Poetic trilogy: "The Patriot Rose," and "Red Badge of Courage," and "Distant Echoes."


The Patriot Rose
by Gary Jacobson © 2003

O come smell the patriot rose
Adorned in sweetest calm’s perfumed repose
Touched by ambrosial breath of peaceful prose
Inspiring heavenly scented songs poets compose
Biding sparkling liberty, from vibrant colors arose
Aromatic air rife with patriot’s freedoms chose
Indeed, the heavenly choir sings joyous tribulations
Sonorous rhythms exaltations
Honoring this proud rose
That worldly thorns, tares and thistles overthrows.


O come smell the patriot rose
Inspiring bravery in men to an evil tyrant depose
Now when the battle’s all around us won
Big guns stilled...every one
Bombing runs stopped, their duty done
Time now for peaceful accord
Time for rights of the people in brotherhood restored.
So long may she proudly stand
Her vibrance inspiring this patriotic band.


O come smell the patriot rose
From a beauteous land that inspired heroes
Who self-rule, self-reliance, self-determination’s propose
O come rise from hiding in bunkered burrows
Breathe in the sacred purpose in glory delight
The patriot rose instilling in all mankind, blessed right.
Yet deadly skirmishing continues with enmity’s still
Velvet night winds with vile hatred fill...


O come smell the patriot rose
That evil’s maniacal machinations oppose
Ripped from the hand the tyrant too long concealed
Patriotism benevolent, this ancient and holy land restored
Its sacred heart set free, like the dove loosed
From he who like the coward he is vamoosed.
Torn from he who to his people thumbed his nose
By a people who pompously grandiose affectations expose
By shock and awe administered retribution in megadose
So no more will his poisoned tongue wag verbose.

O blessed be the saintly patriot rose
Breathe in beautified ambiance where no longer sorrow grows
Who offers peace, arrayed with might, in glorified hues
Majestically arrayed in red, white and blues
Do not this blessed moment lose
For too long you’ve paid a despots sacrificial dues
From democracy,freedom or dictatorship, pick and choose
By patriotism, precepts of liberty sanctified will now unloose.


Harmony Of Souls Showcase Poem
Harmony Of Souls Showcase Poem

Marines at Mutter Ridge Marines at Mutter Ridge


Marine with incoming shelling, Con Thien Marines at Chu Lai '65 Marines at Hue '68

Red Badge of Courage
by Gary Jacobson © 2003
The Red Badge of Courage
Beguiles young’ns seeking glory’s prestige
Ambitious youth seeking from the midst of carnage
Immediate nobility
A heroes notability
Forged from a coward a hero be...
Bravery wrought his destiny.

Bearing passions with bravado to “lick ‘em all,”
Tightrope walking the lip of battles fall
Charging all by yourself, proud and tall
Earn Preeminence
Proud prestige through battlefield prominence
Fight through gloried illustriousness.

Win a warriors reputation of storied distinction
Facing up to blood an destruction
Unafraid and without deviation
To righteously serve for what’s right
With a warrior’s appetite
To fight the good fight.

Youth’s battle cry’s a sword, a bullet
His combat badge of courage an amulet
Given to fight the enemy with passion
With a Spartan’s ration
Regular gamecocks
Wily as the fox.

Charge
Into the valley
Into the shadow
Into the mouth of guns
Lost every sense but your hate.
For guts and love and glory irate
For country, mom and apple pie
Pray to the Lord and hope not to die
But if you should die in the battle’s wake
Pray the Lord your soul to take.

Welcome soldiers gone to touch the great death
Tempting the master of lies evil breath
Glory mired in the blood and the mud
Honor and duty now but to survive
And watch the backs of the brotherhood
Stay alive...
And hope that it’s enough.

But do they not bleed
This youthful seed
The Red Badge of Courage need
Youthful fodder for its cannons
To fill the void between ranks
Someone to guard the flanks...

Now dreaming of home
Trying not to think of what you’ve become
When the night turns to soft and eternal peace
God’s of war to somehow appease
Your girl, your mom and dad...
Who knew it would be so bad.

Glory, glory, Hallelujah
Rah-rah, oompah-pah
Capture their flag
Watch out for that biting frag...
Hold it aloft for all to see
Divine the victory...

You’ve earned your Red Badge of Courage
Forever wear over your soul its bandage
Won what some call a “Move too slow award”
Fit to join the ranks on high...
Proved to all you’re not a coward...
And up there somebody’s smilin’
Who said he’d never smile again...

Marines at Khe Sahn Lunch time for Quang Tri Marines
Distant Echoes
by Gary Jacobson © 2003
Distant echoes come wafting over far hills and plain
Rushing, hurtling, rising on prevailing winds
Peace sounding with hollow, bitter pain
Crowned everlasting free from death climactic sends.

Young men too oft ride war swells rising crescendo
Swim in tempestuous tides of life never ending
Enraptured by past allures of glories empty echo
Earning now a lost promise young lives rending.

Brave men hear the congregation crying the lost echo
Yet mortal mouths cannot from their heart still its cries
Falling to earth like proverbial walls of Jericho
Death promoted by the master of lies.

War exists as nature’s contrast to suckling her young
Hatreds nourished by evil’s foul breath narcotic.
Babelled lashing’s heard of the devil’s tongue
Rhetoric fueling dueling guns to a foetal life bombastic.

Remember to your dying day your call to arms
So young, so innocent, so naive, so foolishly brave
Going gung-ho into a cacophony of harms
Discordant freedom’s of the world to save.

Mortal differences intolerant war depraves
Hatreds fomenting, floating, on stagnant air solemn still
Blitzing thunder ushering mankind back to his caves
To hear ringing, singing, anxieties primal shrill.

Funerary sounds echo mournfully somber
Ancient survivals still clash in a warrior’s ear heard
War’s lustful eye pondering, always remember
Time...brothers lost lingering, in killings absurd.

Now older, grayer, still...back humping that hill
Distant echoes still beat in hearts of men
Ofttimes when the day dawns hot and still
Still back there fighting in the heart of Vietnam.

Traverse again the devil’s portal
Scalps tingle, fearing men coming to kill
Wax again on fateful war’s coincidental
Dread accompanied by demon dregs of ill will.

O bang the drums slowly
Honor the boy with that thousand yard stare.
Bear his solemn message to soldiers living restlessly
A soldier’s life-blood boils, forever back there.



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