At dVerse Sarah is hosting Poetics with an invitation to share a poem that has called to us, affected us in some way, positively or otherwise, and to write a poem in response. dVerse Poets – Poetics – A Conversation
Photo: Ben Kerckx, pixabay.com
I have chosen Wilfred Owen’s poem ‘Anthem For Doomed Youth’ and riffed on that a little. I despise war and I see it as a failure of humanity to sit down together. Wilfred Owen fought in the British army in WW1 and died at the age of 25 in 1918 one week before war’s end. For a detailed biography see The Wilfred Owen Association
Anthem For Doomed Youth by Wilfred Owen
What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?
- only monstrous anger of the guns.
Only the stuttering rifles' rapid rattle
Can patter out their hasty orisons.
No mockeries now for them; no prayers nor bells;
Nor any voice of mourning save the choirs, -
The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells;
And bugles calling for them from sad shires.
What candles may be held to speed them all?
Not in the hands of boys, but in their eyes
Shall shine the holy glimmers of goodbyes.
The pallor of girls' brows shall be their pall;
Their flowers the tenderness of patient minds,
And each slow dusk a drawing-down of blinds.
“Men make war to get attention. All killing is an expression of self-hate.” Alice Walker
I have chosen the line: “Coming, going, the waterbirds don’t leave a trace.” Dogen who lived in Kyoto in 13th century Japan, and who became a Buddhist monk who was also a writer, poet, philosopher and the founder of Soto Zen.
Photo: Bunbury wetlands, two black swans passing by.
“The lack of mystery in our modern life is our downfall and our poverty.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
An Adventus
Dappled ripples processed the roughed vestibule of my heart,
an adventitious solace arising in its perpetuated simplicity,
I traced a map in the parchment of my mind of
all the comings and goings of sentient beings,
an adventus, unsurprisingly surprising, my breath was
captured by the wind of time and carried along for a span and,
knowing that, coming, going, the waterbirds don't leave a trace,
these quiet feathered gods, ever mercurial, are messengers of hope.
Photo: Luke Stephenson, ABC News – Australian PM Scott Morrison interrupts Senator Anne Ruston who was asked about the culture of misogyny in the Australian Parliament, therefore ironically proving the point. The PM has long been questioned about his attitude to women. The question was set against the background of a public outing of government ministers who have had relationships (affairs) with their staffers (therefore a power relationship).
“Misogyny is hostility toward the women who threaten to remove the male status as superior to women.” Jill A. Stoddard
Inspirational stories and motivational quotes about Life In Africa how people struggle just to survive and how hard it is to make a living.Here we are teaching people skills and crafts business ideas and survival tactics in third world countries
Escritor y Director de cine. Llevo 14 años escribiendo narrativa en este blog. Si pueden firmen y compartan change.org/gualicho Además de Seré Nada, encontrarán en este blog mis novelas Intransparente, Suerte al zombi, El nombre del pueblo, mis poemas y el libro de cuentos Los tendederos. Gracias por leerme.
Inspirational stories and motivational quotes about Life In Africa how people struggle just to survive and how hard it is to make a living.Here we are teaching people skills and crafts business ideas and survival tactics in third world countries
