*A website of social, political, and spiritual concern,
…casting hell out of human-unkind
*H. Zinn--"To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness… And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory."
*"pity this busy monster, manunkind, not."—e.e. cummings
Poems judging tragic news and poems heralding good news
Gazing on Gaza
Like Samuel, Vonnegut gets called up from the grave
to say--
Judge for yourself,
No one’s got eyes
To see, no one with a Kingly, Martin sort of vision/dream;
Only strident martinets
Now heaving/hurling—ethically sick,
While UN diplomats ‘jawbone’ us to death
With nice resolutions; Samsonlite…
Where has their gaze gone?
(I mean gaza)
Samson’s at it again
Bringing the building down
Because he’s lost his gaze or gaza;
Only covered women (and children)
Walking wounded,
Or buried, burned, abandoned
Like the 4 youths (3 versus 1), and a few thousand,
Got cornered
Boxed and shipped,
Or cowering, smoking from past rockets
In Tel Aviv or Gaza City
No Delilah here;
Just Philistines rage on and Samson’s might holds
And many less hairs or heirs
Till Sheol…
Judges 15-16
First pub. in Contemporary American Voices
by Daniel Wilcox
--
Walls
“American didn’t bring democracy. It brought walls.” Yousif al-Timimi in National Geographic July 2011
There’s something in man, uh human
‘That loves a wall’…
Jerusalem
China
Istanbul
Hadrian
Mellah
Venice
Pale
Richmond…well,
An upside-down
Walled trench;
Speaking of
‘Somme’
Others…
Warsaw
Berlin
Panmunjom
Ben Hai…a river wall,
Selma
BelfastKashmir
Baghdad
Gaza
Yuma…ah finally a rime,
Alleppo,
El Pas--
‘Add’ nauseam
And
Two kinds of mortars
Bricks ‘unmortified’
Mortgaging tomorrow for yesterday;
Good ‘fencing’, uh yes, 'know'…
First pub. in The New Verse News
in different form
by Daniel Wilcox
--
Monks Brawl in Holy Sepulcher
Riot police enter the pewed rows
In Jerusalem, the city of pieces
On earth
Where faiths forever conflict;
Armenians and Greeks monk it out,
Separate those reversed for love
Filled with uncyclical violence;
Splinters of the cross nail So and So again,
No keys to Heaven to open the door,
But plenty of blessed brawling,
'Holey' vestments,
Vermin, and invested vice
So universal.
First pub. in The New Verse News
by Daniel Wilcox
*"pity this busy monster, manunkind, not."—e.e. cummings
Poems judging tragic news and poems heralding good news
Gazing on Gaza
Like Samuel, Vonnegut gets called up from the grave
to say--
Judge for yourself,
No one’s got eyes
To see, no one with a Kingly, Martin sort of vision/dream;
Only strident martinets
Now heaving/hurling—ethically sick,
While UN diplomats ‘jawbone’ us to death
With nice resolutions; Samsonlite…
Where has their gaze gone?
(I mean gaza)
Samson’s at it again
Bringing the building down
Because he’s lost his gaze or gaza;
Only covered women (and children)
Walking wounded,
Or buried, burned, abandoned
Like the 4 youths (3 versus 1), and a few thousand,
Got cornered
Boxed and shipped,
Or cowering, smoking from past rockets
In Tel Aviv or Gaza City
No Delilah here;
Just Philistines rage on and Samson’s might holds
And many less hairs or heirs
Till Sheol…
Judges 15-16
First pub. in Contemporary American Voices
by Daniel Wilcox
--
Walls
“American didn’t bring democracy. It brought walls.” Yousif al-Timimi in National Geographic July 2011
There’s something in man, uh human
‘That loves a wall’…
Jerusalem
China
Istanbul
Hadrian
Mellah
Venice
Pale
Richmond…well,
An upside-down
Walled trench;
Speaking of
‘Somme’
Others…
Warsaw
Berlin
Panmunjom
Ben Hai…a river wall,
Selma
BelfastKashmir
Baghdad
Gaza
Yuma…ah finally a rime,
Alleppo,
El Pas--
‘Add’ nauseam
And
Two kinds of mortars
Bricks ‘unmortified’
Mortgaging tomorrow for yesterday;
Good ‘fencing’, uh yes, 'know'…
First pub. in The New Verse News
in different form
by Daniel Wilcox
--
Monks Brawl in Holy Sepulcher
Riot police enter the pewed rows
In Jerusalem, the city of pieces
On earth
Where faiths forever conflict;
Armenians and Greeks monk it out,
Separate those reversed for love
Filled with uncyclical violence;
Splinters of the cross nail So and So again,
No keys to Heaven to open the door,
But plenty of blessed brawling,
'Holey' vestments,
Vermin, and invested vice
So universal.
First pub. in The New Verse News
by Daniel Wilcox