, my new blog exploring racism and sexism.
jack@jacksoffel.com
Welcome to my poetry blog. I am a writer working in the Bay Area, California. Some of the themes I write about include Love, Nature, divinity and sexuality, dreams and the subconscious, the afterlife, and worlds beyond our sensory perceptions. Within these pages are my writings; short poems; and my epic poem, The Book of Love.
September, 8, 2019:
the new Hitler
has got us down
inside we scream
outside we frown
people die
as he spews hate
American nightmare
not America great
March, 3, 2018:
Lake Merritt
In Oakland at the lake, the black water,
In night's deep maw, at gray waterfowl's caw,
The blackness of the lake like eyes' blackness
Transports beyond to possibility.
A building's lights gleam in reflection.
A shadow bird like hawk or albatross
Flies into dark and makes her cat-like cry.
Lake's conifers atower on the shore
Cast blacker shape upon the water's sheen,
So glassy-plastic-like and glossy clean,
The black triangles sacred in the depths,
The blackness sacred, water of deep space,
Connected to the wheeling stars above.
Lake Merritt, Oakland, is a power spot.
December, 19, 2016:
More Political Shit
I was thinking my last post was, in part, inflammatory, and overly melodramatic. I supposed for awhile that the phrase "blood in the streets," (a cliché, poor writing [usually]) was perhaps too negative, and I considered for a moment that perhaps even I should "give the new administration a chance" (the thought literally makes me gag, triggering my vomit reflex. Literally. I'm not the only one. It's hard to give anything that makes you physically sick to your stomach a chance. And if it makes you physically sick to your stomach, you probably shouldn't give it a chance), but no. I don't give vitriolic hate, greed, dishonesty, sexual assault, and Nazi sympathy a chance. Ever. It goes against my ethics. And then it occurred to me that blood is already running in the streets. The Southern Poverty Law Center received or documented 1,094 hate crime incidents from across the country between November 9 and December 12, 2016, with a spike in hate crimes occurring within the first few days after the 2016 Presidential election (you can see a detailed breakdown of the statistics here). Blood is running in the streets. Blood has run and dried and been washed away in the rain. People have been attacked, and people have been murdered (Like Will Sims in El Sobrante, California on November 12th), and the President-elect chooses not to say anything against these crimes, chooses not to say anything about them at all. It is the role of the president to speak out against hate crimes and all violent crimes that happen in the country, especially when there is a swell in such crimes. The President-elect could have said things or tweeted things to persuade people to be peaceful, but he didn't. He doesn't. He won't do that. So yes, he's already responsible for more violence and death. This approaching administration, if admitted to office, I certainly believe will cause more violence, since they choose to turn a blind eye to hate crimes spurred by the election. The policies they are proposing will hurt people (and cause deaths) too. For instance, if abortion is criminalized, as they propose, then many women and girls will hurt or kill themselves trying to give themselves self-administered abortions. This is only one example. The Vice-President-elect and the President-elect are a couple of bad apples, and they're filling their cabinet with rotten eggs. We will put up resistance and our resistance will be strong. We will be a wall. But all the while these men will be hurting our country.
Jack Soffel
12/19/16
November, 16, 2016:
Statement
I am still sick, wracked with pain, disgust, nausea, fear, uncertainty. I am not alone. Over and over I am finding people having extreme physical reactions to this election. I want to scream in the faces of the people who voted for this president-elect. I believe they have unleashed a flood of horror to come upon our country. This is not about the Democrats losing to the Republicans. That doesn't mean shit. It's about bringing a virtual Nazi into the highest position of power in the world, someone who is stirring up and reviving Nazi ideals. We are living in the most dangerous time I've ever experienced in this country in my life.
I am going to Washington DC on January 20th to rise up and stand against this shit. I will shout "No! Do not inaugurate this man!" I will rise with the majority of our country to oppose this. This is the time to stand against. Let me be clear about this. This is no regular Republican win. I cannot sit back and twiddle my thumbs and say, "Oh well, we gotta just accept it and wait out the next four years and see what happens." No. This is too extreme. A fascist America is too abysmally disgusting and dehumanizing to stand for. If we passively accept it we are lost and we are dead.
