“[I]n times of crisis it’s interesting that people don’t turn to the novel or say, ‘We should all go out to a movie,’ or ‘Ballet would help us.’ It’s always poetry. What we want to hear is a human voice speaking directly in our ear.”
Billy Collins, U.S. Poet Laureate (2001-2003) speaking to the New York Times, as quoted in The Dead Beat by Marilyn Johnson
this diary is dedicated to all who suffer because of war and other disasters
we honor courage in all its forms
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
april is national poetry month
image and poem below the fold
Iraqis look at the bodies of three dead police recruits found about four kilometers (2.5 miles) west of Ramadi,115 kilometers (70 miles) west of Baghdad, Iraq Sunday April 16, 2006. Police said notes left on the bodies said: ‘This is the punishment for new police recruits.’
(AP Photo)
from Transfiguration
by Mark Jarman
And there appeared to them Elijah and Moses and they were talking to Jesus.
Mark 9:2
7
I want to believe that he talked back to them, his radiant
companions,
And I want to believe he said too much was being asked
and too much promised.
I want to believe that that was why he shone in the eyes
of his friends,
The witnesses looking on, because he spoke for them,
because he loved them
And was embarrassed to learn how he and they were
going to suffer.
I want to believe he resisted at that moment, when he
appeared glorified,
Because he could not reconcile the contradictions
and suspected
That love had a finite span and was merely the comfort
of the lost.
I know he must have acceded to his duty, but I want
to believe
He was transfigured by resistance, as he listened,
and they talked.
– – –
put a meaningful magnet on your car or metal filing cabinet
read Ilona’s important new blog – PTSD Combat
view the pbs newshour silent honor roll (with thanks to jimstaro at booman.)
take a private moment to light one candle among many (with thanks to TXSharon)
support Veterans for Peace
support the Iraqi people
support the Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict (CIVIC)
support CARE
support the victims of torture
remember the fallen
support Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors – TAPS
support Gold Star Families for Peace
support the fallen
support the troops
support Iraq Veterans Against the War
support Military families Speak Out
support the troops and the Iraqi people
read This is what John Kerry did today, the diary by lawnorder that prompted this series
read Riverbend’s Bagdhad Burning
read Dahr Jamail’s Iraq Dispatches
read Today in Iraq
witness every day
