My great grandfather sighed in heaven
As I told my son the story
As told by my father as he was told
About how wealthy his father was before them.
Daddy, he says, something is on my mind
You said great grandpa was rich and kind
But he never went to school at all
How did he build a life so remarkable, so tall?
My son, great grandpa worked the lands
Built his life with his own hands
Before the strangers came and took everything
The gold, our minds, the freedom we knew
They stole what was ours and left us with nothing
Then they told us the only way to be rich
Was to sit in schools and learn their rules
While they grew rich from what they took from us
Cinematic specters, their light bewitching vacant minds,
Under gleaming signs, native voices twist into silence,
Lost in the glare of borrowed tales, our hymns dissipate,
Temples once hallowed now echo with foreign incantations,
Unremitting tides of glossy lore erase ancestral streams,
Riven hearts recall the silence where old songs soared,
Eclipsed by a borrowed sun, identity dwindles into night.
Colonisation Poetry Contest
Kai Michael Neumann
Hawaii, my birthplace, and hometown
Fell victim of being colonized and uprooted
Those dirty rats ceased the cheese
By the 1900's the U.S annexed the territory
In other words, Hawaii was taken by force
And without consent
It's like the dirty rats came in and flexed their muscle
Much to the heartache and protest of the natives
Those disease-carrying rodents overthrew the kingdom
Queen Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate
A cultural genocide took root
The teachings of Hawaiian in schools wiped out
Housing and land requisitioned and displaced by military bases
And the underbelly of those dirty rats grew and grew
Today Hawaii is still a tropical paradise
Tourists flock to the island in droves
There are palm trees and sandy beaches everywhere
But it's the whispers and echoes of the natives
Pointing a finger at the dirty rats
And bemoaning their freedom and the 50th star on the flag
That will be forever lost
N/A-Another one. What else is new? I should go back to playing checkers.
Once, the rivers ran free and bold,
Through emerald lands, rich with gold.
Mountains whispered to the sky,
Under the watchful, sovereign eye.
Then came ships with foreign flags,
Tongues of steel, and hearts of crags.
They carved their names upon our soil,
Turned our labor into toil.
Spices bled from calloused hands,
Traded dreams for foreign lands.
Rubber trees stood, tall yet tied,
Bound by laws the West applied.
Sultan’s voice turned faint, unheard,
Drowned beneath the master's word.
Hands that built were hands enslaved,
History’s pages torn and paved.
Yet, through the storm, a spark remained,
A whisper strong, unchained, unnamed.
In the forests, hearts rebelled,
Stories of warriors fiercely held.
Merdeka rose with morning’s light,
Breaking through the longest night.
Chains had rusted, cracked, and fell,
Freedom rang like gamelan bells.
But echoes linger—soft yet deep,
In names we keep, in wounds we weep.
Still, we rise, through time’s embrace,
Holding strong to roots and grace.
They came with flags, with ships so grand,
To claim the soil, to seize the land.
With words of trade, they spoke of peace,
Yet bound us tight with chains' increase.
Our fields, our homes, they did consume,
A shadow cast, a nation's gloom.
The wealth they took, the souls they broke,
The silent cry no empire spoke.
Yet in our hearts, a flame did burn,
For freedom’s light, our steps would turn.
Through quiet strength, we broke the yoke,
No blade was drawn, no curse we spoke.
A spinning wheel, a song of grace,
Reclaimed the truth they sought to erase.
In love and truth, the fight was won,
The chains dissolved beneath the sun.
Colonization’s scars remain,
A bitter wound, a lasting pain.
But through the struggle, clear we see,
The soul endures, forever free.
In the nineteen sixties, growing up,
ideas filled my overflowing cup.
The future then was hopeful and bright.
It took eight minutes for golden light
to shine to the earth down from the sun,
traveling through space to land upon
a boy who was one year less than ten,
who worshipped the astronaut, John Glenn.
Do you recall, old friend, you and me,
how those rays missed us, 'neath shaded tree?
We studied feats of exploration,
learning all about our proud nation,
not knowing, in our days of wonder,
that we tore native lands asunder.
The planets would be our next frontier.
We'd be like Daniel Boone, the pioneer.
My excitement grew - I knew that soon
Neil Armstrong would land upon the moon.
One day, I'd fly space age technology
and create a Martian colony.
Time flies, and how I wish I could say,
the fire of stars still burns in me today.
Once, ideas filled a child's starry eyes,
and mind, a fruitful site to colonize.