Protesting this turn of events has suddenly become my mission in life. It's not what I wanted to be doing, it's not what I expected to be doing, but now it is what I have to do. I am going to protest hard every chance I get, every day. This must end. We must not let fascism rule here. If we do, mark my words, our country will be torn to shreds and blood will flow in the streets. I hope I'm wrong. I pray I'm wrong. I pray. I really do. I want nothing more than to be wrong. We are all sick, and white supremacists prepare for their influx into our government. A severe surveillance state is forming, perhaps a civil war is being planned. Pure misinformation will be pumped through our computers and our phones. It is already beginning. Here is a nightmare future I imagine: A beefed up "president's police force," perhaps the S.S., and willing soldiers in rural areas attack the people. They go after anyone whose skin is darker than white, anyone Queer or "weird," anyone "out of the ordinary," academics and intellectuals, Black people, Muslim people, and Jewish people. They use high-powered weapons. Decimation comes easily. Much violence is perpetrated against women and girls. Many die, and the United States becomes a wasteland. Perhaps nuclear weapons are used against us too. Again, I fervently hope and pray that such an evil scenario does not come to pass, but already, since the election, racists are feeling more entitled and emboldened to harass and attack minorities, and sexist men are feeling more entitled and emboldened to harass and attack women. I can't help fearing the worst. I believe we need to act now. We must organize and stay active and protest. I am committed to protesting in whatever way I can.
Also, I'm starting to speak up about race in our society, about racism, white racist conditioning and white privilege. I've been thinking about writing about this stuff for a long long time, for most of my life, but I have been mostly silent. I don't know what I'm doing. I have all these thoughts and ideas, but I'm always afraid I'll get it wrong. Unlike the current president-elect, I try very hard to be politically correct. I want to be as politically correct as possible. I love political correctness. Political correctness simply means having good manners and being respectful of people from cultures other than your own. I'm afraid I'll say something wrong, that I'll say something that will be offensive. Well, I probably will get it wrong sometimes, but I can't remain silent any longer. Black Lives Matter. And it's time for white people to stand up for the injustices and murders that have been wreaked upon the Black community in this country since its inception. The sad thing is, it's always been time for us to stand up, and we have failed. And now it may be too late. But that won't stop me. I'm sorry I waited so long, but I am standing up now. I urge all white people to stand up for Black America. You know that police violence against communities of color is real and that it's been going on for as long as you've been alive. Longer. Stand up and speak out against it now.
Jack Soffel
11/16/16
October, 15, 2016:
It makes me sick to think about Donald Trump assaulting women. It literally makes me sick to my stomach. In Donald Trump, you have someone who degrades women verbally and someone who commits sexual violence upon women physically. And that is NOT OK! It is not OK to grope women without affirmative consent! I feel ashamed of being a man right now. I walk down a deserted street at night and pass a lone woman walking towards me. As we pass, I think she looks nervous. I imagine that she views me with fear and suspicion, that she's worried I'll try to assault her. And she should be worried. All women should be wary of all men right now. By continuing to legitimize Donald Trump, we are telling the world's men and boys that it's alright to disrespect and hurt women. That is wrong, and it makes me sick.
August 17, 2016:
The Book of Love is Coming
The Book of Love is coming
The Book of Love is coming
The smell of coffee's in the air
The Book of Love is coming
At the café I spill the drink,
Black liquid on the table
Besoaking my writ journals of Love,
The poetry eternal
The Book of Love is coming
The Book of Love is coming
In summer splay of sunlight on the leaves
Of bright green foliage,
In summer of creation,
Summer of loving lust,
The Book of Love is coming
The Book of Love is coming
The Book of Love is coming
The Book of Love is coming
The Book of Love is coming
The Book of Love is coming
June 2, 2016:
Meditations on Trump
Herr Trump would build a wall around our country.
He'd round 'em up, more convicts, slavery,
To build the biggest wall, to pen us in,
If this man would the presidency win.
Herr Trump would turn our country to a pit
In which he and the motherfuckers would shit.
