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A Villanelle for Robert Hoogland

Hoogland was imprisoned for calling
his daughter female

Their mouths are gagged, their hands are bound;
Their children taken by the state,
These parents have no legal ground.

While children run and play around
The lip of Hell’s wide, yawning gate,
Their mouths are gagged, their hands are bound.

If they should ever make a sound,
They’ll age in jail for crimes of hate;
These parents have no legal ground.

Their efforts will be quickly drowned
As red tape seals their children’s fate.
Their mouths are gagged, their hands are bound.

Their children seized, locked in the pound,
Can’t help them now, for it’s too late,
These parents have no legal ground.

Must we raise our kids unsound
And watch them eat the devil’s bait?
Our mouths are gagged, our hands are bound;
We parents have no legal ground.

.

.

The Great Satan

We’ve taught the China folk to snack
To sell them our potato chips;
We stabbed their culture in the back
With words of treasures on our lips.
Thus now we teach the world to sin
To sell them poisons for their faith:
More time with trinkets, less with kin,
And no regrets till it’s too late.

Colonialism is okay
As long as churches are suppressed.
Exporting devils every day,
That’s the mission of the West.
The West once shone atop a hill,
But now it’s Satan’s global shill.

.

.

Joshua C. Frank works in the field of statistics and lives near Austin, Texas. 

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32 Responses

  3. Roy E. Peterson

    The last two lines of “The Great Satan” are particularly well-phrased and on the mark!

    Reply
  4. Joseph S. Salemi

    I think that it’s time for us to start saying this out loud everywhere: the perverts and freaks who have turned gender ideology into an all-encompassing tyranny in the Western world are the new Nazis.

    Recently a brave English actor posted on his blog a swastika composed of those horrid “rainbow” flags, to indicate this reality. Gender ideology, the ubiquitous rainbow flag, the legal brutalization of parents who object to the sexual corruption and mutilation of their children, the complete capture of the educational establishment by militant and aggressive perverts — how is this any different from what happened in Germany during the Third Reich? Sure, the aims and the rhetoric are different, but the tactics and the viciousness are the same.

    The political left always spouts the chin-music of “love” and “acceptance” and “diversity” and “brotherhood.” But they have no more commitment to these ideals when it comes to their perceived enemies than the Nazis had towards those whom they sent to the camps. Try to express actual “diversity” of opinion in an North American university today, and watch what happens to you.

    Who would have thought that Canada would become a completely totalitarian state? And yet it has happened, right in front of our eyes.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      As I mentioned in a comment on another poem on a similar topic, I think the left is worse than the Nazis. First, as was pointed out in The Chosen, the Nazis were satisfied with killing bodies, but the left is after our souls. Second, even if we only look at body counts, the mass graves of abortion victims in the United States alone total 63 million since 1973.

      Those liberal buzzwords you mention are nothing more than Trojan horses. The left preached tolerance when they were in the minority and needed to be tolerated to further their wicked aims; now that this has been accomplished, they’re throwing off the mantle of tolerance and showing their true colors. The fact that poems like this couldn’t be published anywhere else speaks volumes.

      For those who don’t know, the guy who posted the trans-flag swastika picture got arrested: https://legalinsurrection.com/2022/08/british-veteran-arrested-for-causing-anxiety-after-sharing-swastika-made-out-of-progress-pride-flags-on-social-media/

      I fear that in looking at the UK and Canada, we’re looking at America’s future.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        Dear Joshua —

        The older British veteran in the link you gave was not the man to whom I was referring. The man I meant was the actor Laurence Fox, who was in the TV series about Inspector Morse. Fox posted the swastika-rainbow flag on Twitter, where he received multiple threats and execrations. He did it deliberately to show contempt for the gender ideology that now has enslaved the U.K.

        The negative reaction did not trouble Fox, for in connection with his experience he later wrote “You can openly call the Union Jack a symbol of fascism and totalitarianism. But you cannot criticize the holy flags of the gay and trans movements.”

        You can wave that disgusting rainbow flag of perversion anywhere you like, it appears. But just try waving the Confederate Stars and Bars.

  5. Susan Jarvis Bryant

    Josh, first of all I would like to applaud your employment and excellent execution of the villanelle. I like to use the repetition in the villanelle to get a grave point across and make it memorable, and you have done just that. “Their mouths are gagged, their hands are bound; / These parents have no legal ground.” are very powerful lines indeed. I also like the fact that you took poetic license to change “These parents” to “We parents” in the closing couplet bringing the danger to our children much closer to home. It’s a collective problem and you say just that beautifully. But most of all I admire your burning desire to write poetry like this in an age where we’re treated like pariahs for doing so.

    “The Great Satan” says it all with fearless poetic aplomb.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you Susan! I’ve seen your villanelles, and they’re great, so it’s nice to read your compliments about mine!

      I’ve seen some of my other poetry have an influence on people, and that’s one way I know I’m called to write poetry like this. These issues bother me and just won’t go away, and sometimes writing a poem is the only thing that helps.

      Plus, you’ve been quite encouraging, just by example.

      Reply
  6. Brian Yapko

    Josh, I’m glad to see you tackle this contentious subject matter and I’m glad to see you branch out stretching your poetic muscles by tackling a villanelle — and doing so admirably. Well done! I hope Mr. Hoogland gets to see it.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, Brian! I’m glad to hear such a compliment. Mr. Hoogland is in contact with the pro-family activist organization Mass Resistance; I intend to contact them to see if they can get it to him.

      Reply
  7. Sally Cook

    How will these children help their parents? After such indoctrination, will they even want to, and on a larger plane, defend a country we still think of as ours? Who can even look at God’s rainbows today without thinking of those misleading flags? Where is the humanity in all this?

