“Now Hear This”

This is a page dedicated to addressing current issues in our society through the medium of poetry. Periodically we will feature a poem from \’Figtree Books\’ that we believe engages in a critical way, the ongoing dialogue on formative issues in our lives as a society.

RAINING BLOOD

There is a sickness prevalent in our culture. It is the sickness of violence. It is a malady that burns its presence into our consciousness with a marked forcefulness. Its consequences are unmistakable. It hurts us all.

This sickness is perpetuated in the news media. Witness your nightly and weekend news: if it bleeds or burns, it leads. Check out our entertainment complex: the bigger the gun, the more violent the explosion, the grittier the temper, the more of a draw. In our publishing culture: its sex and violence all the time. In video games: its all about gratuitous violence. We are hooked. In our music industry: its sex and violence… and more sex and more violence! Even in our sports… witness a hockey game, or a football game, or even a basketball game.

In our political culture… no difference. The military-industrial complex rules. The dogs of wars bark incessantly. Politicians twist the facts to get their way, and guarantee benefits to those who profit from the misfortunes of others. They talk it up. They rationalize. They get their way, and innocents die. Our minds are saturated with this destruction. Our children’s minds and behaviors drip with blood and filth.

Where does it end? It ends in school shootings where our youngest are brutally killed along with their teachers and other guardians. It ends in movie theater massacres, where the cruel realities of our virtual world are incarnated. It ends in mass murders in public spaces where we go to shop and have an otherwise leisurely time.

And so we weep. We mourn. We walk our way to the cemeteries. We end up in the same black attire and dark moods that our “terrorists” wear. And the same media that consciously perpetuates this tragedy, then gets to broadcast its consequences ad-infinitum, and for a profit. Sad.

Join me in this lamentation, and then let us all examine the way we live.

‘Assassin’

Raining, raining, raining blood…
Bitter, hurtful, crimson flood…
Living, dying, pitter patter…
Rifle loaded, leadened matter
Raising hell in heaven’s name…
Notoriety embracing fame…

Pulls the trigger, draws the knife…
Wounds delivered, takes the life…
Sheathed blade, holstered gun…
Reaps the raid, journey done…
Raining, raining, raining blood
Bitter, hurtful, crimson flood…
Last breath taken…
Darkness

This poem is from the book “ Of Paradise Despised… and lives that bought into a lie”
By Roy Alexander Graham

ONE LOVE!
R. A. G.
Roy Alexander Graham
President/CEO, FIGTREE ENTERPRISES, INC.

Copyright 2012 Figtree Enterprises, Inc.

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school-tragidyAs a nation, we are all grieving as a result of the tragedy that took place in Newtown, Connecticut. The specter of gun violence continues to haunt us. The current issue of \’Now Hear This!\’ addresses this violence that plagues so many communities regardless of socio-economic status or political affiliation. raining-blood