lost somewhere
between tie dye and polyester
dropped smack
dabbed in the middle of disco strobes
and longing
while veterans
of foreign
wars-labeled-conflicts
wandered the country
in shades of psychosis
we grew like mushrooms
to tunes of shoveled manure
and quenched lights of
those taught to
sell organics for
synthetic profit
creativity stolen
strewn between boom and x
we rested
in feigned sleep
of drug induced stupors
until the porcelain
could hold no more prayers
now we wake to chaos and
freedom's an imaginary friend
we traded for safety
purchased from beneath the fertilizer
of post nine eleven rhetoric
still longing
but silenced in a sandwich
of do-no-wrong-politicians
or big oil
enough stuff of meaningless nothing
our houses are void of vagrants
but our hearts echo empty
and the jones
will no longer be silenced
like diluted hallucinogens
not worth the paper they bled on
we have slept
quietly between the giants
far too long
in beds of
socially-appropriate-buys-you-happiness
so with money to mouth
the causes that slipped through our toes
are now at hand
in shouts of
stand-for-something.
Author notes
Generation Jones. Stuck between the boomers and the exers and representing about 1 out of 4 of the adult population. Talkin 'bout my generation 
Written May 15th, 2006
In a list
A contest entry
- Your Best Beatnik Poetry! by glistwolven.
450 points, ended May 4, 2007, 4 entries
Silver trophy winner
• next poem in this contest, remove from contest
What did you think
Comments
1 - 11 of 11
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Yeah!
Another great beat write. This one slams soundly and the odd phrase caught me ..."synthetic profit' awesome imagery in that phrase that said paragraph if not more using only two words. " "strewn between boom and x"
great internal aliteration as well as definitively describing a point of time in an excellent and unique way!
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Wonderful poem! I feel a tad guilty because I think I would understand this a little better if I was older (I'm 16). I could, however, appreciate much of the poem. Very interesting word choices, it really made me think. The title alone drew me in, and the poem held my interest from the first line to the last. I especially love these lines:
so with money to mouth
the causes that slipped through our toes
are now at hand
in shouts of
stand-for-something.
You are a very talented poet, keep writing! Thanks for entering! -
Wowzah. This is so awesome! I'm kind of a sucker for beat poetry because it's so close to slam poetry. I wish I knew everything about this poem. I totally understand the situation, the events, ect. but I wasn't exactly born yet, so I haven't LIVED it. You know? bwahahaha. It's early for me.
-Chase -
A very cliché, yet honest "wow!"
Wow! That was truly excellent! A very educated poem. I love the way you don't quite say all the things you say, and make the reader put them together. People who have read no history will be a bit lost, but fuck them. I don't even know which part of this is my favorite, because the whole thing is a gem. I never wonder why you're one of my favorite AP poets.
Best,
Morgan -
Lol, well in all honesty, I had always considerred myself at the late end of the baby boomers, which technically I was, but recently while researching something entirely different I ran across the term Generation Jones and blip the other research went in the storage box as I realized that I was looking at the real dynamics of the period of time I grew up and came of age, so to speak.
I have a feeling that it will become longer eventually. I am just not sure how yet Sometimes larger pieces happen in sections that suddenly fit together nicely. Lol, the only thing in the world that I actually have enough patience to wait on is the written word 
Thanks for taking the time to read and comment. Lets me know I may be onto something that has been brewing for a while in my head
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The only thing I didn't like about this piece was it was too short. Damn you for speaking on a subject in a small breath.
No, haven't read a piece like this in awhile, I hardly write pieces like this anymore - mainly 'cause it isn't my generation but still, I write them sometimes better than those who are of that generation
A great piece that you have written here but it could have been longer, I feel.
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Lol, you know, your contest has me considerring ways to make it into a rhyme as well. Sometimes it is quite enjoyable to take a freeverse and turn it into a rhyming poem and visa versa. Different versions of a previous write in different formats sometimes make for very interesting variations in perspective.
Thanks for the comment and for taking the time to read it.
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Ugly. Not the poem, but the world. People are so stupid, eh? Well, I like your choice of words. They are very blunt and work well with your topic I think.
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Thanks for the comment Broad I am glad that it has a multilayered message, as that was intended. Generation Jones is a classification of many of us born toward the late end of the Baby Boomers. We are often referred to as Late Boomers. We were the kids who were old enough to be aware of the causes of the 60's, but not old enough to take part in them. Most of us were between 11 and 14 when we watched college students gunned down at Kent State while protesting Viet Nam. We watched the Civil Rights movement and Woodstock, etc on black and white televisions. We were old enough to get a grasp of the Watergate Scandal, but too young to vote. By the time we came of age, the flower children and protesters and folk musicians had been cast to the side in lieu of disco, sex, drugs, rock and roll and we hit a huge wall of dissillusionment as we tried to stand for causes many of our predecessors had grown bored with.
The name Jones has a multilayered meaning as well. The representation of Generation Jones is sort of like Generation Doe or Smith. Invisible, unknown, unnoticed, forgotten. The word jones is also a synonym for longing or craving, that meaning being popular in the 60's drug culture.
We were just sort of lost between the idealism of the original Baby Boomers and the cynicism that was attributed to Generation X.
Well, blahdeeblahdeeblahdeeblah. Am I long winded, or what?
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Well done.
This is an insightful look into a generations thinking and it shows how different generations do exist on their own. I like the way you travel though the thoughts of the years and represent your thoughts in vivid free verse. The way you break your lines up is effective, and your use of only the needed words makes it more effective. -
I have no idea who this Jones is but reading this one can see the child of the '60's who has now sold their soul to conformity and living in surburbia brainwashed into what is socially required and accepted. A thought provoking write, well done, Broad
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