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Many poets have been sending in poetry on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Post your poetry directly below.

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245 Responses

  1. LTC Roy E. Peterson

    THROWING A GLASS OF WATER ON A FOREST FIRE
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 23, 2022)

    I have read the Arab proverb
    Of an animal’s intent.
    Once a camel gets his head in,
    He soon occupies the tent.

    Russia’s Ukraine incursion
    Is being met with only sanctions.
    That won’t stop the Russia beast
    From taking military actions

    That is what is happening
    While the diplomats perspire.
    It is like throwing a glass of water
    On a forest fire.

    Reply
    • jim pattie

      Remember the Alamo…Mexican citizens were chased off their settled landWhere no one could lend a handNow Putin tries to conquer parts of the Ukraine and we all know the man is insane…the greed he bestows on the USSR should be captured and put into a huge jar…He madethe barrels so highby June it will reach the sky…All over stolen land we can admit…When will Putin stop this war?When shall he quit????

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson

        Jim, some good points that I appreciated reading and right on point, but your first one is inaccurate:
        1.) Many Mexicans in the Texas region were convicts sent there. 2.) Few Mexicans wanted to move to the Texas region.
        3.) Mexico encouraged American settlers to move there granting them lands not occupied by Mexicans. They were supposed to learn Spanish and convert to Catholicism.
        4.) By 1834, American settlers outnumbered Tejanos 4-1.
        5.) Santa Anna was a dictator causing many Tejanos to want independence, as well as the new settlers.
        https://www.thoughtco.com/causes-of-texas-independence-2136245

    • Tamara Beryl Latham

      Roy, you have completely captured what’s occurring in Ukraine in classic
      poetic rhyme. Unfortunately, it’s the civilians who suffer the most.

      An enjoyable read. 🙂

      Reply
    • Cid

      I read this after submitting my post. It’s great! Thank you. Peace to all.

      Reply
  2. Roy E. Peterson

    WE SHALL HAVE WARS
    By Roy E. Peterson (January 26, 2022)

    We shall have wars and rumors of wars
    While the world will wilt and wail.
    The diplomats will not understand
    Why all their actions shall fail.

    Enemies know when others are weak
    That is the time for attack.
    With withdrawal from Afghanistan,
    Credibility we lack.

    The economic threats of our President
    Aren’t enough to stop
    Russia invading the Ukraine
    In a military onslaught.

    Only the threat of an all-out war
    Could deter Vladimir Putin.
    If Russia believes that the west
    Still will avoid the shootin’.

    Reply
    • P.C. Scheponik

      Dear LTC Roy Peterson,
      Thank you for this venue and your timely and inspiring poems.
      I would like to contribute my poem, All Out of Yellow Bricks, to this collection. As a former jr. high teacher of U.S. history and one whose childhood was during the original Cold War, this poem is a reflection on the worldwide stakes of this present global darkness:

      All Out of Yellow Bricks

      Eagles, and dragons, and bears, “Oh my!”
      Eagles, and dragons, and bears!
      The forest is dark and fraught with fears.
      There is no one to wake us from our poppy sleep.
      The fields are cold and our dreams are deep.
      The West becomes wicked and the East is dead.
      The city of hope is ruled by a head as cruel as it is
      dollar green.
      The tanks roll and the rockets scream,
      soaring through the air like monkeys with wings
      or avenging angels punishing our sins.
      The world is on fire, melting the ice,
      clearly ascertaining floods will suffice
      for a second ending or even a third.
      Neither bang nor whimper will be heard
      in the star-filled room of the universe.
      There’s no escape when the sky starts to burn.
      “There’s no place like home”after a nuclear curse.
      all that is left is smoldering ash and the remnants
      of a world consumed in a flash. by P.C. Scheponik

      Thank you again for your platform and for listening.

      Sincerely, P.C. Scheponik

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson

        P.C. That is a wonderful contribution and deeply sincere. I completely relate to your stimulating thoughts and feelings. Thank you!

  3. Roy E. Peterson

    RUSSIA OOZING INTO UKRAINE
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 22, 2022)

    Russia is oozing into
    The Ukraine like syrup.
    Ukraine is like a dagger
    Pointed at the heart of Europe.
    Resources of Ukraine
    Are among the world’s best.
    Putin wins the war of wills
    With his first probing test.

    Putin sensed the weakness
    Fuming in the West.
    He knew an invasion
    Would not be a contest.
    Force must meet with force,
    Or the first force has its sway.
    Without confrontation
    There is no other way.

    The diplomats are powerless.
    Their words will be in vain.
    Only the Ukrainians
    Will really feel the pain.
    Putin knows there’s sanctions,
    But they are worth it all
    Just to see an ally
    Of the NATO pact fall.

    The economic sanctions
    Like freezing bank accounts
    Are a futile gesture
    Regardless of amounts.
    This is like the first salvo
    In a third world war.
    Incursions by our enemies
    Is something we’ll see more.

    [LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander, monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.]

    Reply
  4. Roy E. Peterson

    I WANT TO SAY I TOLD YOU SO
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 26)

    The world is now destabilized,
    The peace has been shattered.
    I want to say I told you so,
    Not that it has mattered.

    How far will Russian tanks go now
    Is anybody’s guess.
    Suffice it now to say
    That this old world is in a mess.

    This could be the first blow
    At the European Union.
    Hegemony has set the stage
    For Russia’s new dominion.

    The instruments of war have changed
    To cyber and nuclear.
    The world must now prepare for war
    Is something that I fear.

    Putin has exposed weaknesses
    Of our administration.
    One example is the shut down
    Our oilfield exploration.

    Putin had assessed the time
    To attack now was best.
    There only would be sanctions
    Sponsored by the West.

    Some cyberattacks will cripple us,
    If they are deployed.
    Then the threat of nuclear war
    Could then be employed.

    If our civilization
    Is left standing on this earth,
    I want to say I told you so,
    For whatever that’s worth.

    LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander, monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.

    Reply
  5. LTC Roy E. Peterson

    CYBERWAR IS COMING
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 26, 2022)

    Cyberwar is coming,
    I expect it very soon.
    Already it’s deployed
    In the Ukrainian gloom.
    Everything we know
    That is technical
    We quickly could lose
    In war electrical.

    That could mean no food
    Or water is distributed.
    Electric grids would shut down
    And be limited.
    Banking through our aps
    Could be lost to clones.
    Everyone would lose
    The use of their cellphones.

    How long we have to prepare
    For such a warfare siege
    Could be now or never,
    Depending on its reach.
    If it should come tomorrow,
    I want my friends to know
    I sent you this message
    To soften up the blow.

    LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander, monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      I could be mistaken, but I believe it should be “apps” in the line “Banking through our aps”.

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson

        Thank you for your thought. There are three abbreviations used for applications: 1. aps. 2. apps. 3. apls. The most common is your way of spelling it: app.

  6. LTC Roy E. Peterson

    INVASION OF UKRAINE USING HITLER’S MODEL
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 23, 2022)

    The invasion of the Ukraine
    Is much like Hitler’s model.
    Tell the world they’re peacekeepers
    While the diplomats will dawdle,
    Then claim historically they were
    Part of the Russian Empire.
    Like Austria and Sudetenland,
    Belonged to Hapsburg power.

    Hitler followed the same model
    With (Anschluss) annexation.
    Russia swiftly recognized
    A new Republican nation.
    The only difference is
    Recognizing Donetsk and Lugansk.*
    Most likely they were subject to
    Russian subterfuge and plants.

    Note: *”Lugansk” is also spelled “Luhansk.” I used the spelling with which I was the most familiar. I have been there.

    LTC Roy E. Peterson is a retired Army Intelligence Officer, Russian Foreign Area Officer, Army Attaché in Moscow, INF Portal Monitor Commander. monitoring Soviet missile production in Votkinsk, and U.S. Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok, Russia.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Fog fits so well with its many allusions, including the fog of war and those who are in a fog trying to decide how to respond.

      Reply
  8. Mike Bryant

    https://thewashingtonstandard.com/1-day-after-reporting-on-us-biolabs-in-ukraine-us-embassy-scrubs-all-ukraine-bioweapon-lab-docs-from-website-video/

    Republic-rats and Democan’ts
    Will come to save the day.
    So many ways to rob us blind
    Those Bio-Labs will pay.
    They’re bombing bio weapons now,
    It’s on the Ukraine news.
    Biden’s losing one cash cow –
    There’re more in many queues.
    Burisma’s paying dividends
    And wages to his boy.
    Northrop Grumman, Raytheon
    Are rubbing hands in joy.
    Putin is an idiot,
    Why fight the New World’s orders?
    He should have called up Soros, Xi,
    Then opened up his borders.

    Reply
  9. BDW

    Ky’iv in a Winter Evening
    by Radice Lebewsu

    With reason, guides have praised its beauty and its treasured gifts,
    blue waters, green ravines, and blinding landscaped drops and lifts.
    Alas, barbarian-destroying hermocopides
    are using missiles on the architecture of Ky’iv.
    Now scenes of devastation follow streets with spitefulness,
    tanks, drunk with power, roll into the city’s frightful mess.
    And in the eve of night upon this very anguished hour,
    old chestnut trees without their leaves are languishing and dour.
    The rubble and the fires have left a horrid string of scars,
    yet still it stands, though overcast and emptying of cars.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      I can feel the direct pain of this one! I have been there both before and after the retreat of the Russian bear years ago. I had nothing but good experiences in Ky’iv (Kiev).

      Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      “tanks, drunk with power” brought to mind the footage I saw of the Russian tank that deliberately rolled over a car with a guy inside. Miraculously, the man survived. I love the reference to the stately “old chestnut trees …”

      Reply
      • BDW

        This tennos draws from a poem “Ky’iv in a Spring Evening” by the fine Neoclassical Ukrainian Modernist Mykola Zerov (1890-1937). But in my contrast, as Mr. Peterson has pointed out, “direct pain” is drawn out in images from February 2022. Ms. Corey loved the reference to the chestnut trees, which are beginning to bloom in Zerov’s poem, but which are “without their leaves…languishing and dour” here.

        Just as an historical note: On the night of April 27th-28th 1935, Zerov was arrested, taken to Ky’iv for investigation on May 20th , accused of leading a counter-revolutionary terrorist nationalist organization (déjà vu: like the Americans of January 6th 2021 in DC), and sentenced to ten years in prison. On October 9th 1937, a special troika of the UNKVD sentenced him to death. And he was shot dead, with many others, near the village of Sandarmokh November 3rd 1937.

  10. Paul Freeman

    There once was an angry old bear,
    whose cave had lost much of its flair.
    So using his muscle
    and bully-boy hustle
    he increased the size of his lair.

    Reply
  11. Roy E. Peterson

    HOW PEACEFUL WAS THE UKRAINE
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 26, 2022)

    How peaceful was the Ukraine!
    I used to travel there
    Both before and after
    The retreating Russian bear.

    I went to Kiev, Rovno, Lugansk,
    And to Chernobyl,
    Sometimes as an attaché,
    Then sometimes for the thrill.

    Ukrainians would help us
    Avoid the KGB.
    They knew who the spies were
    Who were keeping track of me.

    Why invade a peaceful nation?
    Things were going fine.
    They will reap the whirlwind,
    As the world will decline.

    Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        I bet you could write books and books on your experiences… I have learned from your poetry. I am no expert on foreign relations, but I do know this is a complex situation. I don’t have much faith in our leaders selecting the right path.

    • Joseph S. Salemi

      If the Russians can capture and hang George Soros from whatever lamppost is at hand, I’m all for their invasion. And no, I don’t want to argue with anybody.

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Joe… the situation could not have been boiled down any better. I ain’t arguing either… when the winds of war start blowing, madness ensues… and the madness has been endemic for years.

      • Gregory Spicer

        Oh, NOW…he claims to hate debate
        When in his customary state
        He promulgated MAGA hate
        And vices to insinuate
        His neural status ain’t too great,
        Like some New Jersey potentate,
        In deep state panic…contemplate,
        And Finland treason facilitate
        His responsibilities…abdicate,
        Because he’d rather copulate
        With scandals…he might not create,
        Without a temper fulminate,
        Leading to a character trait
        Truckers can never see too straight!

  13. Roy E. Peterson

    Thank you for asking. I have written several books on my international experiences: 1. “Fight of the Phoenix” was about my one year in Vietnam targeting the Viet Cong. Notice it is “fight’ and not “flight.” 2. “American Attaché in the Moscow Maelstrom” was about my two years as a Military Attaché in the Soviet Union as a “legal” diplomatic spy. 3. “The Velvethammer” was my nickname and book name about when I had to capture a Soviet missile under the terms of the INF Treaty and then was the moderator for the final protocols between the Soviets and Americans. 4. “Russian Bears/American Affairs” is about my time as the First Foreign Commercial Officer in the Russian Far East and then First IBM Regional Manager. Two other related books I took out of print and incorporated the essence in this fourth book. I do appreciate you mentioning the possibilities.

    I have virtually no faith in how we are responding. By the way, if you read my books, you will find I dealt directly with Putin when he was in charge of the Commercial Office in St. Petersburg in 1992. I also believe the President of the Russian Security Council, Dmitriy Medvedev, is the son of the General I met in Votkinsk 30 years ago.

    Reply
    • Cheryl Corey

      Have you been invited on any talk shows to share your expertise? If not, you should be.

