How Many
how many vacant store buildings
in small town America
does it take?
how many of our boys dead
on foreign soil
for no apparent gain?
how many unemployed people
waiting in line?
how many meth labs?
convenience store's robbed?
how many teachers laid off,
and kids that cant read
or do simple math?
how many sick people
who cant get medical care?
how many houses foreclosed?
how many homeless
wandering in worn out cars?
how many oil spills?
how many mines collapsed?
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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I Looked Deep.....
i looked deep in my heart....
i saw a lover, a fool, a warrior,
a peacemaker, and a clown.
i saw an activist, an apathetic ghoul,
a healer, and a killer.
i saw Jesus, Buddha, Gandhi, and King...
i saw Hitler, Manson, Bush, and Cheney.
i saw JFK, i saw Oswald,
i saw the shooter in the distance.
i saw the monk immoliated,
and the napalm skies.
i saw equality and prejudice,
i saw compassion and indifference.
i saw the truth and the lie,
i saw god, and satan.
i saw greed and hunger,
and small children dying.
i saw the eyes of the stray dog,
and the gentle hand that cares.
i saw faith, and doubt,
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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Just Behind The Clock
an old man sits alone in a chair,
with a revolver and a book.
thinking about children gone,
and branches that diverged.
thinking about women lost,
in the aisles of churches, and department stores.
thinking about hours burned,
under the hot lamp of striving.
scratching his name on the cover of the book,
he closed his eyes to dream.
yet somehow couldnt get rid of the taste
of children's pajamas,
the smell of the perfume
of kitchens...
and the light in those eyes
he never noticed before,
that he was always too busy to tend...
the clock struck three as he drifted off,
and the revolver fell to the floor.
war ribbons hung on his wedding picture,
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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Reaches An Age
a man reaches an age,
and a time in his life...
when having worked, and fought,
having loved, and lost,
having gotten knocked down,
and gotten back up,
over and over, time and again...
a man reaches an age,
and a time in his life...
when he knows he's given more
than he had to give.
when suddenly he's just tired,
and worn to the bone...
a man reaches an age,
and a time in his life...
when he just wants to stop,
to look back, to just feel,
and see if somehow
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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Speak Not Of God!
we dreamed of god,
and created war!
pointing,
with dismembered fingers...
prophesying,
with bellies gorged!
we kill that which
we do not understand,
that which we fear...
that which most reminds us
of something hidden deep within.
is god made of stone?
be there no remorse,
no compassion, no conviction?
even stone gods weep,
who are we trying to fool?
how many women and children sacrificed?
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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Every Drop Of Rain!
i am too old (and stubborn)
to change direction now!
my feet, though tired and weary,
have walked this path for years.
my battles have left me stripped
of the things i didnt need....
of the things that had hold of me,
the things that had no value...
knowing that i know no more
than what i have felt and seen.
knowing that i know no less
than who i've touched, where i've been...
eyes grown dim still fixed,
on that light on a faraway hill.
hands and heart steady open,
giving as fast as i receive....
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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I Am.... (The Story Of God)
i am the barn set ablaze,
the garden covered in dust.
i am the coal mine,
and the miners lost...
the spider's web that
caught their families.
i am the refugee,
no home, no destination.
the convict released,
with nowhere to go.
i am the erection, the file,
and the hammer...
set aside, covered with rust.
i am the mirror, the candle,
and the book of matches...
i am the way stone changes!
i am the prism,
put away in a dark closet.
i am the lover,
whose name you've forgotten.
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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The Love Inside Of You!
there lives....
flight within the feathers,
leaves, in bare limbs.
centuries inside mountains,
flow within rivers....
corn in the deadened earth.
fire within the match,
rain within the clouds.
a baby in a lover's touch....
a roar within the lion.
a world inside a turtle's shell,
a story in the old man's smile.
families in the cementary...
oppression inside of oil.
freedom, in a prison cell,
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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A Shared Fire
light the fire...
put on some coffee!
i care enough to listen,
if you care enough to talk.
the wall of angry silence
between us must fall....
this road is long,
and we have a long way to go!
what we feel when no one
can see us, when no one
else is near, when darkness
wraps us up in secretive blankets,
must come to light!
this world full of danger and hate,
the earth itself moans for change!
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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What If We...
what if we all stood up,
and laid down our guns?
what if we quit drilling for oil,
quit living for the deal?
what if we built a new world,
for our daughters and our sons?
a world that's honest,
caring, and real...
what if we stopped all invasions,
stopped the bombs and the greed?
what if we laid down religions,
and opened our hearts.
what if we gave our possessions
to those in real need?
what if we stopped pretending,
and made a stand...
what if we looked in the mirror,
with eyes that can see?
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poem by Eric Cockrell
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