He'd round folks up on pretenses aslant,
You'd see the forming concentration camps.
He wants to make the world white and dead
And sleep in a slave-built Trump Tower bed.
He would rape the Earth more viciously
Than Adolf Hitler and Mussolini.
America, you're sick, open your eyes!
This man is simply here to terrorize!
You'd see despots' ideals reform and see
The death of American liberty
At the hands of a tyrant bent on greed
Who says or does anything to succeed.
How will you feel when you get called to die
Because with Trump you don't see eye to eye?
How will you feel when you are made a slave?
Will you wish your cast ballot you could save?
May 9, 2015:
Sun Soil Sonit
soft coffee grounds wane dry in coiled cup
fish fountain flows in pond beneath the sun
we gather small dead leaves of brown earth flake
press hands around the flower bed's wet dirt
we trim dead stalks of fern and comfrey leaf
dig up dead roots and smooth the earthen pot
dig in to work on wasting succulent
thing thorny triangle of meaty green
with spikes and leaves in stars many dead leaves
rot tear apart dead ones and compost slime
crop roots replant fresh stars but death awaits
rake leaves and stoop bear cat shit to the bin
pull weeds from gravel feel you in the fringe
of psychic vapor streaked beyond the sun
April 22, 2015:
This Long Long Life Be but a Moment Passed
This long long life be but a moment passed--
A solid dream of sunlight and stubbed toes
That in our youth seems clay for grandiose
Firm plans of fame and fortune that will last
A long life through. We think not of the cast
Away marred body at the end that goes
To dust when heart and clock finally slows,
But as we scheme and work, death will come fast.
I know because my soul mate came to me,
And in deep love we thrived and started growing
When death behind our backs with pluck infernal
Dragged my sweetheart through pain into the sea
Of consciousness beyond the brain's going
And form's incineration unreturnal.
---------------------------------------------------
I Peer Into the Farthest Reach of Space
I peer into the farthest reach of space,
Cross oceans, deserts, galaxies, and voids,
Past rock debris of blasted asteroids,
Seeking connection with the slightest trace
Of you who passed from this material place
To realms where squares stretch into trapezoids,
Vast worlds that the cultured mind avoids,
Obsessed with science's old display case.
And there you are, an angel swift and rapt,
With shining scepter swooping to my soul,
My queen of hearts alive and fully strapped
For loving ingress and watchful patrol,
My goddess with me eternally wrapped
In love's embrace within our rabbit hole.
November 24, 2013:
Green Rings
leaves of green sprout from dirt
long limbs of stream
lush sex plants broad and flat
pierce with hard knobs
gloss green elements and atoms
recline on a sea of green cups
the tails of kingdom
bright and fairy-eyed
make love in the garden
on purest waves of meditation
green crowns ring our infinite arms
necks
breasts
a thin rope of ecstasy
silken wrap and head leaves
glossy
come across our head
while knotty gnomes tromp
in dark circles
chop up dirt with wooden staffs
chipmunk chews brown dead time
air wafts across wrinkles
weras thin dust shrouds into knitty particles
mulch and join with dirt knees into death
October 6, 2013:
My Goddess of Love
my goddess of love
lies close by my side
a part of my flesh
she gives me tender kisses
i kiss her sexy mouth
i kiss her adorable apple cheeks
her soft smooth neck
i can't get enough
of her beautiful love
my goddess of love
has flown to the realm
on a faerie ship
to the isle of love
where she lives in her house
of magic and dream
with cats
she's a cat
lazing on cushions of fur
she loves and licks
beyond coils of time
my goddess of love
soars in sunlight
she kisses me with love
with star light
in this dream of life
hearts sprout from her hands
red apples of love
soar through the realm
into earthly fields
the meat of love
is dripping all around us
my goddess of love
kisses my heart
that screams with sorrow
and clenches with fear
give up your illusions
says my goddess of love
love is all around
we turn coal into diamonds
we are windows and rainbows
New addition! The very beginning of my epic poem, The Book of Love. Click below to read.
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All content on this page Copyright © 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013 by John J. Soffel