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson

        Precious thought, Cheryl! I have been interviewed on what is called the Texas State Networks (Radio).

  14. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    W A R

    It’s not as simple as it looks
    On trawling through the history books
    (Abundant words on countless reams)
    It’s not as clear-cut as it seems –
    It’s rank with greed that bleeds from crooks…

    Crooks that plot from noble nooks
    As trouble brews and chaos cooks.
    We’re sold on spin. We buy extremes.
    It’s not that simple.

    As help arrives in loud chinooks,
    And hope tunes in on tenterhooks
    To blasts and screams and shredded dreams,
    Know swindlers smirk behind the scenes
    With airs of care we shouldn’t brook –
    It’s not that simple.

    Reply
  15. Jeff Eardley

    Oh come on Vlad for goodness sake,
    Why do you have to try and make,
    Such ordinary folk like me,
    Submit to all this misery,
    When all we want’s a simple life,
    A quiet evening with the wife,
    Not death descending from above,
    To snuff the lives of those we love.

    So come on Vlad, for life is short,
    Why can’t you just invest in sport,
    An English football team, they say,
    Is something that is bound to pay,
    For all the lovely toys you’ve got,
    Whilst boozing on your mega-yacht,
    The Vodka tonic helps you as,
    You contemplate the price of gas.

    So come on Vlad, your men are poor,
    And sick of all this stink of war,
    With missiles crashing into schools,
    The desperate acts of stupid fools,
    For tyranny can never win,
    So come on Vlad, just pack it in.

    Reply
  16. Tanja Bulovic

    WAR

    On the day
    The New Big War began
    Someone started counting
    The dead.

    41 : 4
    48 : 6
    59 : 10

    What amazing technology we have.

    Two mothers,
    One on each side,
    Took their broken hearts
    And put them on a scale.
    They weighed
    Exactly the same.

    Reply
  17. Roy E. Peterson

    PREMATURE ELEGY FOR UKRAINE
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 27, 2022)

    Fair youth of thirty summers gone
    Expired this winter all forlorn.
    The youth while taking his last breath
    Could not withstand the stabs of death.

    He tilled the earth and from the soil
    Extracted wealth from sunflower oil.
    He had grown stronger every day,
    But naught could keep the bear at bay.

    It took a week or maybe two
    The sinews of his life subdue.
    He fought alone, determined, brave,
    Yet cast into an early grave.

    And so, an elegy of sorts
    Is wrangled from the news reports.
    Here lies a democratic state
    Devoured by a potentate.

    Reply
  18. James A. Tweedie

    “Putin”

    The sadness weighing heavy on my heart
    Is beyond words. I find it trivial,
    Somehow, to conjure up a word or phrase
    That forms a rhyme with “homicidal war.”

    In 1982 I walked the streets
    Of Kyiv (or “Kiev” as it was spelled back then
    When the Ukraine was still an S.S.R).
    And nearly everywhere I looked I saw

    A banner, mural, or a statue of
    Leonid Brezhnev staring back at me
    As if he were the father of Ukraine—
    As if he were omnipotent as God.

    And now, another Russian wants to have
    His portrait hanging on the streets of Kyiv.
    But whether he succeeds of not he will
    Have earned his place in hell condemned to spend

    Eternity immersed in Seventh Circle’s
    Boiling stream of blood as one who feasted
    On the flesh and blood of innocents
    His name synonymous with “Soulless coward.”

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      My first time in Ukraine was 1983. Your poem evokes those images in my memory. Your message is extremely well stated. They play directly to my sensibilities.

      Reply
  19. Roy E. Peterson

    A COLD WIND BLEW THROUGH UKRAINE FIELDS
    By Roy E. Peterson (February 27, 2022)

    A cold wind blew through Ukraine fields.
    The chestnut trees refused to yield.
    The penetrating wind, surprised,
    Took longer than the bear surmised.

    With suffocating wind, though stark,
    The bear went stumbling in the dark.
    “The best laid plans of mice and men”
    Are subject to defeat again.

    The backyard of the bear arose.
    The Emperor had lost his clothes.
    Will the bear end democracy?
    The world will have to wait and see.

    Reply
  20. Shuchita Gupta

    BIG BAD BULLY
    We take bullying very seriously
    We try to discipline a bully
    And the ones who are bullied, protect
    We teach our children self-respect
    So with being bullied they learn to deal
    Now they see how bullying is being revealed
    On a world stage, as a megalomaniac drunk with power
    Bullies Ukraine increasingly by the hour
    And all the adults who sit in positions prominent
    Watch haplessly at a devastating war imminent
    They had told the children to not tolerate
    Bullies, when faced with one, instead,
    Of trying to fight they stand back
    Placing worthless sanctions, without the nerve to hack
    The unbridled aggression unleashed by the bully
    The plight of the bullied Ukrainians our children see..
    *
    The world is manipulated by people with power
    Is unfortunately the narrative of the hour
    We tell our children to pray for the oppressed
    But we fail to show them how the bully obsessed
    With demonstrating his power we can restrain
    I hope we can change the narrative again
    And tell our children that bullying is neither going to be
    Tolerated in school, or tolerated globally

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Well phrased thoughts about bullies at all levels! I agree.

      Reply
  21. Mia

    Disputin’ Putin

    Whilst we debate the rights
    And wrongs of wars young
    People die with every word
    And homes are blown to
    Smithereens. Yesterday
    It was Cyprus, Afghanistan
    And Iraq to mention a few;
    Today the Ukraine and
    Tomorrow me and you.
    Although, what other means
    Do we have but to work through
    This unbearable grief and dream
    The impossible dream that one
    Day soon, Humanity will wake up
    And see that war or peace,
    Is down to you and me.

    Reply
  22. Damian Robin

    An Old Couple 1000s of Miles from Ukraine

    Sitting in front of a warm tv,
    watching armageddon.
    The theatre of war is free,
    explosive skies act leaden.

    On a sofa, looking, tense,
    their nerves jangle together.
    Lost for a moment, a couple of cents
    in folds of dark worn leather.

    Like refugees, their choice is poor.
    Death darkens God’s clear prism.
    All futures are, for sure, unsure,
    on tips of cataclysm.

    They grip their boarding pass for war,
    review their catechism.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Nicely said, Damian. As we watch from our sofa, is so fitting for our present perspective.

      Reply
  23. Damian Robin

    Journey to Jeopardy
    Ukraine, end of February, 2022

    Not yet expensive blitzkrieg rain
    but yet there are pre-showers of pain,
    broke homes and citizens the same.

    Now strained displacement. Now drained sleep.
    Now dash to exile. Now rush to keep
    distance from the invaders’ claim.

    Truth is not the first to go
    when aggressors’ juices flow
    — it’s the balled aggressors’ shame.

    Cars gridlock veined arterial roads.
    The heart of living calm corrodes.
    Civilian burn is War’s old flame.

    Guards halt cars at safety’s border.
    They let most walk across but order
    fit men to return to win War’s game.

    And trains are pausing at each station
    to help crowds reach their destination
    until the winds of War go tame.

    These crowd-packed trains are easy targets
    for planes that soon may empty markets —
    they mark dead humans as their aim.

    Each last train stops at every station
    for full goodbyes to land and nation,
    to stakes, like them, that lose their name.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Another well-stated sentiment from the point of view of an outside observer musing over the tragedies and pain of such a conflict.

      Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Absolutely on target, Mike. The neocon attempt to make the Ukraine a NATO outpost and a launching pad for nuclear missiles is what has prompted this Russian action. It is EXACTLY what prompted the United States, in the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, to come to the brink of war with the Soviet Union. If we could not tolerate Russian missiles 90 miles away from our mainland, why should the Russians tolerate offensive missiles right on their doorstep?

      The larger issue here is George Soros, and the malignant evil that is behind every move he makes. Soros has never disguised his lust to control the Ukraine, and turn it into another LGBT, feminist, de-ethnicized, politically correct “modern” state that he can bleed dry of more cash. The neocons are simply glandularly anti-Russian (just as their Communist parents and grandparents were anti-American), while Soros is simply taking advantage of their belligerence for his own deeper purposes.

      I admire the Ukrainians for their bravery and willingness to fight. But let’s not forget a key principle of all Realpolitik: In both diplomacy and war, there are no permanent friends. There are only PERMANENT INTERESTS. It is not in our interest to make an enemy of Russia, which is turning out to be the one Western state that has the guts to stand up against cultural decay and degradation.

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        This IS a culture war, Joe. I’d love to hear what Roy, an insider, thinks about our line of thinking. Roy?

      • D.G. Rowe

        Gentlemen. May I direct to take some time to watch this presentation, chaired by Dr Reinier Fuellmich. It contains a series of lectures given by various scholars, reseachers, authors ect.

        Grand Jury: Day 2, Historical Background.

        I will not waste space in giving you both a preamble in way of the content, but urge you most vigorously to watch this. You both will benefit greatly, and no doubt already have some knowledge of this. I shall finish by saying the chronological brilliance of these presentations, the last few centuries up to, and directly leading to what we’ve witnessed the past two years, and now what they’re attempting to orchestrate with their current machinations in the Ukraine.

        https://odysee.com/@Grand_Jury:b/GrandJuryDayTwo:8

      • D.G. Rowe

        Yes, Mr Bryant. A cultural war, indeed.

        A war between those who value Natural Law, and those who want to dominate it with Artificial Law.

  25. BDW

    Retired Major John Spencer’s Advice
    by War di Belecuse

    As skirmishes for the control of Ukraine’s capital,
    intensified with airstrikes, and battalions backed its fall,
    Retired Major Spencer, West Point’s Urban Warfare chair
    has recommended turning Ky’iv into a NightMare,
    a porcupine to fight the Russian military blitz
    with quills across the city, up and down its many streets,
    by filling bridges, blocking them with cars, trucks, wood and stash,
    with anything that they can get their hands on, concrete, trash,
    and building S-like obstacles to slow the Russians down;
    thus turning Ky’iv into a tight dense mess of a town.

    Reply
  26. Alan S Jeeves

    Ukraine Rain (The Holodomor, 1932-33)

    The Ukraine rain fell long and hard
    From clouds above on high,
    But what were shed
    Were tears of red
    To spill on fields awry.

    As storms of rage passed o’er the land
    A horseman through it rode.
    A black horse day
    Of wild dismay
    As floods of red rain flowed.

    Beneath the yellow and the blue
    The Ukraine rain poured on,
    It steeped the ground
    For miles around
    And harvest yield was gone.

    As people cried and people died,
    The pain of rain aflame;
    With nought to eat
    The yellow wheat
    Was plundered beyond shame

    And all about the crippled souls
    Would weep through blood red eyes
    As once again
    The Ukraine rain
    Screamed down from blood red skies.

    Alan S Jeeves

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      That is a wonderful poem, Alan, that is perfectly descriptive of the situation! The imagery and use of color give me a visceral vision that is haunting.

      Reply
      • Alan S Jeeves

        Hello Roy. I am pleased that you have read ‘Ukraine Rain’ and commented. The poem was written before the current situation (2017 in fact) and was inspired by the book ‘Red Famine’ by Anne Applebaum. Her estimate is that c.4 million Ukrainian people were starved to death during the Holodomor. I don’t think the Holodomore is a well known event in the west, certainly not as well documented as the ‘Holocaust’. I hope that my poem will inspire people to do a little research on this terrible time for Ukraine. Kind regards, Alan.

  27. Daniel de Culla

    ALARM! WAR!
    They are there the criminals of war
    With their bombardments stunning
    The sky and the cities of Ukraine.
    Opposites what do they do?
    Opposites are made
    To the sound of weapons
    And they are just as criminals of war
    That they.
    Their arrogance is useless
    Nor their threats of sentences
    Well they are dismayed
    And they stay scared
    Leaving the field free
    To crime and vile murder
    Of a defenseless population
    Who sees his honor, his country and his life
    Hanging from the barrels of tanks
    As if those were cat fur.
    As always some condemn
    And others applaud and bless
    That’s how bad humans are!
    While the echo of the bombs
    They hear resound
    In villages, in towns and cities
    Seriously raise their necks
    Those who take part
    In these joys of war
    And their weapons factories.
    Who would believe that in the 21st century
    Being smart
    As they say we are humans
    One another
    Scale regions, countries and nations
    With panic, terror, crime and fear!
    So bad are those criminals
    Eastern frights
    Like the ones in the west
    So scary
    Only for the desire to steal, loot
    And annihilate nations
    To achieve an empire.
    Damn they are¡
    -Daniel de Culla

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      An apt description and representation of those who foist war upon another.

      Reply
  28. Tom Boston

    What is this? Are we to witness the destruction of Ukraine?
    Will our rhetoric be ignored and will our protests be in vain?
    Europe faced an evil tyrant in the not-so-distant past.
    It paid the price for liberty and hoped that peace would last.

    And you, the Russian people, from your slumber now awake,
    depose that madding Moscow Beast, your lives too, are at stake.
    Where is that erstwhile bravery and that revolution pride?
    Democracy or tyranny? It’s time to choose a side.

    Oh, Ukraine we watch and weep as your sons take up the fight,
    to protect your nation’s freedom in the face of Russian might.
    The West salutes you and your cause and stands with you this day,
    We’ll bring this Bloody Bear to heel. We’ll make this despot pay.

