“[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 – today for those who tell the true stories
cross-posted at DailyKos, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, and My Left Wing.
april is national poetry month
image and poem below the fold
With her son, Jimmy, on her lap, Katherine Cathey, the widow of U.S. Marine James Cathey who was killed in Iraq, is consoled by Rocky Mountain News photographer Todd Heisler during a celebration to mark the paper’s win of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing and feature photography on Monday, April 17, 2006, in Denver. Heisler photographed the story of a contingent of U.S. Marines who notify the families of dead soldiers and keyed on Cathey along with News writer Jim Sheeler.
(AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
When 2nd Lt. Jim Cathey’s body arrived at the Reno Airport, Marines climbed into the cargo hold of the plane and draped the flag over his casket as passengers watched the family gather on the tarmac. During the arrival of another Marine’s casket last year at Denver International Airport, Major Steve Beck described the scene as one of the most powerful in the process: “See the people in the windows? They’ll sit right there in the plane, watching those Marines. You gotta wonder what’s going through their minds, knowing that they’re on the plane that brought him home,” he said. “They’re going to remember being on that plane for the rest of their lives. They’re going to remember bringing that Marine home. And they should.”
(Todd Heisler photo in a story by Jim Sheeler, for the Rocky Mountain News)
Wound
by Inge Pederson
Cold comes from every corner.
It’s snowing.
And from the train Europe looks like
a brittle romantic poem
in which the lakes close
their black moon-
lost eyes and trickling
roses can be lying on the ground
around a perfectly ordinary house
containing a perfectly ordinary family
and then suddenly seep out
like blood through
a snow-white bandage.
note: here’s the diary referencing Heisler and Sheeler’s work. Here’s one of their stories.
– – –
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
