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Train of Progress
| Open Poetry #42 |
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Train of Progress |
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WindWalker Senior Member
since 2001-10-12
Posts 1218 |
By spilled blood oiled; by captive dreams driven; by stacks of green pulp fed, the mad train of progress, carrying its privileged passengers at warp speed to nowhere, charges madly along its finite ochre track laid down by worker-slaves moonlighting. A rumbling shakes the earth; black smoke belches in the evening sky; a mournful whistle blows: for all must see, all must hear the passage of that awful train of progress... A patient earth has endured many long years since the tracks were first laid and the train set in motion to encircle the planet in a vise-like grip: but lo! Where have they gone, those hallowed times of progress? Only a skeleton crew remains in desperation seeking to keep the mad machine rolling. Many passengers have had to dis-embark as their stacks of green pulp became ashes; the flow of innocent blood is fast drying up, and many a captive has broken free of the baleful hypnotic eye. Denied its lies, its blood, its green pulp the train is slowing down as a refreshing wind blows gently over the earth's healing wounds sowing peace and harmony in its wake but sitting sadly on a rusting track the morbid still bemoan the passing of that killer train of progress! |
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| © Copyright 2008 Sharran WindWalker - All Rights Reserved | |||
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Marchmadness Member Rara Avis
since 2007-09-16
Posts 9271So. El Monte, California |
Love it, WindWalker. I often wonder how long the patient earth can or will endure. Ida |
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Sunshine
Administrator
Member Empyrean
since 1999-06-25
Posts 63354Listening to every heart |
the mad train of progress, ~*~ How often so many of us have tried to catch the illusive... but in this, you give the clear idea of the fact that we all, do, indeed try... at one time or another. You have my permission to disembark if only for a moment, and have a cuppa tea with me.  |
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secondhanddreampoet Member Ascendant
since 2006-11-07
Posts 6394a 'Universalist' ! |
This 'write' is so fine (and so true) I would have to post a copy of it in full to 'hi-lite' everything of vast and timely significance that it contains. Even prior to the American Civil War H.D. Thoreau warned (with the railroad as his symbol of the great nemesis) about equating change with 'progress' [change is, of course, frequently just change (and often not for the better) and in absolutely no way, 'progress!'] That basal equation change=progress (along with others like time=money; etc.) has fostered the corporate 'mediocracy,' that I call the "Runaway American Dream," which we are now trapped in. Furthermore, G. Orwell had the right idea, but the wrong protagonist... 'Big Brother' is not really the 'government' (contemporary politicians and media figures tend to be only the stooges)...the true 'evil empire' is the megalithic international corporate octopi that have managed to re-define absolutely everything in purely economic terms and created the new 'electronic' (info. processing) and 'service' industry 'sweatshops' (to replace the manufacturing versions of said from past centuries) to exploit the masses. The British Empire raped the land and peoples of Scotland, Whales and so many other places to 'fuel' their lust for power and expansion...all of Gaia is now the victim of the contemporary corporate empires' business interests and that eternal cry of change='progress!' [their greatest 'tool' ever for furthering their selfish purposes is the internet (not just the standard/older forms of mass media)] unending applause (mega 'poetic standing ovation' for this 'penning!') [This message has been edited by secondhanddreampoet (03-25-2008 07:53 PM).] |
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Honeybunch Member Rara Avis
since 2001-12-29
Posts 7115South Africa |
You have written the sad truth here, WW, but a little hope too. Let's all hope the earth has more strength and stamina than I do. Well done as usual. |
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2islander2 Member Ascendant
since 2008-03-12
Posts 6825by the sea |
hi windwalker, there would be so much to say about progress, i enjoyed your poem and its metaphors... yann |
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