    Reply
  29. Arthur L Wood

    Quiet, and shaking, and breaking down,
    Uncertain what to say or do;
    I never meant to anger you.
    But I cannot calm my beating brain
    As it comprehends the war
    On our continent again.

    For how far can it go this time,
    Can one mistake send us away?
    What the hell am I supposed to do,
    Useless here in England,
    With nothing in my hand,
    And nothing much to say.

    The dead and living are not gone,
    Brave Ukrainian women and men;
    They are bolder in the face of pain
    Than I am in this den of peace
    Sleepless and unfit to fight,
    With a cold abyss of night,
    Crawling across our continent again.

    What can we do? One offers love,
    One offers what he knows he must,
    You call him inconsiderate,
    But his is not a song of hate,
    It is a song of dust.

    Perhaps tomorrow never comes,
    Perhaps the madman settles down,
    Perhaps I make a bloody stain
    Beside the ghostly dressing gown
    At the sad foot of my stairs –
    I pray it works again, our world,
    That love can break this iron chain.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      As one closer to the war zone, this is really a great poem with feeling that strikes me in the heart! A vivid portrayal of care, concern and thoughts that enter the mind under such adverse circumstances!

      Reply
  30. Tod Benjamin

    The heartbreaking callousness of Putin’s advance in Ukraine has brought to mind a poem I wrote some years ago. I believe it is apt today:

    CIVILISED MAN

    Life, unpredictable, spins us around,
    Leaves us dumped dizzily down on the ground;
    Careless, it raises us high in the sky
    To sit on cloud nine and think we can fly,
    When we’re no more than krill sucked down in hoards,
    Or grains of sand, odd blades of grass in swards!
    We’re no more than raindrops poured from above,
    Except we breathe, eat, sleep, drink, shout, sing, love–
    And kill.

    So lofty we sit, our lordly disdain
    Spurning those others who missed this sky train,
    Who nurture the hope that they will be hurled
    By the next typhoon way above their world.
    Then, fired up, they’ll charge, conquer, scream success
    And sweep us old birds from our cloud nine nests,
    To downsize and lie near some peaceful cove
    So they can breathe, eat, sleep, drink, shout, sing, love–
    And kill.

    The next millennium will soon have rushed by,
    And none will care who was sitting on high
    At this point in time, this year of our Lord.
    Which sand hill was tall, what grass filled which sward.
    No, they’ll fly through space to the distant stars,
    Fight their sick wars on Jupiter and Mars
    And hail peace on earth! But, push come to shove,
    Man will just breathe, eat, sleep, drink, shout, sing, love–
    And kill.

    Tod Benjamin

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Outstanding contribution, Tod. Yes, it fits like a glove.

      Reply
  31. Roy E. Peterson

    My thoughts on Ukraine Invasion as requested by Mike Bryant.

    Mike Bryant and Joseph Salemi make some excellent points. The Russian invasion could have been avoided by changes in American foreign policy. Russia would have made a perfect friend of the United States, both as a counter to China, one of their historic enemies, and as a counter to Islamic forces. Speaking of Realpolitik, as Joseph mentioned, the newly independent states of southern Asia, like Kazakhstan with a long Russian border are Muslims (Islam most practiced and nominally accepted). Behind them to the south are Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Given the right diplomatic approach, we had a comity of interests. An American leader might have convinced Putin of parallel interests.

    After the supposed end of the cold war in the 1990’s, the Russian people were friendly to Americans. Under Gorbachev and Yeltsin the Russians made efforts to be friends with the United States. The Russian people loved American movies, culture and products of the times. Russian trading companies sought American products and interface with Americans. I observed and participated in the transition. That included: 1.) In 1988 to 1990, as the Commander of the American 30-member Portal Monitoring team for the On-Site Inspection Agency in Votkinsk (Urals), we were invited to hospitals, holidays, picnics, and even the rifle production plant in Izhevsk where we met with Mikhail Kalashnikov, designer of the rifle by that name. 2.) In 1992, as VP of an international trade company after retirement I met with Putin in St. Petersburg, where he was the international trade advisor to the mayor of St. Petersburg. He had “resigned,” supposedly as a KGB Lieutenant Colonel. Putin was polite and clever in my dealings with him. 3.) In 1993, I was the First US Foreign Commercial Officer in Vladivostok and traveled the entire Russian Far East, which was about the size of the United States. Everywhere I went companies were interested in American products and were always on friendly terms. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow appointed me to observe the first Russian elections in Birobidzhan, which was the heart of the “Red Belt” (still hard-core communists). My KGB (presumed) escort was accommodating as I went from poll to poll and the people were receptive. 4.) In 1995, I was recruited by IBM for the same territory and spent a lot of time going to Russian Far East cities, again being well received and welcomed. We sold $6 million in computer equipment in the Far East the first year.

    Geopolitical realities and Realpolitik certainly explain Russian angst regarding Ukraine: 1.) Ukraine was interested in NATO membership. “Ukraine applied to begin a NATO Membership Action Plan (MAP) in 2008. Plans for NATO membership were shelved by Ukraine following the 2010 presidential election in which Viktor Yanukovych, who preferred to keep the country non-aligned, was elected President.” (Source: Wikipedia.org) NATO had not approved membership for Ukraine on three grounds: (a) Corruption. (b) Shaky standing of democracy. (c) Russian opposition. 2.) Ukraine came to be regarded as a NATO partner and was rendered support in 2014 against Russian “annexation” of the Crimea. 3.) Ukraine is the soft “underbelly” both of Belarus and Russia. 4.) Ukraine has extensive resources including being #1 in the world in sunflower oil production with Russian Black Sea region being #2.

    In terms again of Realpolitik, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have become full NATO members and are already poised on the Russian border. The stationing of missiles certainly in countries like Poland and Turkey are in sufficient close proximity anyway. Note: Georgia has also applied for NATO membership.

    I have so many questions as to timing and motivation for Russia to declare war against Ukraine:
    1.) Was the Ukraine government getting close to NATO membership? Those friendly to Russia could have reported it.
    2.) Was Belarus the real instigator by voicing concerns with a potential NATO state along their entire southern border?
    3.) Why were we not more prepared with Russia’s earlier recent provocations in the Crimea?
    4.) Does Putin wish to reestablish the Russian Empire?
    5.) Some pundits believe he lost his mind, but why?
    6.) Where will Putin stop his forces?
    7.) Was Putin convinced the timing was right with a weak American administration, or at least one he perceived to be weak and would capitulate to demands?
    8.) Was Putin convinced of the certainty of a strong return of an American Republican return to dominate Congress and takeover the White House?
    9.) In his recent friendly meeting with Xi, did they make a deal in support of each other including over Formosa?

    My conclusions: Russia should have been treated as a friend, but with military power and nuclear deterrence to back our side of the friendship. War is never the answer, but we now have to deal with Russian aggression and the return of enmity. My best hope is the stringency of sanctions will have an effect and remove Putin from power.

    Reply
  32. Luigi Pagano

    I Sit and Think by Luigi Pagano

    A parody of J.J. Tolkien’s “I Sit Beside the Fire and Think”
    https://genius.com/J-r-r-tolkien-i-sit-beside-the-fire-annotated

    I sit beside the fire and think
    of the news I’ve read;
    that Russia has invaded Ukraine
    fills me with dread.

    I sit on a garden bench
    underneath the wisteria
    and learn that Putin
    has said it’s all hysteria.

    I watch the TV and think
    of how safe the world would be
    if everyone stopped trying
    to achieve supremacy.

    There are some politicians
    who have no sense of shame
    and use so-called diplomacy
    just like a kind of game.

    I sit and think of an incident
    that everyone knows
    when two powerful nations
    very nearly came to blows.

    Both Nikita and JFK
    wished to be the master
    in the Cuban missile crisis
    that was almost a disaster.

    But while I sit and think
    of things that went on before
    I would hate to contemplate
    the prospect of an encore.

    © Luigi Pagano 2022

    Reply
  33. Joseph S. Salemi

    LTC Peterson, you show solid perception of the ways in which American and E.U. idiocy have brought about this unnecessary war. But at the same time you disregard the wider cultural factors that Mike Bryant alluded to when he invited your commentary.

    You haven’t mentioned at all the intense anti-Russian animus of the neocons, still powerfully embedded in our Deep State, and still itching for another war with anyone who shows the slightest disinclination to accept globalist hegemony and politically correct pieties from Brussels. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, these neocons (many of them red-diaper babies whose families were pro-Communist and traitors) have been in a state of rage against the rebirth of a traditional Mother Russia which rejects the modern corruption, sexual degeneracy, and consumerist decay of the West.

    You also neglect to even refer once to George Soros and his machinations. When it comes to the Ukraine, he is the unmentioned elephant in the drawing room. His money and instigation created much of the earlier disorder that led to this conflict. Putin is not insane — he’s just a strong leader trying to protect the vital interests of his nation. But Soros is both insane and monstrous, and not taking his intentions into account is like discussing the 1917 Communist Revolution without mentioning Lenin.

    When you say that you hope Putin will fall, you are simply playing directly into the hands of the neocons, who would like nothing better than to see Russia become prey to globalist banking interests and E.U. diktats. Do we really want Russia to become another liberalized, LGBT-loving, trannie-ridden, gender-feminist, politically correct cultural wasteland like much of the West?

    Trusting to “sanctions” shows that you already are aware that an actual military response to the Russian incursion is not in the cards, and never will be — certainly not as long as our military forces are riddled with stupid generals and a careerist officer corps who are mostly interested in Critical Race Theory, girls in combat, specialized pronouns, and trannies as fighter pilots.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Most of your points were summarized in my word, “corruption,” that subsumed the Soros “elephant” among the other things mentioned. You and Mike already explicated those situations and I understood them. I am in great sympathy with the neoconservative stance against the new left and their prescriptions for political change. The removal of Putin now is my hope, not for his stewardship of the Russian state, but for his blatant disregard for international law and order by a needless direct military attack. Western degeneracy is a cultural subject well-suited to a separate discussion. Suffice it to say your own points are not anathema to me.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        You sympathize with the neocons? With the ideological fanatics who have dragged us into several bloody and disastrous wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Libya, Kosovo) to satisfy their maniacal urge to make the world “safe for democracy” and for the countercultural stench that the word “democracy” now stands for?

        Those neocon guys are not conservatives, Lieutenant-Colonel. And they are doing nothing at all to fight the “new left.” Their basic loyalties are older and deeper and more ethnically based, and have nothing to do with the defense of the West and of Western culture.

        By the way, the words “international law and order” were long ago pre-empted and assimilated by globalists as buzzwords to ratify whatever they want to justify themselves. Since you were a member of the intelligence community, I’m surprised you don’t realize that.

        This war in the Ukraine is crucially linked to cultural disputes over the Great Reset, and the New World Order. And that’s not anything that is going to be debated or even mentioned at fantasy-festivals like the United Nations.

      • Mike Bryant

        Dr. Salemi, I agree with every word. How long must we be the policemen of the world? I understand that the more bombs we make and use, the more money the cons… I mean the neocons make.
        I wonder if the Neocons are ready to take down Xi. I think it’s pretty rich comparing Putin to Hitler while Xi rips the organs out of the Uighur and the Falun Gong.
        The world that Xi wants is exactly the same world that the Neocons want, and it has nothing to do with democracy.
        It’s funny that the politically correct now must use the name “Formosa” instead of Taiwan… who are we trying to please here?

  34. Roy E. Peterson

    PUTIN IS PLAYING POKER
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 1, 2022)

    Putin has joined Stalin
    In the Russian lexicon
    Of the country’s leaders
    Who have done the greatest wrong.
    In fact, he has joined Hitler
    In the outlaw pantheon.
    A criminal in prison
    Is now where he should belong.

    He is not playing chess
    Or checkers anymore.
    Putin is playing poker,
    Since he has gone to war.
    His cards are on the table,
    Since he went into attack.
    Demands are promised daily
    As the nuclear card’s held back.

    He knows some other players
    Have a joker from the deck.
    He could lose advantages
    While he is still held in check.
    Although he may be bluffing
    And his chances he may like,
    It all could vanish quickly
    If the players made a strike.

    I suspect that he will win
    The first jackpot of the game.
    He’ll rake his poker chips in
    With his war in the Ukraine.
    It’s easy when your hiding
    To maintain a poker face.
    The only question then is
    Do some others hold an ace?

    Reply
  35. Roy E. Peterson

    SANCTIONS AND THE UKRAINE
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 1, 2022)

    No matter how stringent the sanction,
    It’s not enough to stop Ukraine’s invasion.
    When a modern nation goes to war,
    Sanctions will not stop them anymore.

    The worldwide Taekwondo federation
    I saw just engaged in one big sanction.
    They took away Vlad Putin’s blackbelt.
    I wonder how that horrendous sanction felt?

    I know the world will delete financial aps
    Hoping that will lead to a collapse.
    With an invader conduct no more trade
    Until the aggressor goes into retrograde.

    When might makes right decides to ride,
    The cultural norms are then set aside.
    Leaving economic chaos in its wake
    War is still war for goodness sake.

    No matter how stringent is the sanction
    Force must meet force in combat action.
    Regardless of what will be the cost,
    Without countering the force, all will be lost.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      No answers, Lieutenant-Colonel? Just more blustering poetry in favor of another neocon war?

