“South of Hebron” and “Two Sentences.”
Two Poems
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poetry
Poets for Peace
Split This Rock offers the following poems for your vigils, demonstrations, and actions.
First Poem
The first poem at a reading
Should always shock and awe
It should be a love poem
Of overwhelming force
Maybe the mother
Of all poems
War reduces everything
To silence
Every soldier’s grave a place
Too loud for sleep
E. Ethelbert Miller
From D.C. Poets Against the War (Argonne House Press, 2004). Used with permission.
Poem, ‘When I was Torn by War’
When I was torn by war I took a brush Immersed in death And drew a window On war’s wall I opened it Searching For something But I saw another war And a mother Weaving a shroud For the dead man Still in her womb Baghdad, 1990
Poems Against the Regime
Editor’s Note: These poems originally appeared on the website of the Association of Iranian American Writers.
Poem: “River, Page”
To Y. Thao Look how you’ve carried these small bodies across the ocean, looking for the next one to hear the story. Look how gently you laid these children down at the fire where stories are told. I hear it again: how the choppers lifted out of Saigon, cut away the desperate arms and fled, […]
Poem: “Three Gifts”
In Memory of Saeed One day my father called us and said: I have three gifts for you — A red heart, an hourglass, and… O God, I don’t remember the other one. Mehdy took the heart Opened its two halves And strummed the strings of its chambers. I took the hourglass And along its […]
Poem: ‘The Genesis of Torture’
In the beginning we will all wear black hoods
Veterans and Poetry
Dayl S. Wise was drafted into the US Army in 1969 and served in Vietnam and Cambodia in 1970 with the First Air Cavalry Division. After six months in country, he was wounded while on a reconnaissance team. Upon his discharge he studied engineering and worked as a draftsperson and design engineer for many years. Wise is a member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and Veterans for Peace, and recently returned to school to become a teacher. He has self-published two collections of poems by veterans,The Best of Post Traumatic Press 2000 and Post Traumatic Press 2007.
Poem: ‘Walking my Dog While at War’
For Molly
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ST. BERNARD PARISH, La., Sept. 7 (UPI) – Thirty-four bodies were found drowned in a nursing home where people did not evacuate. The more than half of the residents of St. Rita’s nursing home, 20 miles southeast from downtown New Orleans, died Aug. 29 when floodwaters from Hurricane Katrina reached the home’s roof.