I don't know Larry Kerschner, but he sent me three poems, I liked them, and here is the first:
lies wide open I heard Sam Hamill
say the title of his poem as
lies wide open
but when he spoke of
an olive skinned girl peering from a photograph
I thought maybe he said
it
lies wide open
like your sister after she has been raped
like my broken heart
like possibilities
like the road to destruction
like the way to peace
like music playing in the night
like the door to the mosque
like the soldier's abdomen
like an unfinished hard luck story
like a beloved community
or maybe he said
lies wide open
untruths all
like honeyed words dripping from the politician
like theological support for war
like comfortable liberals unwilling to rock the boat
like propaganda called news
like support the troops
like freedom and democracy
like the Amerikan dream
like the bottom line
or maybe he meant
eyes wide open
Here are the other two:
We destroyed 15,100 bridges in Vietnam
June 11, 1963
bodhisattva Thich Quang Duc
immolated himself
not in despair but in hope
of reaching in to heal our hearts
In the Buddhist tradition
a human being's chances of a good rebirth are hindered
unless the body is treated properly after death.
During the war
we killed two and a half million Vietnamese;
forty years later one quarter million bodies
are still missing in action.
Vietnam is now haunted
by these wandering souls.
We don't treat the living
any better than the dead.
150,000 Vietnam era GIs have
killed themselves in despair since the war.
150,000 Vietnam era GIs now
live in the streets.
These souls still wander in our land;
they have not come home.
Was the bridge
from destruction to healing
among the 15,100? Shahid
martyr
witness child of Ishmael son of the Prophet
daughter of Allah
the blood of your birth is barely dry
as the blood of this explosion enters your life.
Tigris the river splits your city from Hades
with fouled water.
You can no longer move your hands
which are in the next room
behind a dusty door in the sun.
Without legs you cannot run away.
Acheron the river of woe splits your life.
Seventy virgins in paradise are not
an adequate portion of mercy.
What public voice speaks in your defense?
Into what language can your poems to be translated?
Cocytus the river of lamentation cries out
the pain of your fractured bones and sensibilities;
the pain of fractured possibilities.
Lethe the river of forgetfulness asks
if your life has had no purpose.
There is no history found in your pockets.
There is no memory of the taste of your mother's milk.
Phlegethon the river of fire burns you
with my weapons of destruction.
I paid for the boots that walk
on the fallen roof over your head.
My Jehovah's Witness friends say that the world
is in the hands of Satan.
Will you argue with that?
Styx the river of hate waits for you
on the day your world ends.
May I please speak in the voice
you gave me?
blog: www.livejournal.com/~larrywrites/ NOTICE: George W. Bush has issued Executive Orders allowing the National Security Agency to read this message and all other e-mail you receive or send -- without warning, warrant, or notice. Bush has ordered this to be done without any legislative or judicial oversight. You have no protection and no recourse -- except to IMPEACH BUSH AND THE OTHER FEDERAL OFFICIALS who are involved in this illegal and unconstitutional activity.
Last update : 14-06-2007 18:39
|
(0 vote)