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson

        Answered below in another comment. We are on the same ideological page. I already stated that war is not the answer. I differ over my understanding of neocon, since I believe they morphed over time and lost their socialist roots of the 1960’s. The term has no meaning for me anymore, except historically. You may read the rest in the next comment.

  36. Roy E. Peterson

    Dr. Salemi and Mike Bryant, perhaps you are stuck with the origins of neoconservatism in the 1960’s and the old ways of thinking who they are. Although they began as socialists, those roots have long since disintegrated. They were opposed to the Great Society but supported the Vietnam War (which by the way we had won militarily). I was at a dinner in Moscow for the Moscow Military Association in 1985. A Vietnamese General said with bombing of North Vietnam, they were a week away from capitulation. We lost the peace, not the war. Historically, neocons ideologically moved from the anti-Stalinist left to the more moderate camp of American conservatism.

    During the 1990’s neocons were opposed both to Bush and Clinton foreign policies. I did not support the war in Bosnia! That was a travesty. That should have been left to Yugoslavia, in my opinion. I was the coordinator of human intelligence for the first Gulf War in Iraq and had a special bunker buster bomb made that was delivered when I had intelligence Saddam Hussein was going to spend the night in a particular bunker. I communicated that to the Air Force Targeting Staff in the Pentagon. The precise bomb blew up the bunker completely (as designed from my acquisition of the plans for the levels in the bunker) with many of his close staff supporters, but he had made a change in his location at the last minute.

    Personally, I am not a neoconservative, but share many of their present-day ideological precepts that include disenchantment with pacifist foreign policy, the Democratic Party, the New Left, and countercultures of all varieties. I support their promotion of democracy around the world, peace through strength, hatred for communism in all its forms and disdain for political radicalism.

    The neoconservative movement that has morphed over time often refers to a 2004 book by Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, titled, “America Alone: The Neo-Conservatives and the Global Order,” which in that time rallied around three themes: 1.) Belief coming from religious conviction that human choices are between good and evil and the willingness to confront the evil. 2.) Relationships between states is based on military strength and willingness to use it. 3.) Focus on countering global Islam as the anti-Christ. As I said I am not a neocon, but admire many of their present precepts.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Excellent point. I was victimized by the mobile crematorium article. Thank you for the youtube connection. FYI: I believe ideologically we are on the same page. Beware, truth on all sides is suffering as a casualty of this war. I always appreciate your perspectives and insight.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Mike, that is a powerful link telling unpleasant truths that too many people are unwilling to hear. Soros and his disgusting “Open Society” Foundation are at the root of this war.

        I only hope and pray that not a single American soldier will be sent to die in this new Neocon war to spread faux democracy and left-liberal ideas world-wide. But I’m afraid too many glandular and gullible American conservatives are reacting exactly the way the Neocons want.

        You can kiss the Republican landslide of this November goodbye if Biden becomes a “war” president. The Neocons are vicious, but they sure are smart, aren’t they?

  38. Roy E. Peterson

    Mike, I read your WEF/Soros source. 1.) I believe Putin’s motivation, among other things, was fear of Ukraine joining NATO and deciding the time was most propitious with a weak presidency. 2.) I once wrote a poem coining the term “Sorosis” of society. Soros in my mind is a purveyor of evil. I liked Salemi’s thoughts on his demise. 3.) War, like politics, makes strange bedfellows to use an old term. 4.) As you may have realized from my previous comments, war is never the answer, although it is in self-defense. The military prays for peace but prepares for war. 5.) I neither want WEF/Soros to win on anything, nor Putin to succeed. That is the dilemma. My sadness is for the people of Ukraine in this unnecessary venture.

    Reply
  39. Mike Bryant

    The Gods of War

    It’s so uncouth
    To speak the truth.
    So bow to Soros, bow to Xi
    Kowtow to force, why can’t you see?
    Forget your God, forget your culture.
    Don’t spare the rod, become a vulture.
    Feed upon the spoils of war
    For money matters so much more
    Than freedom or tranquility,
    The gods of war shall set you free.

    Reply
  40. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    WHEN MAN PLAYS GOD

    When man plays God, then right and wrong
    Are nothing but an earthly song
    That rings in notes from those who ‘know’
    The way the world is meant to go –
    The Davos gang all bang that gong.

    The greedy Schwab-and-Soros throng
    Schmooze the clueless Neocon.
    We wring our hands in tear-drenched woe
    When man plays God.

    The powers that be will play ping-pong
    With naïve fools who play along.
    They hobnob with the very foe
    Whose game is honed to fool J. Doe –
    All names are naught in War’s cruel con
    When man plays God.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      … please don’t think I disagree with war… my grandfather fought in WWII, and I am grateful for the freedom he gave me. But, this is different. In this war the governments of the Western World are against their own people. If you’re in any doubt, please see the plight of the Canadian truckers and the political prisoners in the USA.

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson

        I am with you on what is going on in the Western World. We must change that! We must change our government and pray for change in others. On the other hand, Soros, bribes, and other extraneous material are a deplorable sideshow to what has happened and detract from concerns for the Ukrainian people and concerns for ensuring we are prepared for what else may happen. I already said more than once, war is not the answer, however, self-defense and military preparedness is essential. I am praying it gets rid of propagandizing our own military on grievous courses that are an abomination. I hope this helps clarify my position.

    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Also, please answer me this, Roy, or anyone else. Why would the world trust the word of governments who have lied and cheated and because of their dishonesty and greed, have blood on their hands – the blood of all the soldiers and Iraqi civilians who died in the name of Saddam’s ‘weapons of mass destruction’ that didn’t exist? I’ll never forget Dr. David Kelly’s testimony on British TV and his subsequent ‘suicide’ – the price an honest man pays for speaking the truth. Why would we trust any government that has lied repeatedly? I’d like to say, we won’t be fooled again, but this post says differently. I’m bloody crestfallen. There are wicked governments worldwide… we are governed by a wicked government. Who are the saints? Is our government fit to judge?

      Reply
      • Roy E. Peterson

        Again, I agree with you, although various chemical weapons were found after the Iraq invasion that seemed degraded, but usable, and were considered remnants of undeclared munitions scattered about that existed after Iraqi reports of all WMD’s being destroyed in 1991. They were subsequently destroyed after 2003. We are governed by a wicked government. The best we can do is attempt change through better elected representatives all the way to the top.

      • Mike Bryant

        If Ukraine is a noble democracy that we must send our men to protect, why did Pres Zelensky shut down all the media that gave him bad coverage? Why did he have the opposition leaders imprisoned? Is it really a democracy or only a peek at what’s in store for us? We already have the political prisoners. We have the controlled press here calling the GOP traitors and worse.
        There are no good guys in this thing…

      • Roy E. Peterson

        FYI: The Chief UN Weapons Inspector (1991-1998) was a Marine Corps Captain, Scott Ritter, under my command as Portal Monitoring Commander in Votkinsk (1989-1990). He wrote a book detailing his search for WMDs. Iraq presumably destroyed all chemical weapons in 1991. Some degraded chemical weapons were discovered later scattered around the country including on a chicken farm along with yellow cake (enriched uranium) of a low grade found somewhere and the rudiments of technology for nuclear weapons found in a scientist’s backyard.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Is THAT what we went to war for in Iraq, Lieutenant-Colonel? Some broken-down chemical weapons parts, and some low-grade yellowcake uranium scattered on a chicken farm? Is THAT what our men died for?

        No, they died because of some stupid Neocon pipedream about “regime change” and “nation-building” and “spreading democracy.”

        And while we’re on the subject of weapons of mass destruction, what about those bio-war laboratories that we have constructed all over the Ukraine? Did we do it to help them grow sunflower seeds? How would you like it if the North Koreans had a bunch of germ warfare labs off the California coast?

      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Exactly, Joe! Beautiful and brilliant people killed in the name of ‘broken-down chemical weapons parts, and some low-grade yellowcake uranium scattered on a chicken farm’ – their legacy deserves better. I am crying out for it now. DOn’t trust your lying cheating government!

  41. Joseph S. Salemi

    Susan, you are right on target again. Just look at the array of plutocratic one-world globalist ideologues who are demonizing Russia and Putin: the same leftist scum who rigged our 2020 election, who ferociously persecuted the protestors of January 6, who control the horrid WEF, who are pushing LGBT perversion everywhere, who have just turned Canada into a People’s Republic and police state, who have allowed a smug CDC and its toadies in the medical establishment to wreck thousands of lives and the world economy just for a goddamned flu virus, and who have doled out to us endless LIES, LIES, and LIES about everything for the last thirty years and more. And we’re now supposed to believe their deafening chorus of rage about how Putin is “the new Hitler”? Screw them! Lots of people are no longer buying their hypocritical Neocon propaganda.

    I’m sorry about the Ukrainians and the war that is now upon them. I truly am. But they put themselves into the hands of Soros and his coterie of moral lepers, just so that they could have the chance to be a part of a totalitarian E.U. and a “woke” NATO. Now they must reap the whirlwind.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      Joe, my heart bleeds for the innocent civilians of every war the corrupt governments peddle in order to line their pockets for a fine financial future for them at the expense of all those in the way… and that includes those who think the government is the answer to every prayer in spite of a history that screams the exact opposite. I am at a stage where I understand the machinations of the government. I understand all those who have financial investments in war. But, what about the ordinary folk? Why do they continue to back the heinous schemers when they know they’ve been lied to, again and again and again?

      Reply
  42. Anon

    Politics bollikins

    The president
    of the Ukraine
    turns out was
    an actor by trade
    now regarded
    quite the hero;
    understandable really
    not much of a
    transition as he has
    made Ukraine
    a theatre of war
    and that is not all,
    he also used to be a
    a stand-up comedian
    well, what a shame
    that diplomacy
    and statesmanship
    were not on the curriculum!

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Anyone who thinks that the United States should militarily intervene in the Ukraine is a certifiable lunatic. Unfortunately, many such lunatics have governmental power in America right now.

      Reply
  44. BDW

    Remembering Fylypovych: March 2, 2022
    by Radice Lebewsu

    Above the city, shines moon’s silver nib—a beak in space,
    a stone-block beacon, grief and dreams, upon each freakin’ face.
    It’s quite unusual, not noticed, in this century,
    the black mute fields, wanderers of night’s dread venturing.

    It’s quite unusual—Ukrainians against this might—
    amidst this monitor and desk—this willingness to fight.
    The ceilings disappear, the walls are crum-bl-ing apart,
    like they weren’t anywhere at all…the cluttered roads so hard.

    I hear the shouts, the cries of land, the evil fi-re-brands;
    yet in the darkness, see the Sun and eagle rise up, grand.
    These first thoughts fly upon the vetch, sunflowers in the blue;
    but, o, these bloody days are very difficult to view.

    Reply
  45. Roy E. Peterson

    THE RAPE OF THE UKRAINE
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 3, 3033)

    The rape of the Ukraine
    is difficult to watch,
    City devastations
    leaving a blood red splotch.
    It seems I have seen
    such catastrophes before.
    I saw it in the movies
    that were made of war.

    One million refugees
    are fleeing for their lives.
    Expect the count to double
    if anyone survives.
    Buildings blown to pieces
    and railroad tracks are gone.
    Cities without service.
    How can they get along?

    My heart is with the people
    whose suffering is great.
    They should have been left in peace
    to a kinder fate.
    Who will feed the hungry
    in this sad time of needs?
    Who will till the fields
    planting wheat and sunflower seeds?

    Don’t tell me of investors
    Who were making doughs.
    War like politics makes
    for some strange bedfellows.
    Don’t tell me of bribes
    or things that were done wrong.
    Just tell me of invaders
    who do not belong.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      So funny how the Democrats are pushing for Ukrainian nationalism, an armed Ukrainian citizenry, and secure Ukrainian borders. I wonder why we can’t have what they’re giving to Ukraine???
      Could it be that Soros only wants that so he can take us down?

      Reply
  46. Roy E. Peterson

    I THANK ALL PARTICIPANTS
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 3, 3033)

    I thank all participants
    Responding to precipitance
    Of war that reared its ugly head
    While Ukraine counts its sadly dead.
    Read and weep of things you learned
    While in Ukraine the streets are burned.

    Points were scored in this debate
    Elucidating Ukraine’s fate.
    It matters less whose voice shall win.
    Ukraine is paying for the sin.
    The cognoscenti’s words ring true.
    I hope that they’ve affected you.

    The war of words is hurled in vain
    While Ukraine suffers from the pain.
    It’s like the ghost of Christmas future
    Observing haggling over lucre.
    The causes for the final breath
    Compose the epitaph of death.

    [I look forward to reading further contributions.]

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      This is why the Deep State and the American left is doing everything in its power to take Tucker Carlson off the air. As someone has aptly said, “In a world ruled by lies, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

      Reply
  48. Mickey Kulp

    March 3 in Ukraine

    a man is weeping,
    sobbing over the
    sheet covered in blood
    and purple flowers

    a pale, waxy face
    is all he can see
    peeking from the hem

    like when she was small
    and pretending to
    sleep under mom’s kiss

    the man wipes his tears
    from the dead girl’s face,
    apologizing,
    then weeping afresh
    knowing his mumble
    will never be heard

    at least the body,
    torn by senseless war,
    is hidden from him;
    a small, cold mercy

    for a fractured man
    who won’t sleep again
    unless an empty
    bottle lies with him

    Reply
  49. Paul Freeman

    Said Putin to Xi: “This is fun;
    Olympics in snow, not in sun.
    And yes, I’ll refrain
    from invading Ukraine
    till the skiing and skating is done.”

