poems about power

Hone the Message

Quick bites,
Manageable chunks,
Empty platitudes
Satisfy cravings.
Minions inadvertently,
Eagerly doing the
Bidding for plutocrats.
Hone the message,
Muddy the waters,
Reap the rewards,
Funnel the spoils upward,
Perpetuate the cycle.


Get the Poetry Collection
Unconventional Being - Minimalist Poetry Book by Guy Farmer

Readers around the world have found pieces of themselves in these poems. Discover the collection.

Community Organizing

Carefully orchestrated,
Purposefully planned and
Coordinated derogation of
Community organizing.

Chuckling in their suites,
Shaking their heads,
How easy to instigate,
Perpetuate the movement.

Concerted effort
Masquerading as populism,
Passionate followers
Marching in unison.

Temporary Assistance

She rages at people
Who receive support
To feed their children,
Keep a roof over their heads,
Remain contributing members of society
Rather than scorned pariahs,
Cast off and left to perish.
She conveniently forgets the
Many times that some person
Helped her in a time of need,
A friend, a co-worker,
A family member, someone who
Believed that she just needed
A little temporary assistance.

Family Values

He confides,
With great earnestness,
To the crowd,
That he’s for family values,
And by that he means the
Old-fashioned,
Tried and true,
Time-tested morals of
Exemplars deeply
Steeped in hypocrisy and
Callousness, effortlessly
Trampling over anyone who
Doesn’t believe in their
Particular brand of
Tribal decree,
A narrowing of scope,
Collapsing heart.

Scarcity

Scarcity spreads its
Bony fingers across
The landscape, an
Ominous shadow obliterating
Kindness and hope.
People huddle in fear,
Staring at the cracks
Developing in the dam.
Even in the most opulent
Board rooms people talk
Worriedly about the
Coming deluge and continue
Stuffing the vaults with
Stolen gold, expecting
They’ll survive the
Cataclysm they created.

Operating Expenses

At one of
Many thousands of
Enormous stores,
Filled with cheap things
Fabricated by impoverished
Hands in parts of the
World out of sight and mind,
Lavishly benefiting one
Obscenely wealthy,
Compassionless family,
Whose snickering members
Give almost nothing
To charity thanks to a
Fiendishly clever
Tax-evading foundation,
Another employee’s
Already meager hours
Are cut to reduce
Operating expenses,
Though routinely
Expected to work overtime,
Off the clock,
Or be replaced.

Survival of the Fittest

It was done to me,
So I’m going to
Do it to others.
I didn’t have it easy,
I had to fight for
Everything I’ve got.
I pulled myself up
By the bootstraps,
I shouldn’t have to
Support anyone else,
They’re all lazy,
I’m hard working,
They don’t deserve
Success like I do.
Let them shrivel
On the vine if they
Can’t figure it out,
It’s survival of
The fittest.

Rationalization

Perhaps it’s the
Repetition of ideas,
Labeled as common sense,
Rehashed and regurgitated
Way too many times,
Losing their original sting,
The memory of stern faces
Telling them what to believe,
The inability to bounce back
From the continuous onslaught,
The required rationalization
Of reprehensible positions,
That leads them to conclude
And say out loud,
Without a second thought,
That some people merit
Unconditional derision,
Exclusion, punishment.