Dying Dreams; Shattered Hopes

Sometimes it makes more sense to say things with a poem … perhaps that is a symptom of something not being completely right, but at the same time, I can’t imagine relating to the world in any other way than through the manipulation of words to the point of the ridiculousness at times. That, it would seem, is the point: what more can be said to compare to the extremes spoken of by the great and wise wonders that are seemingly supposed to know what they are doing, and in so doing, are guiding our lives towards the “vision” that they have established as for what they believe the world should be like.

In a time of political turmoil, where an American President constantly defends the indefensible (with the tenacity of a pit bull having locked onto the tender ankle of a tiny child) by telling the electorate that “they shouldn’t think”, and other members of his cabinet still try to rescue the falsified intelligence that led them into the contrived, abominable excuse for a war, the rest of the world begins to respond.

Was anyone truly surprised when the President of Venezuela, a man who had never been known for his love of the American President, likened him to the devil? Of course not; the rhetoric is reminiscent of the language used by Iran during the Reagan era, when the president was regularly burned in effigy and “the Great Satan” was vilified to the nth degree, but did not President Chavez not have some cause for his outburst?

Did America, the bastion of democracy, stand up for the civilians of Lebanon while they were being murdered with bombs provided by the United States? Has America fought its “war on terrorism” with a realistic goal in mind, or are they merely fighting for the sake of fighting? Considering that more Americans have died since 9/11 in the war in Iraq – a war that has NOTHING to do with the terrorist attacks – the President is now responsible for sending thousands of innocent Americans to their deaths, all to fulfil his private agenda.

While this may not seem like an occasion for poetry, it seems like the only thing that makes sense at times. At the end of my poem is a video. Please take the time to watch this video. It is the work of a poet that I found at the following blog: A Poetic Justice. The name of the poet is Suheir Hammad. She is a Palestinian, and wow, does she have a message to be heard!


Dying Dreams; Shattered Hopes

Will you know by my words
the burden of my soul
the heaviness I feel
every time another falls
a child
whose name I do not know
their life
snuffed out before blooming
into the promise

a life destroyed
before hope could take root

the promise –
the promise that is the hope of so many
spoken of like a dream
with quiet reverence
even sung of by some
as the anthem
for a nation

this is a hope that lies
as empty shells on the side of the road
burned out houses unfit for human occupation
filled with families
with children … filthy with everything they
gather … the streets
their playgrounds and
corner stores
as they find the toys left by the latest conflicts

unexploded munitions
mistakenly taken into tiny hands
seeking with the curiosity that every child shares

another child declared a statistic

another piece of hope shattered

another mother devastated as she must do what
so many others have done what
no mother should ever do:
to bury a child that has committed no crime
cannot be reconciled through the
tears of a mother

a hope
invalid for so many
so many that have been made invalid
in their own land
judged unworthy
unworthy to share the dreams that others dream
unworthy to dare to hope the hope that
burns in the hearts of many

dreams to be a free nation
in a land of their own
without living in fear
without worrying every day …
will my children return from school
or will I bury them …
alongside their brothers
beside their sisters

Is this my Hope too?
to live free
to live in a free land
where every day the greatest hope –
the greatest hope of all
is that
no other
child
dies.

Ode lo avdah tikvatenu
Hatikvah bat shnot alpayim:
L'hiyot am chofshi b'artzenu
Eretz Palestine v'Yerushalayim

[Our Hope is not lost,
our Hope of two thousand years,
to be a free nation in our land,
in the land of Palestine and
Jerusalem.]

© 2006 by the CrazyComposer (aka Peter Amsel)

Suheir Hammad


(Update Sept. 24: Apologies to “A Poetic Justice”. I neglected to include the link to your site in the original post … that’s what happens when you write things while sleep deprived.)

Tags: Chavez, Hatikva, Hope, Israel, Palestine, Poetry, President Bush, Suheir Hammad, UN, United States, Venezuela