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Careful, Paul… no one is supposed to know that if you oppose Putin, you MUST also oppose Xi.

      Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      Well said. Some news sources claimed something like that happened.

      Reply
  50. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    For My Russian Friend, Lena

    She’s nothing – nothing in the news
    A stain in prayers in Sunday pews
    The victim of her leader’s views
    The gifted poet poet’s use
    To shame and blame and plain accuse…
    Please walk a while in Lena’s shoes.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      I have great sensitivity for Lena and those in her situation.

      Reply
  51. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    These posts appear to be one-sided; opinions given from the collective narrative that you, Roy Peterson, are pushing to the ultimate with an onslaught of poems that back the Deep State great reset that’s blaring propaganda from TVs into every living room globally. Where is the compassion for innocent people everywhere? People don’t choose where they’re born. They don’t choose the colour of their skin. These days, they don’t even choose their leaders, as has been proven in the latest Ukraine election. America is not saving democracy… democracy doesn’t exist in this new world order. The globalists are lining their pockets with riches bought with the blood of innocents, whether they’re born in the Ukraine or Russia. This corruption is at our doorstep. It is time we woke up to who the villains really are. It is not the people who need to be punished… don’t let them suffer at the stroke of tyrannical pens. Lena is NOT GUILTY!

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Susan, please tell your Russian friend Lena that not everyone in America is falling for the barrage of anti-Russian war hysteria that is being fanned to flame by our controlled news media and the Neocon echo-chamber. (Like John Bolton and Paul Wolfowitz, these loudmouths have never seen a war that they didn’t want to jump into).

      One very good thing about the last two years of Covid mania — we’ve been inoculated against believing anything that Mainstream Media says. The anti-Putin vitriol that is coming out of our newscasters and “journalists” has reached levels of insanity that I haven’t seen since the violent anti-Nixon demonstrations of 1970.

      Reply
      • Susan Jarvis Bryant

        Joe, thank you. I believe good people are waking up to the skullduggery afoot. As people of conscience first, and poets second, we should see from every angle… we should seek the truth… we should spread the truth… we should call out those who deal in lies. Lena will be heartened at the fact that there are those out there in touch with reality who have the integrity to stand up for those who suffer… whatever side of the contrived argument they’re on.

    • Roy E. Peterson

      With most of your precepts
      I will gladly agree.
      Why is it my friends
      Are still persecuting me?

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Roy, really? I’m quite sure that the number of your concerning words far exceeds any other words that disagree with yours and have so harmed your psyche.
        There was a time when people could disagree without fearing they would be demonized.
        Up until this short poem, Roy, I thought we were having a lively exchange of ideas. I seriously did not realize that you had been harmed.
        If you think you have been persecuted, you are mistaken.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Your friends aren’t “persecuting” you, Lieutenant-Colonel. We’re just asking you to think clearly and dispassionately about a political and military situation. Is that unusual for a former member of the intelligence community?

        You don’t really agree with most of what we say. You simply give a pro forma “Yes, yes, yes…” to our arguments, and then go back to whining and moaning about the Ukrainians, and calling for another Neocon war of intervention.

    • Roy E. Peterson

      IF ONE WOULD WALK IN MY SHOES
      By Roy E. Peterson (March 4, 4022)

      If one would walk in my shoes,
      There is so much to explain.
      My second wife’s from Russia
      One part is Ukraine.

      I am speaking ethnically.
      The other part’s Chinese.
      If one walked in Irina’s shoes,
      No part of her is at ease.

      My adopted son is Russian
      His natural dad Ukraine.
      He was a naval officer.
      I’m sure he feels the strain.

      The mother of my wife
      Went back to Russia years ago.
      We wonder how she’s doing now.
      We would like to know.

      She was a labor lawyer,
      In the Russian nation.
      Since she looked Chinese,
      She faced discrimination.

      Irina’s mother and father
      Were anti-communist.
      They still found a way
      That they could co-exist.

      We all supported Putin
      With Russia doing well.
      We never expected
      That things would go to hell.

      Note: My wife and I divorced, but I am still close to our son. I am trying to avoid family conflicts by straddling the ideological fence and attempting to provide my strategic thinking. Several times I have said war is not the answer. That can be read many ways, but of one thing I am certain–we must be prepared for the worst.

      Reply
  52. Evan Mantyk

    Headline: Anna Netrebko out of Met Opera over her support of Putin

    Her voice floats over stifling fumes of war,
    More gorgeous than this place and exit door.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      VICTIMIZATION IS NOT VINDICATION
      By Roy E. Peterson (March 7, 2022)

      Don’t judge the Russian people
      Who must hide their true beliefs.
      The safety of their relatives
      Replaces talk of beefs.

      Don’t victimize the people
      Who must keep hidden their views.
      That doesn’t mean they are not saddened
      By the wartime news.

      Russians are being dismissed
      From the opera and sports,
      Because of the aggression
      Mentioned in the news reports.

      They are not responsible,
      There is no vindication.
      They are suffering from
      Victimization.

      Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      FOR ANNA NETREBKO, MET OPERA STAR
      By Roy E. Peterson (March 5, 2022)

      Imagine performing while overseas.
      You have admirers, as much as you please.
      Then war breaks out through no fault of your own.
      You cannot get back and you cannot phone.

      What about relatives in your homeland?
      Who will lend assistance with helping hands?
      With news getting worse with each anxious day,
      The only thing you have left is to pray.

      Your employer tells you to make a choice–
      Whom you support or they’ll cut off your voice.
      If you criticize one for their attack,
      You may be stuck here. There’s no going back.

      You have said everything that you can say–
      The war is a mess, it should go away.
      Then, “I am opposed to this senseless war.”
      It should stop right now…don’t fight anymore.

      You cannot condemn the leader of one.
      Then you are told your career here is done.
      You’re victimized by irrational hate.
      You’re left to ponder what will be your fate.

      Japanese here suffered from World War Two.
      Recall what German-born people went through.
      Now it’s the Russians whom we castigate.
      We should be better than spewing our hate.

      Innocent people will suffer the most
      While others harangue and others will boast.
      Democracy means that divergent views
      May be said here despite what’s on the news.

      Reply
  53. Roy E. Peterson

    PUTIN’S MOTIVATIONS FOR INVASION
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 4, 2022)

    I. INTRODUCTION

    I thought we were sympathetic friends
    With Putin at the helm
    Of the present Russian people
    And of the Russian realm.
    I approved his stewardship
    Of Russia’s economy,
    Of his support for Christians
    And Russian Orthodoxy.

    When I once dealt with Putin,
    He was clever and robust.
    He was the kind of leader
    In which the world could trust.
    I am saddened by his choice
    To invade Ukraine’s nation.
    I wish cooler heads prevailed
    In this sad situation.

    II. REASONS FOR INVASION

    Who knows what was his logic?
    Who knows what is Putin’s aim?
    What were his motivations
    To inflict the warfare game?
    The answers still are murky
    Why the Russians went to war.
    Why is Russia not friendly
    As Russia once was before?

    I will supply four motives
    That Putin himself announced.
    Why upon the Ukrainian people
    Russia now has pounced.
    My opinion is the first,
    NATO knocking at their door,
    Although the map of NATO borders
    Shows there are four more.

    1. NATO Expansion

    NATO-Ukraine relations
    Stem from 1992,
    When it was reestablished
    As a nation that was new.
    In the year 2008,
    The NATO members had said
    Ukraine could someday join
    When some conditions had been met.

    In 2017, Ukraine
    Enshrined the intention
    To become a NATO member
    In its Constitution.
    Now it’s five years later.
    I wonder what on earth has changed.
    Could it be joining NATO
    Was the cause for the deranged?

    Democracy was yet uncertain,
    NATO held the option.
    There were charges levied
    Of bribery and corruption.
    Lurking behind the curtain
    Was Soros and his minions.
    That could have been a cause
    In other people’s opinions.

    2. Genocide Against Russians

    Putin has charged the Ukraine
    With committing genocide
    Against Donbas Russian people
    That he could not abide.
    It is true there were separatists
    In Donetsk and Luhansk.
    I think this was but a pretext
    Behind the Putin mask.

    The charge of genocide
    The world considers baseless fare.
    If that motivated Putin,
    Why did he not stop there?
    Donbas is a tiny sliver
    On the Eastern border
    Of Ukraine with Russia
    That has suffered from disorder.

    The Donbas region wanted
    Their own autonomous state
    Fully aligned with Russia.
    Ukraine thought that was not great.
    In a speech by Putin
    It was in his explication.
    Peacekeeping was a pretext
    With denazification.

    3. UKRAINE Not a Legitimate Country

    In a lengthy speech, Putin proclaimed
    The Ukraine nation
    Was not a real country,
    Thus, was subject to invasion.
    He argued Ukraine was created
    By Vladimir Lenin.
    History and culture, though,
    Predate Soviet Union.

    Putin in a recent speech
    Insisted Ukraine is part
    Of the Russian Empire,
    Saying that’s how it got its start.
    The Ukraine was captured
    By year 1793,
    Under Catherine the Great,
    According to history.

    Putin has falsely claimed
    The country unstainable,
    Yet resources of the Ukraine
    Are quite formidable.
    If you conduct some research,
    Its wealth you cannot dispute.
    It has world class resources
    Like sunflower oil of repute.

    4. Obtaining Nuclear Weapons

    Putin expressed his concern
    That Ukraine has the knowledge
    And desire to obtain
    Nuclear weapons on Russia’s edge.
    After the cold war collapse
    Of the Soviet Union,
    Ukraine gave the weapons up
    To settle the confusion.

    Russia with the United States
    And United Kingdom,
    Guaranteed Ukraine security
    For the years to come.
    The New York Times reported
    Putin maintained the theory
    To justify invasion
    To prevent conspiracy.

    III. REBUILD THE OLD SOVIET UNION

    A fifth reason some express
    Is Putin’s secret desire,
    To exert Russian control
    And rebuild the old Empire.
    Although he has not said this one,
    He may wish to restore
    Dominion over Europe/Asia
    As in the Cold War.
    If that is his intention,
    NATO’s standing in the way.
    What price are more invasions?
    How much cost will Russia pay?

    IV. CULTURE REPLACEMENT

    Some say the degenerate culture
    Of the wicked West
    Contributed to invasion
    That Putin could arrest.
    I have mentioned Soros
    Whose acts have affected us all.
    The only good that I can see,
    His influence will fall.

    V. MADMAN THEORY

    Some believe Vladimir Putin
    Is a psycho madman.
    He has lost his marbles,
    He’s a pariah, a badman.
    Putin is not mad,
    But he is cold and calculating
    Just as Hitler once was
    The subject for such debating.

    VI. TIMING

    Would Putin have invaded
    If Trump still were in command?
    The timing is suspicious
    For the actions he had planned.
    Did he think Republicans
    Would win the next election.
    His chances would be gone
    For Great Russia resurrection.

    VII. PUTIN VERSUS ZELENSKYY

    Putin did not anticipate
    Zelenskyy to be brave.
    Putin thought with Jewish roots
    Zelenskyy would quickly cave.
    Perhaps he thought Zelenskyy
    Would flee from the Ukraine scene
    To save himself and family
    From Russia’s war machine.

    VIII. UKRAINE PATRIOTISM

    I think Putin disregarded
    How hard Ukraine would fight
    Against invading forces
    Of their military might.
    He did not plan that Ukraine
    Patriots would take a stand
    Against the Russian onslaught,
    Or concessions he’d demand.

    IX. CONCLUSIONS

    Putin’s invasion motives
    I have here described at length.
    Was it nuclear weapons,
    Or was it growing NATO strength?
    Was it genocide,
    Or was it fear of Ukraine power?
    Did history rear its head
    In decisions to devour?

    I am deeply saddened
    By the causes for the conflict,
    Senseless brutality
    The invasion will inflict.
    You may take a good stand
    On any of the points you choose.
    Regardless of what you think,
    The Ukrainian people lose.

    Poet Note:
    A good source for a discussion of some of the motivations can be found in:
    https://www.businessinsider.com/why-russia-is-attacking-ukraine-putin-justification-for-invasion-2022-2

    Reply
  54. Martin Rizley

    CRIES FROM UKRAINE

    I. Prayer of the Ukrainian Children

    Now I lay me down to sleep.
    I pray, thee, Lord, all bombs to keep
    Away from me throughout the night,
    That no blast fills my soul with fright,
    Nor blows my frame to smithereens,
    Rained down by Russian philistines.

    Please spare my ears and fear-filled eyes,
    The sight of carnage, children’s cries,
    O, give me strength to live this day,
    Away from parents, home, and play,
    And strength to live beyond this strife,
    Though PTSD haunts my life.

    II. A Mother on the Refugee Road

    Lord, as I walk this lonely way
    Through landscapes raw with grief and pain,
    I take my daughter´s hand and pray
    That time will wash, like cleansing rain,

    Her mind, defiled by war´s dark arts,
    By violent sounds and sights that smear
    A blood-streaked stain on youthful hearts
    And fill young, battered souls with fear.

    Her hand in mine, we stay afloat
    Like flotsam on a troubled sea,
    And drift downstream without a boat
    In search of our humanity.

