Poëzie
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Bob Potter
Arlington West, Santa Barbara
October, 2007
Exactly three thousand white crosses
Symmetrically fixed in rows of forty-eight
Aligned at attention across a sandy beach
Vastly understate the reality.
Fleeting symbols of a Sunday afternoon,
Garnished with California seagulls, and a soft breeze
Coaxing tiny sailboats from the yacht harbor,
They shine in the sunlight, astonishing the tourists.
Passersby from LA and the Valley, gawking New Yorkers,
Aussies and Londoners, Dutchmen and Turks,
Gabblers in Farsi, Japanese, Hindi
And all varieties of Spanish pause to contemplate
The irresistible photo opportunity of Death.
As the digital cameras whiz, zip and flash,
Catching the poignant sight, disposing of its brief shock,
Children wonder if there are bodies in the sand,
Then, reassured and disappointed, are led off for an ice cream.
If there were three thousand deaths here
Instead of these chaste memorial place markers,
Three thousand rotted blood-soaked dismembered corpses
Of former American boys and girls from the small towns and barrios,
The squandered assets of bemedaled Generals
Riddled with bullets, blown to pieces, mouths agape
Strewn chaotically, catastrophically across an invasion beach
Of reality, crashed in our midst in a terrible tsunami
Flooding the beaches and the streets, dashed
Across our suburban lawns, stinking up the schoolyards,
Polluting the supermarkets, poisoning the churches,
Assaulting our ears, offending our nostrils, raping our eyes
With an obscene actuality not seen on TV —
This atrocity dutifully unleashed on our orders — well then,
Something would have to be done about it.
But as it is, the crosses and the grizzled veterans
Who tend them like a flowered garden of regret
Are the matter of a brief moment
For onlookers with other destinations,
And the ignorant carnage grinds on,
Eleven time zones away, receding
Into the forgetful future of a careless empire.
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Jessica Ahern
Paul Revere Middle School
Los Angeles
Can a century-old tradition start anew?
Will the tiny candy hearts be replaced?
A day when children will share, a
Nation will come together,
All on Cupids special day?
Instead of chocolate, would people
Give money to charity instead?
Restaurants, movies, and flower shops
Would have an all-time low, because
Everyone would skip work to help out
The homeless
A day when the president would order
12,000 meals to be given to the less-
Fortunate
A day when no tears would be shed, just
The ones of pure joy
A time where everyone would care about each
Other.
To forgive, all in harmony.
A day where someone else is a top
Priority.
A universal peace day
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Mary Kennedy Eastham
Remember an old love with fondness
not regret.
Pray for World Peace.
Send yourself flowers.
Give all but one to people who matter.
Kiss a child's tears away.
Smooth over love's jagged edges
in a relationship you've been meaning to mend.
Slow down.
Thank someone for being kind to you.
Wake up smiling.
Hold that smile close to your lips all day.
Bury a prejudice.
Kiss someone you love
a long, slow kiss, deep and promising
Like it's the first time.
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David Whyte
One day I will
say
the gift I once had has been taken.
The place I have made for myself
belongs to another.
The words I have sung
are being sung by the ones
I would want.
Then I will be ready
for that voice
and the still silence in which it arrives.
And if my faith is good
then we’ll meet again
on the road
and we’ll be thirsty,
and stop
and laugh
and drink together again
from the deep well of things as they are.
-- David Whyte
from Where Many Rivers Meet
©1990 Many Rivers Press
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Nomi
This one carnation honors those killed in action one year ago today.
February 14, 2007
Army Pfc. Branden C. Cummings, 20, of Titusville, Fla.; assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood,
Texas; died Feb. 14 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device exploded
near his vehicle during combat operations.
Army Spc. Ronnie G. Madore Jr., 34, of San Diego; assigned to the 1st Battalion,
12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died
Feb. 14 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his
vehicle. Also killed were Sgt. John D. Rode and Sgt. Carl L. Seigart.
Army Sgt. John D. Rode, 24, of Pineville, N.C.; assigned to the 1st Battalion, 12th
Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas; died Feb. 14
in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated near his vehicle.
Also killed were Spc. Ronnie G. Madore Jr. and Sgt. Carl L. Seigart.
Army Sgt. Carl L. Seigart, 32, San Luis Obispo, Calif.; assigned to the 1st
Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood,
Texas; died Feb. 14 in Baqubah, Iraq, when an improvised explosive device detonated
near his vehicle. Also killed were Spc. Ronnie G. Madore Jr. and Sgt. John D. Rode.
Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel T. Morris, 19, of Crimora, Va.; assigned to 2nd Battalion,
3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Kaneohe
Bay, Hawaii; died Feb. 14 while conducting combat operations in Anbar province,
Iraq.
Army Sgt. First Class Allen Mosteiro, 42, of Fort Worth, Texas; assigned to the 1st
Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division, Fort Hood, Texas;
died Feb. 14 in Baghdad of wounds sustained when his unit came in contact with the
enemy using small-arms fire during combat operations Feb. 13 in Taji, Iraq. ***
I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier.
I brought him up to be my pride and joy.
Who dares to place a musket on his shoulder,
To shoot some other Mother's darling boy?
Let nations arbitrate their future troubles,
It's time to lay the sword and gun away,
There'd be no war today,
If mothers all would say:
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