Iraq War Grief Daily Witness (photo) Day 298

“[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

A woman holds her head and cries after viewing the scene of a car bomb attack in Baghdad April 24, 2006. (Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters)

An Iraqi man collapses against a wall in grief after learning that a friend was killed by a car bomb explosion at Mustasiriya University Monday April 24, 2006 at a hospital in Baghdad, Iraq. Seven car bombs exploded in the capital Monday, killing at least six people and wounding dozens, as politicians met to try to finalize a new Cabinet, and Police discovered bodies of 17 Iraqis _ apparent victims of sectarian killings that the U.S. hopes the new government can end. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

An Iraqi man weeps while carrying a coffin during a funeral for some of the 8 Iraqi men apparently killed in captivity and reportedly found with signs of having been tortured in Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday April 23, 2006. Violence in the capital and other Iraqi cities continues as Prime Minister designate Jawad al-Maliki begins the difficult task of forming a new government. (AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

Iraqi children weep beside the coffin (not seen) of a Shiite man abducted several days ago. Violence across Iraq has killed 14 people, including seven people in a rocket attack on the country’s defense ministry and three US soldiers in a roadside bombing.(AFP/Wissam Al-Okaili)

An Iraqi man holds the head of another man wounded in a bomb blast as he is treated by doctors Saturday April 22, 2006 in Muqdadiyah, about 90 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, Iraq. Suspected insurgents set off two bombs in a public market in northern Iraq on Saturday, the second one timed to hit emergency crews arriving at the scene. The blasts killed at least two Iraqis and wounded 17, police said.(AP Photo/Mohammed Adnan)