    Our lives were blown to bits, it seems,
    Two days ago, when our hometown
    Was racked by blasts that dashed our dreams
    And tore our rising spirits down.

    Since then, on streaming tears we flow
    And seek to ride on hope´s high crest
    Among the teaming crowds that grow
    In number as we venture west.

    On muddy roads, beneath dark skies,
    We march against a chilling breeze,
    As through the day, we swell in size
    – Our band of ragged refugees.

    Along the way, our eyes are met
    With sights of carnage, plain to view:
    Dead soldiers lying cold and wet
    From blood and rain and morning dew,

    Abandoned tanks beside the road,
    Demolished hovels, burned up by
    Fierce fires that left them black as coal,
    With smoke still rising to the sky.

    A four-limbed mound of mankind lies,
    Half buried by a cloak of snow,
    As high above, a buzzard spies
    His dinner in the field below.

    How sad this strange new world of death,
    Unlike the world I lately knew;
    Its bare fields reek like fetid breath,
    All bombed and blasted black and blue!

    And you, my child, how can I bear
    To see how you´ve been traumatized?
    With love, I stroke your tangled hair,
    But grieve to see your anguished eyes!

    As here we lie down for the night,
    I pray that God will make us bold
    And guard us till the dawn’s first light,
    Kept safe from snipers, bombs and cold.

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      That is a great humanitarian nightmare poem, Martin! I can visualize the carnage and the trek of refugees with horror covering the landscape and prayers for another night when they can safely rest.

      Reply
  55. David Whippman

    WOKE WARRIORS

    We’ll fight the Russians all the way!
    We never will surrender!
    But first, make sure our army is
    non-binary transgender.

    Ukraine’s a tragedy, no doubt,
    but there could be much worse,
    like: what if we should find we’re not
    sufficiently diverse?

    But US General Millie
    is on a different page.
    He doesn’t care about Ukraine,
    he’s worried by “White Rage.”

    So let’s look on the bright side
    as Putin goes for broke.
    Although the West can’t save Ukraine,
    we sure as hell are woke!

    Reply
  56. Roy E. Peterson

    David, perfect sarcasm and irony about the state of our military and its leaders who bow and kowtow to the god of woke nonentities.

    Reply
  57. Roy E. Peterson

    CATHEDRAL OF THE DEAD
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 5, 2022)

    In the cathedral of the dead
    No satin pillows for the head.
    Mangled bodies are strewn around.
    Blood is seeping into the ground.

    Corpses rigid were blown apart.
    No one to bring the fun’ral cart.
    Under blue apse sits the altar.
    Anywhere the foes did falter.

    Anguished voices remain unheard.
    No one to say the final word.
    The wind blown trees replacing priests
    Waving branches o’er deceased.

    While stars look down on friend or foe,
    Their incense burns for those below.
    Metal on Metal, rust on rust.
    Ashes to ashes, dust to dust.

    Prayers from everywhere resound
    For those still lying on the ground.
    And thus, the final rites are said
    Over the sordid fields of dead.

    Fields of fodder with slow decay
    Will whisk the mortal stench away.
    Heaven’s gates are swung open wide.
    Inviting faithful, come inside.

    Reply
  58. Michael Vanyukov

    Putin

    What’s in the mirror that you see?
    No bloody fangs, which would be fitting:
    you feed on corpses of your victims.
    You make them as you drink your tea.
    You are no ghoul from fairy tales:
    there’s been no one that’s been as horrid.
    This is your time. But see, before it,
    There were some others, and they failed.
    One placed a bullet in his brain.
    The other choked on his vomit.
    The end is near. You postpone it:
    you’ll murder more but that’s in vain.
    You should have grown fangs, a horn,
    a snout that you’ve almost grown,
    while sitting on your trashy throne.
    When you are dead, no one will mourn.

    Reply
  59. Jim Munroe

    The Lion of Kiev

    In Russia, there’s a madman, Vladimir Putin is his name.
    He is ruthless and relentless and wants the country of Ukraine.
    He rides horses all bare chested, a black belt in Judo too,
    the KGB runs through his blood, he’s a commie through and through.
    But you won’t see him on the front lines, he’s behind the Kremlin walls.
    He’s watching every shell and bomb, waiting for Kiev to fall.
    Without strength, there’s only weakness, now the Bear and Dragon rise,
    the world is watching and they’re waiting with a set of global eyes.
    In Kiev, there’s a leader and Zelensky is his name.
    He is fearless and determined to save his country of Ukraine.
    With a helmet and flak jacket, he went straight to the front lines
    and called on all his countrymen with steel in every spine.
    He is outgunned and outmanned but he won’t give any ground.
    He is leading and imploring as the missiles fly around.
    Reagan said “tear down this wall” and what did Patton say?
    “Lead me or follow me or get the hell out of my way!”
    What would you do, if you were called to stand and fight today?
    Would you tuck your tail and run or grab your guns and stay?
    Our prayers are with these people as they defend their home
    and all the world wants them to know that they are not alone.
    Do not be like some of those who crawl away and hide,
    be like Volodymyr Zelensky and say “I need ammo, not a ride.”

    © Jim Munroe http://www.Rhymes4Life.com All Rights Reserved 3-5-2022

    Reply
    • Paul A. Freeman

      A fine poem, Jim.

      Fortunately when my test came, I stayed.

      But then one has to be put in the position of being tested first.

      Thanks for the stirring read.

      Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Hysterically funny, Mike! But it’s so true that it’s sad. The proud American military is being reduced to a pack of LGBT-conscious “woke” snowflakes who know all about CRT but little about field-stripping a weapon, or calibrating a range-finder.

      The enemy is going to walk all over us in the next war. And General Millay will say “I’m glad to have done my duty.”

      Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      Mike, this segment from Tucker Carlson is absolutely devastating about the cynical push towards war with Russia that is being orchestrated by the goddamned illegitimate administration of our Fake President, the demented jackass Biden. And not just Biden’s crew, but the entire echo-chamber apparatus of Neocon warmongers. Not to mention the stupid Republicans who are going along with it.

      Maybe some of the people here posting endless, drippy, sentimental doggerel with sob-stories about the “poor Ukrainians” will wake up when the United States is stupid enough to give those fighter jets to the Poles, and igniting World War III at the same time. I wonder if that will make them happy.

      Carlson is right — this war hysteria against Russia is one of the “moral panics” that have come to be standard in the West. Just scream your head off about “morality” and “virtue” and “what is right,” and people’s brains just seem to cease functioning. Russia was DELIBERATELY PROVOKED into this war by our insanity in stoking trouble in the Ukraine, and trying to get the Ukraine to join NATO.

      That is the plain truth. If you want to write more saccharine and embarrassingly bad doggerel about “the poor Ukrainians,” go ahead. But it won’t change the simple truth that this unnecessary war was planned and instigated by us. And if you keep screaming for “military action” against Russia, you will generate a world-wide holocaust.

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Joe, a perfect short explanation of the way we are being played… it took Tucker over 23 minutes to say the same thing. Do the warmongers really think we are that stupid?

      • Mike Bryant

        Tucker Carlson is a journalist. I wonder how many people can recall a time when journalists actually admitted that a portion of a story was wrong. The mockingbird media never has to take anything back, ever.

      • Mike Bryant

        No… nothing in the video above has been retracted.

      • Mike Bryant

        About the word “recant”… how odd that the word “retract” has been replaced. “Recant” is so much more appropriate for a time period of repression.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Freeman uses the word “recant” because at base he’s a moralist and a preacher, who judges all speech and behavior in terms of how it fits in or doesn’t fit in with his paradigm of conventional Left-Liberal thought.

        If you disagree with him you’re a “heretic” and you must “recant.”

      • Paul Freeman

        The tag team knows me better than I know myself, apparently.

  62. Mike Bryant

    Biden’s War

    The war is Biden’s war, it isn’t ours.
    He and the Neocons have much to gain,
    Along with bankers and assorted powers,
    The socialists now cause the workers’ pain.

    Their names and strategies are always changing,
    So many ways to war, so few to peace.
    They drive us mad and bad by rearranging
    Our loyalties so strife may never cease.

    It always has been thus, divide the masses.
    Set each person at another’s throat.
    When the culling’s done by all those asses
    They split up all the spoil and slyly gloat.

    You’ve got to ask, “Is there a way to beat them.”
    You know those demons do not really care.
    It seems, sometimes, that even God can’t cheat them.
    Yet still it’s worth the wonder of a prayer.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Wow, Paul, thanks for the stunning news that Putin is a very, very bad man. I suppose that I was wrong and it only makes sense to back this guy into a corner. Thanks for the clarity.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Paul Freeman still thinks that a Left-Labourite rag like The Guardian is a trustworthy journalistic source? Talk about political innocence!

  64. Paul Freeman

    Putin’s Splendid Isolation

    Some folk claim that Putin is stable,
    but that’s just an old Russian fable.
    For people he meets
    at the Kremlin he seats
    down the end of a forty foot table.

    Reply
    • Mike Bryant

      Of course, Paul, the fearless leader of the USA is an altar boy with a shining intellect… think Einstein. It seems that he can even change his own nappies now! (albeit with just a little help)
      Onward and upward to victory!

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        And Zelensky? So talented he can play a piano with his… ahem. How funny that Reagan was ridiculed because he was an actor, while Zelensky, the comedian, gets a pass.
        The pro-war propaganda is so thick, you’d think Russia was Red China… I mean, of course you wouldn’t because the murderers of the Uighur and the Falun Gong are the good guys, right?
        If you are a Guardian reader, I don’t see how you can keep from suffering whiplash.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        It’s clear enough that Zelensky is a two-bit comedian, but he’s also a menace. He’s deliberately stoking the flames of a new world war by pleading with NATO to intervene militarily to save his sorry ass.

    • Paul Freeman

      For the record, I’m not a Guardian reader, I was voicing my support for the Uighurs long before it was fashionable and I don’t think Einstein was ever an altar boy. Why you suddenly start going on about these topics in reply to a satirical limerick about Putin’s bizarrely long table meetings, I don’t know.

      Oh, and I’m in a bad mood because RT, one of my favourite news and documentary channels, has been taken off the air.

      Reply
      • BDW

        Though the Grauniad is stereotypically liberal, left-wing, and politically correct, it is one, among myriads of news sites I monitor, for several reasons, not least of which is, it’s not NYT or WaPo. I even used it in a recent tennos:

        From FSZH
        by Esca Webuilder

        It was read from some online site, such as the Guardian,
        that centre-left news source owned by the Scott Trust Limited,
        that story on the Interpol, big data ark they’d stored,
        unlawfully hacked from encrypted phones and crime reports—
        at least four petabytes of mass surveillance, black-heart holes,
        like that accumulated by dark MSS’s moles.
        I do not cry aloud, or wring my hands in such a place;
        I watch the station lights rush by with care upon my face.
        What can one do, but leave a message somewhere in a po’m,
        or text somebody one may know upon one’s traced, tracked phone?

        Like Mr. Freeman, I also monitor RT; but here in the States, I am still able to read it.

      • Paul Freeman

        Good to hear your look at different sources, BDW.

        RT is back again, though mainly airing anti-American documentaries, and for your interest my limerick about Putin’s ‘Splendid Isolation’ has been published today in The Daily Mail.

  65. Mike Bryant

    I’m wondering if anyone here still knows that diversity of thought is our strength.

    Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Has anyone PREVENTED you from saying what you wish to say here? Has anyone CANCELLED you or kicked you off the air? You have received some harsh retorts, but are you not still part of the conversation here?

        Answer honestly: is the same thing true of those left-liberal and “progressive” websites and chatrooms where the slightest hint of rightist or merely heterodox opinion will get you completely blackballed and silenced?

      • Paul Freeman

        No one has prevented me posting two satirical limericks. The odd responses you’ve made though, i.e. latching onto a single innocuous word use to denounce me as …. whatever, or to jump on the first site that came up on a Google search I made as proof that I’m … whatever, just to deflect from and stifle any point I was alluding to is a bit disappointing.

  66. Roy E. Peterson

    A DARKNESS HAS DESCENDED
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 7, 2022)

    A darkness has descended
    In the European heart.
    Russia’s war machine is bombing
    The Ukraine all apart.

    I read the compendium
    Of inchoate analysis
    That was engendered by
    Ideological hubris.

    It matters not the causes,
    Or what other leaders say.
    What matters is the people
    Who are getting blown away.

    Reply
  67. Roy E. Peterson

    BIDEN IS TO BLAME
    Military Sonnet #6
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 7, 2022)

    Some people may think Putin is insane.
    Why did he go to war in the Ukraine?
    Putin’s first answer, NATO they would join.
    He thought it safer if he could purloin.
    Next on his list, denazification.
    Then he claimed it was not a real nation.
    Fourth, Putin went back into history,
    Claimed Ukraine was Russian territory.
    Putin saw weakness in our president.
    He decided that’s when troops could be sent.
    Who should be surprised if we can look back?
    Timing was propitious for this attack.
    Who’ll stop the bleeding? Who will share the shame?
    I have no doubt Joe Biden is to blame.

    Reply
  68. Roy E. Peterson

    EVIL THAT LURKS IN HEARTS OF MEN
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 7, 2022)

    Noone knows the evil
    That lurks in hearts of men.
    Welcome to the future.
    The world’s at war again.

    If we disdain involvement,
    If we sit on the sidelines,
    We then become the victims
    Of the devilish designs.

