Fight the algorithms
that tell us what to do,
to make us predictable,
unoriginal and bankable.
Have you witnessed how
increasingly bland and homogenous
our lives are becoming?
Choose freedom
avoid the diaries of commerce
that riff on the ubiquity of apps
resist the reductive tropes
of our published and circulated,
perspective customer identities.
Fight the algorithms
with their embedded back-lot
familiarity, built around class
and consumerism.
Try to understand the
vague, inscrutable and
purposefully circuitous.
Or stop overthinking
and embrace liberating surrender.
That’s the path I’ve chosen.
.
.
The Gates by Da Vinci's Notebook
Talk Down Dijon
You haven’t found among notable faces
Or even quotable phrases
Any bankable aces
Even as your appetite chases
Though the teaching remains taught
The pursuits remain unsought
For many hearts resist being wrought
By the Blood of Christ, by which we are bought
Through the years of evasiveness and quiet
The loud silence births the disquiet
And the feared epitome is yet
If is not fed the moral diet
The screams near their outburst
But will be ushered by their first
Breaking into a unison of thirst
And the fear of the excruciating worst
But the scripture places in our palms
The quenching word and refreshing psalms
That are the most soothing of balms
Assuring the calmest of calms
As the farmer takes stock of his herds
Sowing seed and chasing birds
So must the evangelist do with his words
Treading the truth within its girds
Like to be back in the work force again
Contributing my talents to the fray
Never wanted retirement to come along
Sure wish I was still active today
Nothing's changed except for my age
It doesn't make me any less valuable
Mind didn't freeze, become useless or such
Making me any less bankable
Actually still worked at seventy-five
One reason was because I freelanced
Surely was able to still hold my own
In advertising could still dance the dance
Most people get the “golden handshake”
And are sent off to pasture toute suite
No evaluating this “end of the road” person
Like age gave him two left feet
Business should change this age old practice
New rules should be put on the books
If one's still a viable entity in the company
Age should be totally overlooked
© Jack Ellison 2015
While extremists and all
Are laying siege on Kenya
ICC is laying another siege
Of its own on the country
What siege are they laying
For the Al Shabaab?
For Assad’s regime?
I wonder! Aloud!
While the free world
Is talking peace
With Syria and Iran
Where despicable
Unspeakable acts
Are all but rampant
They are talking war
With peaceful Kenya
Already at the throws
Of merciless Al Shabaab!
Of what use are condolences
From those who seek to rekindle
Yesterday’s atrocious bonfires
With disproportionate vigour?
I heard the thunderous applause
I saw the ambassadorial smiles
I saw the presidential grins
And I saw the skepticism!
And I wished for a moment
And I prayed for a moment
That the new dawn of hope
Would spread wide its wings
To encompass my gallant country
And spare the children of Kenya
The trauma and pain and loss
And let the healing continue!
For on the face of retribution
Lies not the ultimate answer
And at the hands of a hangman
Lies not bankable justice per se!
But perhaps the men and women
Who make an annual pilgrimage
To the skyscrapers of New York
Are immune to such notions!
Looking for the formal definition, structure, and history of this poetry form? Visit the Poetry Dictionary entry below. Then return to explore how PoetrySoup members bring the form to life through their own poems.