prompts no economic scheme
Of gain derived through plan or dream
And holds the harness of the Id
As Ego, superego did.

It gives no thoughtless verity
To "sunshine days" integrity.
Unawed by status or by wealth -
This is the realm of "Beyond Self."

This realm is blessed with keen insight
Enhanced by self-reflection's light
And tests responsibility
In terms of our civility.

Here, selflessness is our just cause
Relying on a moral clause
That accepts human frailities,
Conditions and proclivities.

Details | John Ransburg Poem

Dorian Gray Revisited

If (I / you) were to observe (myself / yourself),
Would (I / You) really know (myself / yourself)?

-----------------------------------------------

We prosper but we also strain -
This "Game of Life" is that refrain.
It carries on from day-to-day
And we stay steadfast in the fray

Playing our roles up to the hilt,
Life's psycho-social endless tilt -
Casting our lots on roulette's wheel,
Love's psycho-analytic deal.

Gazing into the mirror's face
It's who we are in that embrace.
It's what and why we can't explain -
Our Egos whitewash loss and gain.

We strive to find identity
And picture what we'd hope to be.
At times we feel it's all for naught
When falling short from what we've sought.

Stagnating in complacency
We hold on most tenaciously
To limits of expectancy
For what we'll suffer change to be.

Our portraits in the attic wait
To frame the essence of our fate.
The chronicle of life is great
And Truth, through time, applies the paint.

Most will be shown with minor flaws -
Some, as affronts to norms and laws
But all, one day, will be displayed;
How will your likeness be portrayed?

Details | John Ransburg Poem

The Power of One Life: Preacher, Teacher, Rebel, Sage

x                                         Once, one Incisive 
                                            Life went forth in
                                            steadfast quest to
                                              challenge both
                                              prevailing laws
                                            and social norms 
                                             that required all 
                                             strictly conform. 
Corrupt religious sophistry and callous Rome's supremacy combined to weave
 the tapestries of unrelenting tyranny. Defeating both should therefore deed
 to Mankind this uplifting creed: exalt freedom and righteousness - exclude all
 venal worldliness. Such quest by faith devotedly extolled in ancient prophecy.
                                            The path chosen
                                             though proved
                                            to be a martyr's
                                             tread implicitly.
                                            While we revere
                                              such sacrifice,
                                             that principles
                                            define one's life,
                                            this story seeds
                                             a fertile ground
                                             where fact and
                                             fiction both are
                                             found. Though,
                                            change whereby 
                                            might surely be 
                                            contained within
                                             this verity: his
                                            gifts of heartfelt
                                           empathy, and also 
                                            gracious charity,
                                            as well as moral
                                           decency; Compas-                                    
                                          sion for our frailties.
        Yet, praising too the Golden Rule, its promise ever worth renewal.

Details | John Ransburg Poem

The Bountiful Land

"Oh beautiful for spacious skies,
For amber waves of grain
For purple mountain majesties
Above the fruited plain."

             ----------

Tales from ancestral lore decree
How journeys prompt discovery.
Evolving visions, sacred themes,

Beckoned onward those hopes and dreams:
One land became that promised place
Undaunted seekers could embrace -
No plight would prove too burdensome
That might deny wayfarers from
Immigrating to obtain
Freedoms that they could thus sustain.
Unbowed by struggles they would face
Long suffered souls these tests embraced;

Long wandered wards from tumults fought
Advancing quests for futures sought.
Now, praise their spirit rightly famed -
Defend those rights so nobly gained.

Details | John Ransburg Poem

A Reassessment of Differing Views

Some feel that Bible verse conclusively
Describes all life explained through liturgy.
Some feel that evolution holds the key
With science leading forth explicitly.

Positions juxtaposed perceptibly:
A purist view of Life's conformaties -
A prescient view of Life's complexities -
Could one more view assuage disparities?

What do papyrus texts in fact convey?
And, what does nature's yield expressly say?
Somewhere between these two compelling sides
The letter and the spirit both reside.

We take from texts enough to salve our minds,
And then from nature context-laden signs, 
With each constrained by factors of its lot.
Questions for both - what is and what is not?

Yet, could these sides assemble what should be -
A pair of constancies through which we see
Two halves converging as to form the whole
Reach toward a common line that's not a goal?

This dictum for another day, but now
Enough for both conjointly to endow
A symbiotic sense of harmony
And hope - if our thoughts are inclined to be.