    Strong force must meet with strong force,
    Or there’s a power vacuum.
    Never underestimate
    The desire to consume.

    Is it that the diplomats
    Have stolen our heart and soul?
    Or did the incompetents
    Simply fail to control?

    What aims the warfare givers?
    While the world debates and dithers
    With diplomatic shivers
    Evil coils and slithers.

    Reply
  69. Roy E. Peterson

    WHO WILL PAY THE COST OF THE UKRAINE WAR
    Military Sonnet #7
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 7, 2022)

    Who will pay the cost of the Ukraine war?
    Which ones suffer most? Which ones suffer more?
    It begins with those who live in the Ukraine.
    They are the most who suffer from the pain.
    Then there is the European Union,
    Felt safe when ended the Soviet confusion.
    We don’t know if NATO will be attacked.
    But they’ll pay the price for the oil they lacked.
    The world will pay for the goods unproduced.
    Ukrainian exports will be reduced.
    Russians, too, will suffer from the actions
    As they feel the pinch of Western sanctions.
    America may pay in patriot blood
    When we must stop the Russian army flood.

    Poet Note: I purposely used the word “may” in the penultimate line.

    Reply
  70. Roy E. Peterson

    PROPAGANDA AND FAKE NEWS
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 9, 2022)

    Propaganda is an exercise
    All sides like to use.
    Tricky lies and hatred
    Are meant to confuse.
    Some keep holding on,
    As they become deranged
    Even though the circumstances
    Of the world have changed.

    Fake news is an enemy,
    Also meant to confuse.
    It is designed to hide the truth
    While affecting our views.
    Purveyors are like wolves
    Hiding among the sheep.
    Their dulcet tones intended
    To put us to sleep.

    Ideology gets one in trouble
    Every time.
    Inconsistent thinking then
    Becomes their own landmine.
    We put labels on them,
    The left or the right.
    Neither one is accurate
    When we get into a fight.

    Oh, there are time-tested principles
    Of humanity
    Who yearn for peace and freedom,
    Who will fight for liberty.
    Religion is an answer
    Demagogues will fear.
    Peaceful people praying
    Though death is coming near.

    Clear thinking is the antidote,
    Discernment is the need.
    Logic is the safety valve
    To analyze each deed.
    Read the Bible scripture,
    Decipher what’s concealed.
    By prayer and supplication
    The truth will be revealed.

    Reply
  71. Roy E. Peterson

    NOTHING HAS GONE AS PUTIN HAD ASSUMED
    Military Sonnet #8
    By Roy E. Peterson (March 10, 2022)

    Nothing has gone as Putin had assumed.
    Just ten percent of Ukraine is consumed.
    Two weeks of warfare have damaged a lot,
    But Ukraine hasn’t fallen to Putin’s plot.
    Columns have stalled on the road to Kyiv.
    Ukraine resistance has refused to give.
    Antitank weapons have killed quite a few
    Hitting their targets while hidden from view.
    Two million refugees trudged to the west.
    I wonder what will become of the rest.
    Sanctions have not stopped the massacre there.
    The world twiddles thumbs and prays in despair.
    How much is the damage, some will discuss.
    Ukraine is fighting for them and us.

    Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        If so, let’s hope it shows better research into the facts than what is evidenced in his poems and commentary here.

  72. Joseph S. Salemi

    Mr. Peterson, between February 26 and March 5 you posted seventeen poems about the Ukrainian war. Now you have just posted another six.

    Don’t you think this is getting a little embarrassing?

    Reply
  73. D.G. Rowe

    Painful reading. Blimey! An endless stream of tabloid quality attempts at poetry in this thread, and more than can be found, I’d wager, in an annual Red-top poetry contest.

    The venel hubristic vanity, the perfidiousness, the rank back-stabbing scum-baggery of the Western regimes the last several years, coupled with the overwhelming credulity, naivity, ignorance, gullibilty, and hysterical sentimentalism of the general population the last few weeks has furthered my misanthropy, I fear, to an irreversable degree.

    Bloody Hell.

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      We did. We set up germ warfare research centers in the Ukraine, we encouraged the Ukrainians to join a military pact (NATO) that directly threatens Russia, we allowed George Soros to dominate the country, and now we are in a hysterical state of moral high dudgeon because the Russians have rightly taken all these things as acts of war.

      Are Americans ?really that stupid? Yeah, I guess we are.

      Reply
      • D.G. Rowe

        And to boot, the Anglo-American establishment, cos that’s what it is, has armed, trained, financed, whether it be directly or indirectly, the Right Sector paramilitary battalions that’ve been the vanguard in the Ukrainian regimes war agianst its own citizens in Donbass the last 8 years killing tens of thousands.

        Yes, Mr Salemi, the population have been utterly stupified, it is no better here in Britain, and seem quite willing to allow it to continue.

  75. James Sale

    I come to this party rather late, but what a feste it’s been! I am very impressed by Roy’s record and passion. Therefore, I hope my own little ditty – especially it’s rhyming – will be acceptable to most if not all of this illustrious group:

    Disputin’ with Putin: A Poetic Ditty

    There’s no disputin’
    That Vladimir Putin
    Is expert at lootin’.

    But after the shootin’
    Results might not suit him –
    Who’ll then put the boot in?

    Greetings to all from Sunny Jim in miserable, rain-sogged England!!!

    Reply
    • Roy E. Peterson

      I really appreciate the sentiments and perspective from “rain-sogged England.”

      Reply
  76. Mike Bryant

    From what I understand this war is a wonderful idea because it will make driving and eating so expensive that Global Warming will be completely stopped. I don’t know about the rest of the world, but if Global Warming gets any worse here in south Texas, we’re all gonna freeze our como se llamas off!

    Reply
    • Paul Freeman

      Maybe researching the difference between ‘weather’ and ‘climate’ will help you understand the concept of climate change. Or you can just accept that wind turbines (‘windmills’ as the ignorant call them) cause cancer, etc., etc.

      Reply
      • Mike Bryant

        Windmill
        A windmill is a structure that converts wind power into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades, specifically to mill grain, but the term is also extended to windpumps, wind turbines and other applications. -Wikipedia…
        In the Age of Google, no one need remain ignorant, Paul. You’re welcome!

        I’ve also researched weather and climate. It seems it’s weather if it’s cooler than usual. If it’s warmer than usual, then it’s a climate catastrophe. I learned that one from a Climate Scientist.

      • Paul Freeman

        By simply typing ‘Are a windmill and a wind turbine different into ‘Google’, you would discover what’s below: “Windmills are a wind-powered device that converts the energy of wind by means of vanes into mechanical energy. Wind turbines convert the kinetic energy of wind to generate large amounts of electricity to power homes.”

        No one needs to remain ignorant, Mike. You’re welcome!

      • Mike Bryant

        And that’s exactly what my source, Wiki, says. In other words, it is perfectly acceptable to call one of the spinning money and energy-wasting crucifixes a windmill.

      • Mike Bryant

        Paul, just for you, I’ve done some more research. I decided to use the Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary as a source. I hope that is acceptable.

        windmill
        noun [ C ]
        US /ˈwɪnd·mɪl/
        a building or structure with large blades on the outside that, when turned by the force of the wind, provide electrical or mechanical power

        So, apparently, Cambridge acknowledges that ‘windmill’ is a correct word to use in the USA for an ancient wind powered water pump, grain grinder or, yes, electrical generator. So either all Americans are ‘ignorant’ or you owe all Americans an apology.

      • Paul Freeman

        I thought ‘Get Green Now Dot Com’ puts it simply enough.

        “Well, both (windmills and wind turbines) use wind energy and convert it into other forms of energy for everyday life and use. However, windmills mainly convert wind energy to mechanical energy (to crush grain), whereas wind turbines convert wind energy directly to electrical energy (AKA electricity).”

        Meanwhile, I apologise to anyone offended by the truth who will disregard 99% of sources in favour of that 1% that saves face.

      • Mike Bryant

        You’re right… they put it simply… simply wrong.
        They said, “… whereas wind turbines convert wind energy directly to electrical energy (AKA electricity)”
        That is not true. I admit it does sound sciencey but a turbine is only the blades or the sails of the device. The turbine (blades) of the device are connected to a shaft. The wind energy is converted to the mechanical energy of the spinning shaft. At that point, the shaft may be connected to a grinder, a lathe, a pump, a saw or to any mechanical device the user requires, like the mechanical part of a generator which converts the mechanical energy into electrical energy.
        The windmills in the Netherlands have sails or blades (turbines) connected to a shaft connected to a water pump. They also use windmills to make a trifling amount of electricity.
        In Texas, ranchers use windmills to pump water which is held in stock tanks (ponds). The word “windmill” has come to mean any turbine powered by the wind that provides any kind of mechanical work, like spinning the mechanical shaft in a generator.
        I wonder if Don Quixote checked to make sure that the windmills he was tilting at were milling grain and not pumping water.
        Sure, I know the people that have been getting rich from windmills want me, and everyone else, to call them ‘wind turbines,” but I do know that it’s all salesmanship. How could they sell windmills for billions of dollars?
        The word “windmill” has simply entered the English language, at least the American English language, as a term for anything that looks like a windmill.

      • BDW

        as per Raúl de Cwesibe:

        Cervantes has been admired for his famous passage of Don Quixote attacking the windmill, not least of all, as a brilliant metaphor of the pointlessness of fighting reality, advancing technological progress, historical change, etc., a theme contributors here @SCP & St. Elsewhere could certainly take to heart.

  77. G. M. H. Thompson

    Thoughts Concerning The Strange “Special Military Operation” Currrently Unfolding In Some Distant Land

    Russia’s invaded Ukraine & suddenly
    everyone’s traded their brains for cottage cheese.
    Sure, it seems true that this war is incorrect.
    Still, I can’t tell why so many people care,
    people who shrugged when the fall of Kabul fell,
    saying, “Quite frankly, it’s right we’ve left that hell;
    “what does it matter we forfeited those trucks,
    “choppers, equipment, & rooms of cash to those
    “jackals who murdered our troops & friends for years?–
    “No, that’s alright, but this issue of Ukraine–
    “all must be spent for their acting president,
    “Vlod [who seems brave, but intent on World War III]–
    “gas will increase; that’s alright– we drive Teslas–
    “all must be sac’ed; inflation’s Elon Musk’s myth.”

    Reply
    • BDW

      Who knows and who cares?
      Who goes where the roses wear
      the pale face of death?

      Reply
  78. Joseph S. Salemi

    It was perfectly OK to abandon Vietnam.
    It was perfectly OK to abandon Iraq.
    It was perfectly OK to abandon Afghanistan.

    But it’s NOT OK to abandon the Ukraine.

    Makes no sense? No, it makes perfect sense. The people who were happy about our abandonment of Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan were on the side of our victorious enemies. They loved the Vietcong, the fundamentalist Sunni Iraqis, and the Taliban terrorists.

    But they viscerally hate Vladimir Putin, who has scorned their stupid left-liberal ideology, shows contempt for the loathsome George Soros, and who is actually standing up for traditionalist Western values.

    So, quite logically for these people, the Ukraine must be defended at all costs. Even a nuclear holocaust.

    In one of his endless series of bad poems here, Lieutenant-Colonel Peterson said this:

    No matter how stringent is the sanction
    Force must be met with force in combat action
    Regardless of what will be the cost,
    Without countering the force, all will be lost.

    The sentiments expressed in that witless quatrain are a call for a major war in Europe. I can’t think of a more irresponsible thing he could have said at this perilous time. It is exactly the kind of bellicose idiocy that was being trumpeted in every European city after the shooting in Sarajevo in 1914.

    Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Absolutely right, Mike. Everything that Biden is doing is COMPLETELY ILLEGAL: seizing the private property of Russian nationals here in America, wrecking the Russian ruble, compelling banking and financial institutions to ostracize Russia, deliberately interfering with the sale of Russian gas and oil, spouting the most provocative and stupid anti-Russian propaganda… doesn’t anyone in America see that this warmongering bluster and aggression is idiotic and dangerous behavior?

        The Democrats want a major war. Their COVID tyranny hasn’t really gotten them the results they had hoped for. They are now deliberately pushing Russia into a corner so that there will be a bloody explosion. They are betting that such an explosion will short-circuit the coming midterm elections, and prevent the Republican landslide that they fear, and also give Biden untrammelled powers over American citizens.

        And stupid Americans (including too many so-called “conservatives”) are going along with it, moaning and groaning about the “poor Ukrainians.”

      • Mike Bryant

        While illegally ruining the ruble and banning Russian oil, our oil, gas and gasoline must necessarily skyrocket in price… supply and demand. That means that all Americans MUST pay more for EVERYTHING because everything depends on our sources of energy. As the prices rise, so do our taxes… all while the poorest all over the world suffer. That’s not very Christian, is it?

    • Roy E. Peterson

      Ah! I did not call for a major war anywhere, nor a nuclear war. The truth is still the truth as expressed in the quatrain, but application requires strategic thinking. You may have missed my self-defense statements earlier. Poetry does permit inferences, whether unfounded or inaccurate, but that was not what I had in mind.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        It may not be what you meant, but it is clearly what you said.
        “Force must be met with force in combat action” is a straightforward call for battle. Can you parse that sentence for us, and tell us how it means something different?

        You admitted earlier that you were “straddling the ideological fence on this issue” for personal reasons. Are you now trying to straddle the fence on what you mean by “combat action”?

