REFLECTING THE WORLD

by Richard Schnap

When he learned that
To lose was to
Be spit upon
He wore a Superman outfit

And when he discovered that
Hate was becoming
More fashionable than love
He wore a swastika armband

And when he found that
The future was looking
More like the past
He wore a watch that ran backwards

And when he saw that
To be different was
The worst of all
He wore a mask made of mirrors

Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter, and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

LOADED QUESTIONS

by Richard Schnap

Presidential Poster by Edward Steed, The New Yorker, March 3, 2016

When did America
Grow so full of hate
It embraced a cold
Bloodthirsty man?

And when did the purchase
Of guns grow as common
As buying a card
For a sweetheart?

And when did it start
To despise anyone
Whose face didn’t
Mirror its own?

The answer is that
It was only sleeping
In a coffin we
Foolishly thought sealed


Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

REAWAKENED

by Richard Schnap




I hear the sound
Of drums approaching
Beating a rhythm
From the distant past

Down a ghostly road
That’s been reopened
To slither beneath
A bloodstained dawn

And in the wind
Come a thousand voices
Cheering the arrival
Of a man I’ve met before

Speaking a language
Of fashionable hatred
Designed to enshrine him
In the temple he’s rebuilt


Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally, and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

BITTER HARVEST

by Richard Schnap

I have seen
The candles of grief
Flickering in
The night

And I have heard
The mournful cries
Echoing in
The wind

And I have known
How it feels to learn
Life doesn’t come
For free

It carries a price
That the faceless one
Will someday collect
From you


Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

THROWING STONES

by Richard Schnap

Source: Davos 15 - Agenda - World Economic Forum

Humanity seems stuck
In a time tunnel taking it
To its cold-blooded roots

When nations were slaughtered
For daring to practice
Their own chosen faith

As men built empires
On the bodies of those
Too weak to withstand them

Till the point was reached
When might was measured
By the number of dead


Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

NEW DARK AGE

by Richard Schnap

A crowd in Selma, Alabama before the historic March 1965 march. Photograph by STEVE SCHAPIRO, “The Long Road from Selma” in The New Yorker, 22-29 December 2014.

I hear the cry

Of a distant siren

Wondering if it will bring

A mother to tears

And I hear the words

Of a holy man’s sermon

Instructing small children

On the best ways to kill

And I hear the testimony

Of a fat politician

Saying that those tortured

Got what they deserved

And I hear the ticks

Of a madman’s clock

Moving with precision

Backwards in time

Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

PRICELESS

by Richard Schnap

James Foley on The Early Show, 2011. Image source: CBS Boston

What is the value of a heart

That dares to dodge bullets and bombs?

And what is the value of a spirit

Who exposes the horrors of the world?

And what is the value of a soul

Whose fate is determined by monsters?

Who offer his freedom for millions

But sell him for an ocean of tears.

Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

BREAKING NEWS

by Richard Schnap

Image source: AOL

I watch rockets burn

Across a desert sky

As a murder of crows

Cries upon the wind

And men in masks

Execute their enemies

As a pair of dogs

Howl as they pass

And children cling

To their parents corpses

As a kitten calls

For its mother to come

And wonder if man

Is the mirror of nature

Or if it’s really

The other way around

Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

WIND CHILL

by Richard Schnap

Image source: The Hoopla

It was just about the time
I noticed the number of beggars
On the sidewalks of my neighborhood
Seemed to double overnight

It was just about the time
That the local cable TV station
Began to show hardcore porn films
More explicit than ever before

It was just about the time
I started to hear the rumors
Of people I once befriended
Dying from heroin overdoses

That whenever I passed a church
I thought about going inside
And sit in a back row pew
To pray for the fate of the world


Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.

INHERIT THE EARTH

by Richard Schnap

Barcelona homeless. Image source: Nae's Nest

 
“How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure but it is news when the stock market loses two points?” -- Pope Francis, November 26, 2013



There’s the one who appears only on weekends
To stand near the crowd at popular restaurants
Asking passersby if they can spare a quarter

And the one who disappears for years at a time
To return outside the local supermarket
Pleading for change for something to eat

And the one who sits on a corner sidewalk
With a cardboard sign and a Styrofoam cup
Wrapped in a blanket as she falls asleep

And no matter what changes befall the world
There will always be those caught in its shadows
Whose voices are lost in its bitter winds


Richard Schnap is a poet, songwriter and collagist living in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His poems have most recently appeared locally, nationally and overseas in a variety of print and online publications.