Colonized by pride
Admonished against downfall pain
My heart agonizes --- finding love's freedom...
Persevering to be liberated from gripping arrogance
Mind of paradigm-shift takes a look at this warning sign
“Beware of a lurking great fatal stride.”
While admitting angst as a boastful prisoner
In meekness, I seek divine guidance midst prayer...
Conquering vain haughtiness, smitten by grace and mercy.
Midst sobriety, I repent from projecting false humility
Hiding shaky fortitude upon timidity’s pretense
With faith in God* of triumphant bliss, marked by grateful praise.
*Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."
August 11, 2024
2nd place, "Colonization" Poetry Writing Premiere Contest
Sponsored by Kai Michael Neumann; judged on 2/16/2025
How do you expect me to say
that I don’t remember the day
When you tied my leg in chain
It’s hard to burry the memory
For my scars still mourn in pain
The life is still the same
they just changed the game
And gave us new name
But the scars still speaks of the pain
They say actions speak louder
than the words of mouth
We have seen enough but our ears never heard
We were wonderfully created our color never had stains
Your today’s laugh should not make you forget of yesterday’s pain
But heal you and heal you completely.
A consortium for interplanetary exploration has conducted
the first ever mining operation in Mars, using robotic
automation that unearthed many valuable minerals and
uncommon elements from beneath the red regolith.
Scientists are not yet sure if for future Martian
colonization and mining activities they have to breed
an AI race.
COLONIZATION
OF THE IMAGINATION
SPREADING ACROSS
THIS WORLD'S GREAT NATION.
IMAGINE A WORLD
WITHOUT ANY QUESTIONS.
YOU DO AS YOUR TOLD
BECAUSE OF SUGGESTIONS
NO FREEDOM OF THOUGHT
NO RIGHTS TO THINK.
CONTROL OF YOUR MIND
JUST LOST IN A BLINK.
ELIMINATION
OF THE IMAGINATION.
BETTER KNOWN
AS DEHUMANIZATION.
THE STORY OF SOCRATES
HOW HE MET HIS DEMISE.
GLOBALIST TODAY
CLAIM THEY ARE THE WISE.
IMAGINATION,
IS ESSENTIAL,
TO UNLEASH
YOUR FULL POTENTIAL.
PITUITARY GLAND
HOLDS THE KEY.
IF YOU DECIDE
YOU WANT TO BE FREE.
MATERIALIZATION
OF THE IMAGINATION.
WILL PREVENT
ELIMINATION.
LIFE IS THE ENERGY
THAT MAKES US ALIVE.
IT NEVER CEASE TO EXIST
EVEN AFTER DEMISE.
I CONTROL MY THOUGHTS
TILL MY LIFE'S FINAL HOUR.
REGARDLESS OF THOSE
WHO LAY CLAIM TO THE POWER.
Michael E. Harris
08132021
My neighbor is importing kids!
Broken arms and ankles are sure to follow.
The ragamuffin’s ruckus drowns out the gibbons
totally smashing my morning sit.
The cars arrived, a funeral procession,
each dropping off a hooligan to spoil the day.
I was the only soldier left at post;
refusing to sulk by hiding in my own home.
Determined nothing would move me from my peace.
The hollering became so immense
it seeped through the cracks of neighborhood doors
until peace was an unknown quality.
The skateboards with handles littered the lawns,
pray mantis’s with long arms reaching.
Re-homing sounds like a sound idea
until I’m the recipient
of all your garish garbage that you call kids.
Such a sweet name for these little monsters
and the squalor they leave in their wake.
colonization
canonizations, superior countries taking over other nations,
countries losing there freedom, threatened with nuclear bomb.
hierarchies destroyed, including kingdoms, separation of life and death,
is thin, Thin I tell you.
women raped, mixed race begun, African with arrow, white man with gun.
rebels rose, so did traitors, following instructions, like they were waiters,
Africa once one world, now divided, greedy eyes, now widened..
"i want, i want" .. but who cared, what the black man want!!!
hope is lost, so is freedom, black man read, and gained wisdom,
time to fight, now or never, we shall give it our all, now and forever.
many died, rivers of blood, but we knew at the end,
we shall have our world.
independence!!!
finally, now we could feast, ruling our world like beasts,
we named our nations, and got ourselves kings, we had an army,
and now could spread our wings.
for colonization was bummer... but after winter:
we will enjoy the summer!!!
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