    Reply
    • Joseph S. Salemi

      There’s no humanity at all in it, Sally. This is all just a political power-play by a militant coterie of perverts, freaks, drag queens, and trannies to establish themselves as a “protected class,” with a protected ideology (i.e. one that can’t be publicly questioned).

      Reply
      • Joshua C. Frank

        Joe, I think it’s also the powers that be wanting to drive a wedge between parents and children and distract us from other things they’re doing while they’re at it. Strong families are the only thing that can resist a corrupt government.

    • Joshua C. Frank

      Those are all really good points. That horrid flag only exists to mock God’s promise never to flood the earth again (that’s what the rainbow is, according to the Bible) and to mock the red and white stripes of the American flag.

      Reply
  8. Margaret Coats

    Josh, as Susan says, you give your refrains powerful punch to drive in the point. You also have other splendid expressions to keep the villanelle moving. Red [communist] tape sealing children’s fate, and captive children locked in the pound as animals to be sterilized! In stanza 2, the gagged mouths and bound hands belong syntactically to the children running and playing around the lip of Hell’s wide, yawning gate. If we think of Jesus telling Peter that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the Church, we realize that those gates are precisely where the Church should be doing battle. You are a valiant poet of the Church militant in this piece. Thanks for reminding us of Robert Hoogland. I did a separate search for his name and found that media seems to be burying him.

    And let me recall that Nazis are ALWAYS LEFTISTS, not right-wingers or conservatives. The name means “National Socialist,” and like the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (with whose leader Hitler had a non-aggression pact), German Nazis aimed for totalitarian tyranny over nations.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Margaret, thank you so much! Your compliment means a lot to me, especially given your extensive background in both literature and the Catholic faith.

      I had the same experience searching his name, just a few articles from last year in some conservative newspapers.

      It’s true, the point you make; apart from a few ideas about economy, Hitler and Stalin had a lot in common.

      Reply
      • Joseph S. Salemi

        If you read Hitler’s “Table Talk” (a transcript of his private conversations with associates during the war), you will see that he expresses great admiration for Stalin, especially for his utter ruthlessness in dealing with opposition.

  9. Adam Wasem

    I’m glad you got these poems out. Part of the difficulty for many, I believe, in formulating a response to recent political events, is that the homosexual agenda has been advanced so forcibly and so quickly, and in concert with such an impenetrable wall of justifying propaganda, that those with objections have been left in a state of astonished disbelief. As the saying goes “a lie can travel around the world before the truth can gets its trousers on in the morning,” but your poems at least have arrived fully girded for battle.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you Adam! I agree with everything you say on the matter, but I think a bigger part is that this lie fits in with deeper lies the Western world has been believing for a long time. How can they oppose same-sex “marriage” when they already believe that 1) marriage is about the legalization of a romance instead of the procreation and education of children (see my poem “Elegy for the Child Never Conceived,” published here 7/26/22), and 2) a woman can step into a man’s role as provider? How can they oppose transgenderism when they believe that desire is inherently self-justifying? How can they oppose abortion when they accept contraception, which devalues children and treats them as adversaries of parents just as much? The list goes on, and each of those more basic errors is the natural conclusion of an error that came before it. This is why I believe that our system is inherently flawed and has been for hundreds of years.

      There are some truly eye-opening books on the subject: The Case Against the Modern World by Daniel Schwindt, Progress Debunked by Samuel Thomsen, The Reactionary Mind by Michael Warren Davis, Surviving Off Off-Grid by Michael Bunker, and more.

      Reply
  10. Satyananda Sarangi

    Dear Mr. Joshua, greetings!

    Hard-hitting poems on modern-day hypocrisy often confused as the liberated ideology.
    These lines are to be repeated again and again to bring back to life the dead values. Only poetry can do that!

    Thanks for writing this. Best wishes.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you Satyananda! You’re right, poetry can accomplish these things like nothing else. It was through the arts that modern culture (if you can call it a culture) took over, and we need the arts to undo their influence. Poetry speaks its message in a much shorter time than books, movies, etc.

      Reply
  11. James Sale

    I like both these poems very much: there is a crisp, concise and muscular feel to them – what wants to be expressed is expressed. And particularly, I like the lines: ‘Exporting devils every day,/ That’s the mission of the West.’ Sadly, how true. As an aside for Joe Salemi: I am glad you mentioned the gutsy actor, Laurence Fox, whom I loved in the Morse ‘Lewis’ series (which I have the complete set of!) and who so bravely called out the Woke brigade and their hypocrisies. Whether he can actually make any progress as a politician in the UK is a moot question, but at least he is trying, and for that earns my respect.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Thank you, James! I like your description of them as “crisp, concise and muscular,” and I’m glad you like those two lines.

      Reply
  13. Abdullah

    peace be upon you and everyone else. i am a muslim and your poem is very beautiful. it made me sad reading it but not in a bad way. i feel like morals are dead. i will share this poem on facebook. i am from palestine and i know you guys in the west don’t like us. but i still love this poem.

    Reply
    • Joshua C. Frank

      Hi Abdullah, I’m just now seeing this comment. Thank you for the Christmas present, and for sharing these poems on Facebook!

      Not everyone in the West hates Palestine. There are many who sympathize with your side. For myself, I admire that both Palestinians and Israelis have kept their religious faith more than people in the West have. You have more reason to dislike us than we have to dislike you; Ayatollah Khomeini’s nickname “The Great Satan” for the West and America in particular is extremely well-deserved.

      I’m surprised to hear you say that morals are dead where you live, too. I guess I shouldn’t be.

      Reply
      • Abdullah

        morals are not dead where we are but rather in general.
        thank you for your response

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