I will not mention names
What good would that do
Anyway
What is done is done
Children
So many
If I could write down
Their names
In memoriam
Their names would fill
The pages
Of a giant encyclopedia
The one country so brutally
Attacked
Has the right to defend
Itself
Yet
When does defense become
Attack
Desist desist
Allow those who are
Left
On either side
Live in peace
Yes yes
Let those left
Live in peace
Editor’s note: The 1968 United States elections were held on November 5, and elected members of the 91st United States Congress. The election took place during the Vietnam War, in the same year as the Tet Offensive, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, and the protests of 1968. The Republican Party won control of the presidency. … Republican former Vice President Richard Nixon defeated Democratic incumbent Vice President Hubert Humphrey. [Source: Wikipedia https://bit.ly/3pUyAOO] The following poem was written amidst the frustration, anger, and fear that permeated American hearts and homes.
Who will give warning this time
Is there anyone who will take the hot coals
Into the hands and throw them into the winds
And let the hot ashes fall onto the ground
There isn’t any corn to feed the children now
Only stubble of stalks and hard dry skeletons of silk
If you put your ear to the ground
You will hear the far off rumble of voices
Once there was a time we could hear the corn grow
Now it is the rumble of voices that gathers the harvest
Now the rumble of discontent grows into black clouds
That pour the hailstones into our outstretched hands
That melt into nothing
There is no one to give warning
No one to listen
The rumble we hear from the earth
Has grown into a roar and spreads like lava
Over the ground
And soon the ashes from Watts and Chicago and Harlem
The hunger of children and the tears of Vietnam
Are swept away
And all that is left is the wound into which
We all will bleed
*From Poets are the bravest, pub. date: 2001 Photo credit: https://bit.ly/3tQdBhg
*Editor’s note: Wendy has set war at the center of her poetry since the 1960s. Another war has begun, and nobody knows when or how it will end. These days, Wendy processes, and often transmutes, her feelings about war, about violence of all kinds, in prayer, even though her feelings are no less strong than they ever were when she was writing about war. She and I agreed that re-publishing older poems in this format serves her readers in that they can continue benefitting from her sensitivity, awareness, compassion, and prayers while she can continue working towards peace in what has become a more productive manner–via meditation and prayer. We hope that these republished poems offer some solace, feelings of connection, and motivation to work through these tough times in your own creative ways.
ALLEPO, SYRIA
Child of Aleppo
Caught in the earth
Caught in debris
Where a bomb
Fell
Hands digging frantically
To release you
As other hands
Gently
Brush dirt
Brush dust
From your face
To keep the miracle
Of your breath
Coming
While you lie still
Your eyes closed
No cry no whimper
Heard
And then
The cameras follow
You
To when you stand
Bathed
Wearing clean clothes
To show the world
This little girl from
Aleppo
Alive and beautiful
As beautiful a child
As ever seen
(February 2, 2014)
I cannot put my words
Together
It is as if they are trapped
Inside my brain
Words I need
To express my distress
Feelings of disbelief
And if I am truthful
Horror
At what is being allowed
In the unraveling of my country’s
Beingness
I cannot get the words out
Write them down
Will have to let other voices
Be heard
Other voices exclaim
The anger bewilderment
Outrage
Like silt building up
In the pristine waters
Of a mountain stream
I will listen
Follow where they lead
Trusting it be
Into the light of reason
Again
For now
My hibiscus blooms large scarlet discs
Under my window
For now
I watch crazy flights
Of a Phoebe bird
As it snaps up insects
On the wing
Am mesmerized
By these different sized evergreens
On a hill
Above the Camino Real
Swaying as one
In the wind
For now
Music laughter
Kind voices from anyone
Anywhere
Human and animal
Voices of my children
My True Love
Sounds from my own world
The only real word now
For me
Light from this day
Recedes
Into approaching dusk
I watch it clinging
Still
To green leaves of the
Crepe Myrtle
To scarlet blossoms
On the hibiscus
The far off hills
And as it darkens
Out my window
Inside my room
The bedside lamp is
Lit
Creating a different
Light
Mellow warmth
Caresses the walls
And a feeling of being
Cocooned shielded
From political storms
Settles in me
As I greet the coming
Night
In grateful Peace
… Listen listen
To the children
Those who are like flower buds
Opening as they are
Into their adulthood
Listen to them
You who close your minds
Your hearts
To give them safety
Safety through laws
That could prevent them
Ever having to witness
Death
In what was the cocoon
Of their school
It is time it is past
Time
To ban weapons built
Only to kill to destroy
Where does your intent
Lie
You who are labeled maker of
Laws
Do you use your powers
Of office
To bolster the existence of
Assault weapons
Or
Will you listen to the children
Will you listen
As you never listened to their elders
And act on what needs
Doing
Ban the assault guns
Ban them ban them
NOW
Beethoven composes his majestic Ninth Symphony
Mozart the sacred Requiem
Handel his powerful Messiah
Poverty is alive all around them
And children go hungry
Every age every millennium
Carries suffering
Gives birth to those who live
Impelled to help
Gives birth to those who choose
To turn away
Leaving their powers for change
Lost
Like a blade of sea grass
Pulled with the tide
Into the deepest depth
Of the ocean
Thus it is so
Why
Do you not see truly see
Faces of children
Caught in the middle of war
As they witness as they experience
Cruelty exploding around them
Their eyes wide with fear
Faces expressing bewilderment
Frozen in terror
Do you not feel truly feel
A silent war like an infection
Coursing through the blood stream
Of our country
For me guns are the virus
Gunshots into a crowded concert
At innocents in a store
A school yard a movie theater
To claim a religion an ideological
Ideal
It is war wherever guns are used
To kill to maim to terrify
I abhor them
Would outlaw guns
Completely
If only I could
I open wide
A special door
To a special room
In my heart
For children
I do not know
But whom I love
Children abused
Abandoned
Ones made to
Disappear
Children caught
In war
Innocents maimed
Innocents dying
Bless their souls
Oh bless them
They are like a field
Of flowers
Scattered in the wind
Some survive
To grow again
Others never return
Leaving their presence
Their beauty
To remain in my
Mind
Live in my heart
Never
To forget them
—2011
Lord
I too ask
Make me an Instrument of Your
Peace
I too would sow love
Where there is hatred
Anger
Where intolerance
Lurks
Where doubt keeps some
Awake
In night’s darkest
Hours
I would sow Faith
Where despair brings some
To their knees
I would sow Hope
Oh Lord
I will do my best
For those who are inconsolable
To lead them to You
To be consoled
To ask my spirit for understanding
So that I understand in depth
Their need for understanding
Above all
To love unconditionally
Al Your children everywhere
No exceptions
And not ask to be loved
Myself Amen