Thursday, November 16, 2023

Learned Anything

 


I agree with some poets

who say it’s difficult to

write poetry in difficult

times.

 

The effectiveness of the words

is infantile and helpless,

when global doings are

transpiring.

 

What great deed can be accomplished,

with the meager strings of

vowels and consonants,

so timidly conspiring in the dark?

 

Will trench poetry emerge as the

salve, soothing the injuries inflicted

by despots and territorial

pissings?

 

The afterthoughts of afterthoughts,

written in blood, smeared on hospital

walls, as warnings, as condemnations,

as epitaphs.

 

Flag waving and heavy footfalls of

militaries marching, through deserted

streets, the music of lost souls, echoing

through alleys and history.

 

Graveyards alive with flags for

the fallen, flapping in foul breezes,

with a few sad words hastily written

on tombstones.

 

The poetry of the now,

seems too weak to fight the onslaught

of the present, and it’s perhaps only in

memory, wherein peace resides.

 

The future, reflecting on our words,

will be the judge of history, so maybe,

the difficulty will be worth it, and what seemed

ineffective, will be remembered.

 

Although I’m not sure we’ve learned

anything yet.



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Photo:  https://clarkcrenshaw.photodeck.com/media/857a4301-751f-460d-96f5-cb0d47ad1a19-old-school-room-2 


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