Ron at the Twice Told Coffeehouse

I WILL NOT BOW DOWN
http://www.rahul.net/jag/volume2/number1/
iwillnotbowdown.html

I will not bow down America
To your government, to your religion.
I will not bow down America
to your materialism,
to your international corporations,
to your religious shrines,
your stock markets,
your shopping malls.
I will not bown down America
to your coal mines,
to your power plants.
I will not go crawling down the deep shafts at midnight.
I will not bow down America
to your invasion of privacy,
to your moral absolutes, your religious, political might.
I will not bow down America,
to your assassins,
the CIA, the FBI, the corporate police state,
your killing, murdering machines.
I will not bow down America,
to your bureaucracies,
to yhour schools,
to your attempt to make me the model citizen
of your state, of your church,
I will not bow down America,
to your history of lies, to your secrets in the best interest of, to protect the people.
America, I pledge allegiance
to those who were here before you,
to those who will be here after you are gone.
America, I pledge allegiance
to the holy spirit,
to the word and to silence,
I pledge allegiance to dreams,
to birth, to the journey and to death.
I pledge allegiance to candour,
to sincerity, to laughter,
to irony, to passion,
to compassion,
to empathy and to helping those in need.
I pledge allegiance to resurrection of the heart.

No America, I will not bow down.

Ron Whitehead is a poet, writer, independent scholar, editor, publisher, activist for world peace and for healing the earth. He has edited over 250 titles and published over 150. He has produced over 300 readings, concerts, festivals, and INSOMNIACATHONs across the USA and Europe. He has presented over 600 readings of his own work round the world.

Ron Whitehead founded the New Literary Renaissance. He is one of the most prolific and respected poets in America and the world.

http://www.litkicks.com/BeatPages/page.jsp?what=RonWhitehead

"Ron Whitehead! Nice to meet you, man!"
"Jack Shea! Nice to meet you...finally"

Ron, Daughter Rani & Granddaughter

"Well she's the real thing obviously, she's Kerouac's daughter. But she was a ghost, a spirit, lost on America's highways."

One of many bios of Ron
http://www.hozomeen.org/hozomeen/
notbowdown/whitehead.html