      • Roy E. Peterson

        As it says in the “Sanctions…” poem as paraphrased, unless force is met with force, all is lost. Sanctions are insufficient to stop an invading force. Ukraine understood that (among other things) and is putting up fierce resistance. That is the present “force meeting force” scenario. NATO, though, must be prepared for combat action should it come to that as the self-defense mechanism that it professes. That is the second “force meeting force” scenario.

      • Joseph S. Salemi

        In other words, if the Ukrainians can’t win you want NATO forces to intervene militarily. Is that it?

        The Ukraine isn’t even a NATO member, and already you’re planning for NATO to go to war? Really?

        I think you’d better sit down, have a stiff drink, and think this out again.

      • Roy E. Peterson

        No. Ukraine is not a NATO member. Oh, by the way, I went back to the poem. I remember now what I had in mind was a third scenario: Sanctions would not deter the Russians, since they thought with the present administration there would be no forces other than Ukraine in place to stop them with force. They were correct in their assessment, but miscalculated Ukraine resistance.

  80. Cid

    Sometimes being bombarded
    Beats leaving your home
    Sometimes the blasts become too much
    And to safety all shall roam

    A mother in labor
    Camps of children lying in their graves
    Maternity wards with no savior
    State news brain washing its slaves

    Russkis rode in on tank-back
    Stocked with ammo and their guns
    Shelled and mortared civilians
    Indiscriminate of no one

    Our Politicians and our pundits
    Voices silenced by NATO plans
    Spitting, cursing, bloviating
    No help for Ukraine humans

    Westerners white washing
    The purple blood stains from our hands
    Black plumes of fumes from oil
    Enrich green eyed greed at gas stands
    The hounds of war are barking
    Up the trees in Tinder Town
    Pyro Putin placed atop the lot
    Ready to burn it to the ground

    If this it and the world must dance
    One last world war waltz
    I hope the floor is wiped away and
    Man’s Truth defects into God’s False

    Reply
  81. Mike Bryant

    General Millie has announced that the troops will definitely NOT fight World War III unless the troops all get new outfits.
    China has kindly agreed to supply the “quite smart” new uniforms before they blow them all to smithereens.

    Reply
  82. Joseph S. Salemi

    Maybe this thread should end on a note of utter harebrained idiocy: the American Kennel Club has just announced that at its Best of Breeds competition this June, NO RUSSIAN DOGS will be allowed to enter the contest.

    No kidding. Even Russian dogs are guilty of war crimes!

    I guess we’ll have to revise upwards our estimate of the sheer stupidity of the American people.

    Reply
    • Susan Jarvis Bryant

      I think the International Cat Federation banned cats first. Fédération Internationale Féline, or FIFe, a group that considers itself “the United Nations of cat federations,” with members from over 40 countries, said in a statement on its website that it “cannot just witness these atrocities and do nothing”… and, oh gosh! I used to own a Russian hamster… do you think that amounts to a war crime?!

      Reply
  83. BDW

    Haiku
    by Ibe Ware Desu, LC
    for Roy E. Peterson

    In Fukuoka,
    cheery cherry blossoms bloom,
    far from Chernihiv.

    Reply
  84. BDW

    Mariupol, March 20, 2022
    by Radice Lebewsu

    There still are other cities left—Odessa and Ky’iv.
    There still are people in Ukraine, who want to be and live.
    Amidst the ruins, other men appear, their faces dark,
    from dust, gun powder, and the breath of freedom burning, stark.

    Those chests that burst and fall are followed by avenging souls;
    they are the loving, living fighters, Mariupol’s own.
    Their breadth is heavier than death’s explosions going off.
    Their firm resistance greater than the sneer of Putin’s scoff.

    We wake up to the headlines of Ukraine. We are dismayed.
    We sleep, we eat, we work; they still resist, day after day.
    From land, from air, from sea, bombardment keeps continuing,
    the piling misery and ruins this first day of Spring.

    The impetus for this dodeca takes its cue from “Letter to Stalingrad” by Brazilian Modernist Carlos Drummind de Andrade (1902-1987). One irony of Putin’s war is that his military minions are killing hundreds of Mariupol’s inhabitants who are largely and traditionally Russian. Of a prewar population of more than 400,000, over 40% were of Russian ethnicity.

    Reply
  85. Daniel Kelly

    Ukraine Abandoned

    I am chained upon this mountain side
    A sacrificial feast,
    For the hungry bear that roams the barren wasteland of the East,
    I can hear the stamping of his paws,
    The grinding of this teeth,
    The claws that rip the tender flesh, devour what’s underneath.

    I gave my weapons up to you, In 1994,
    You said that you would come for me, if there ever was a war,
    But war is here, and it seems that you are nowhere to be seen,
    The promises of Western powers, are merely lies and dreams,

    You think I am the maiden, sacrificed for peace,
    But I am the Pandora’s box, from which horror is released,
    If you will not come to my aid, the path is global war,
    With brother fighting brother, as has ever been before.

    The princes in their power, move pieces on the board,
    Giving up the Ukraine, to appease the Russian horde,
    But the fight will soon come to their door, their mothers and their sons,
    For it will be the same for all, as it is allowed for one.

    You say Putin is the monster, the source of all the pain,
    Invading land he doesn’t own, for nationalistic gain,
    But it was you who held out NATO, used Ukraine as a shield,
    But left them in the hour of need, to be slaughtered on the field,

    Reply
  86. Mike Bryant

    So many for the “current thing”
    So many now for war.
    Last year it was the vaccine.
    What is thinking for?

    Reply
  89. BDW

    Within Byshiv
    by Audre L. Besciew

    Within Byshiv, upon a rocky pedestal, it stands,
    a bust of Taras Shévchenko, in pink and gray commands.
    The balding, mustached face, is faced away, from busted House
    of Culture, in the ruined rubble of the Russian roust.
    The trees are bare, but for the evergreen there by its side;
    the clouds are covering the yellow sun and azure sky.
    West of Ky’iv, the village has been shelled by Russian planes;
    amidst the massive mess, the chiseled block of stone remains:
    March marches on, the fate of the Ukrainian dissent
    in humble hands, hard truth’s armed lands, a faithful testament.

    Audre L. Besciew is a poet of Ukraine. The last, full two lines are drawn from “Fate” by the Romantic Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861). Byshiv is a town 40 kilometers from Ky’iv between two-and-three-thousand inhabitants.

    Reply
  90. Rohini

    Here’s my two cents:
    What can the sunflower say to the sky?
    It follows the sun; it never asks why.
    The rockets fly past, the tanks they roll on
    Winter sets in with a cold that is long.
    Sanctions are threatened, their impact is hollow
    Who thinks of the people; who knows their sorrows?

    What can the sunflower say to the sky?
    It follows the sun; it never asks why.
    Decommunization, the anthem they sang
    While the clappers on church bells solemnly rang
    Kyiv, Kharkiv, Odessa and Donbas
    They cringed and they cowered with every blast.

    What can the sunflower say to the sky?
    It follows the sun; it never asks why.
    Armoured vehicles push into Ukraine
    Who thinks of the people; who knows their pain?
    Every border’s attacked, the world wrings its hands
    But they still do not move, nor yet make a stand.

    What can the sunflower say to the sky?
    It follows the sun; it never asks why.
    It’s your land, your country, you’re ready to fight
    No matter the foe, no matter its might.
    To the last inch, the last breath, last woman, or man.
    Though the world does nothing, the World understands.

    What can the sunflower say to the sky?
    It follows the sun; it cannot ask why.

    Reply
  91. Clive

    Refugee

    Sitting alone in the station
    Criss-crossing her legs in despair,
    Silent in deep concentration
    She’s twisting her light wavy hair.

    The man she loves has departed,
    To fight in an unwanted war,
    Leaving her half broken-hearted,
    Proud, angry, upset and unsure.

    Some words she meant to have spoken,
    And some words she wished she had said,
    Later, were told to the token,
    She keeps by the side of her bed.

    “I’m sorry for all my misgiving
    Be brave, but come back to me soon.
    Be strong, come back to me living,
    We’ll wed on the solstice in June”.

    Reply
  92. Phil Mader

    VLADEEEEEMEER POOT IN

    VLADEEEEEMEEER POOT IN
    Vlad….VladHIM HERE.
    VLad. VladIM NOT HERE…THERE
    THERE VLAD…. HiM OVER THERE.

    VLADEEEEEEMEEER POOT IN
    YET PUT OUT…..once again!

    Reply
  93. Mark Schwenke

    The Rape of Ukraine

    A tale foretold: the Russian bear’s Macbeth
    Awash in bloodlust, loosed a tyrant’s sins.
    Now, cowed by fear and Axis’ threats of death,
    The World stands by as Ukraine’s rape begins.

    Invasion triggered by the weakest West
    Encountered lo! these past two hundred years
    Emboldened comrades’ acquisition quests
    Whilst chastened western men awoke to tears.

    The wizened wanderer, his gaze cast high,
    Prayed gifts from God rain down from Heaven’s beams,
    Pied piping prophesy as Doom drew nigh.
    The lessons hist’ry taught succumbed to dreams.

    What hubris fuels the thought that Evil fails
    Once Ukraine’s rape is done and woe prevails?

    Reply
  94. Mike Bryant

    I support the Current Thing.
    The Current Thing today’s Ukraine.
    I love Biden’s Bio Labs,
    Love the MRNA jabs.
    Republicans and Democrats
    Are beastly, bloated bureaucrats.
    Send Ukraine our youth, that’s fine…
    World War III’s a damned gold mine!

    Reply
  95. Lawrencemathebula

    Sorry for Ukraine. What could have I done? it’s all beyond me. I blame NATO for all of this, and countries that are a non-member are the ones that sooner/later may be attacked by those under NATO (because it does not protect them; they’re a non-member). Lastly, countries that produce explosives , sell them and buy them, are a ticking-time-bomb in front of our eyes.

    Reply
  96. David Menary

    Battle Cry (An elegy) for Ukraine

    Neighbor son and daughter
    We gather in the night
    The bombs, they keep on falling
    As we shield from fire and fright

    They come from far and away
    We hear their whistle flying
    We hear them when they land
    We live through death and dying

    Destroying homes and families
    As we struggle for our good earth
    And amidst this carnage an infant
    battles, crying, through his birth

    Dear friend, daughter and my son
    The land is cold and deathly dark
    Our bodies lie fallen in the streets
    And dearest mother died in the park

    The bullets fly and the bombs, they fall
    As each new day the fight goes on
    Killing old man, maiden, young man, child
    Yet new hope rises with the sun at dawn

    Dear neighbor, daughter and my son
    Our struggle has just begun
    We will not stop until freedom
    Has taken hold and won

    David Menary

    Reply
  97. Jay Hoecker

    The Invader’s Question

    If you live on land I want,
    And I take it even after I destroy it
    Even after I murder you and all you love
    Will one day I answer a knock at my door
    To find a man named Karma holding a shovel
    Who says, “Go bury the dead, one by one,
    Then should you finish before you die,
    Find a spot amidst the rubble, and
    Lie down upon that blood soaked land, and cry.”
    by
    Jay Hoecker
    April 22, 2022, Rochester, MN

    Reply
  98. Alan S Jeeves

    A Rust-Covered Sword (Once Bloody)’
    by
    Yorkshire, England, based poet
    Alan S Jeeves

    _I_

    You may assail me with your Kazak blade
    Then, in a single moment, I am gone;
    In the darkness of the daylight I go,
    My heart beats its last and I am no more
    And you praise your combat skill and prowess
    (Your smile is a wry smile, a soldier’s smile)
    But my tears form raindrops before I die
    That rise to heaven where they are welcomed
    And rain lasts forever (and one day too)
    Then, the sword shall be rusted and futile.

    _II_

    Yet, my pen is of gold, tarnishing not,
    And it strikes at your soul and speaks the truth
    For, its words will live for two thousand years
    (As the words of Jesus are heard today)
    So, you seize my pencil to snap in two
    Though, I hone both halves to write with each hand:
    Now, your tears pointlessly fall to the ground
    Where, there, they dry and are lost for all time.
    A fresh drop of rain will wash them away,
    I know it will come – the raindrop is me.

    Reply
  99. NVatutin

    Salute to The Ukraine

    Now July has come and gone
    its Ukrainian offensive overblown
    as many thought but none dared say
    while Ukraine’s servants screamed “Obey!”

    Passing Time those lying curtains raised
    we can see clearly through that haze
    artillery duels are lost, not won
    when the enemy outnumbers by 15 to 1

    Ukraine’s triumphant march continues
    and in reverse direction now
    its black earth left in Eastern lands
    Great Catherine conquered and still demands

    Cossack thugs with cunning, empty minds
    renowned for pogroms, tortures, Volhynian crimes
    honored by postage stamp, street name and monument
    Ukraine revels in the killers and forgets their dead

    Limitless steppes, fertile Ukrainian fields
    part of a great nation, nowhere to be seen
    its worthless poets under Pushkin’s shade,
    like piles of dogshit by a great oak, fade

    Ukraine’s bright future lies ahead
    unreachable, its endless present full of dread
    paradise to warlords, oligarchs, officials for gain
    the world shrugs and calls it, despectively, Ukraine

    2022

    Inspired by Joseph Brodsky’s poem
    On Ukrainian Independence

    Reply

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