Sleep Baby Sleep
Dali
Blue
If
from the far side of the globe
surrounded by home and family
in a sweet, wood frame South Austin house
I catch the hysteria of a half million
Lebanese people, a million Palestinians in Gaza,
abject poverty, the half million Israelis,
in safe rooms and shelters --
how must it feel to be there, to have your
life, family, homeland, community
pulverized by the giant?
I do not wish to be the giant,
or support it.
Is there something worth this horror?
It can't possibly be peace --
because civil order, community,
the humanness that holds us
together cannot exist
in a logic of destruction--
want/get/take/bomb/terrify.
A half million Lebanese civilians
homeless – no food, water --
Collective punishment never lands
on the guilty ones, is random
absurd, obscene.
And I cannot pretend
I don't see what is happening.
And seeing witness reality
shift to a deep raging blue,
a relentless-no-exit-blue.
Our blue planet is cracked.
Shall we try for a clean break?
Around the Ring of Fire? Along
the faul line that runs thru the Cradle
of Civilization.
Could we deny that too?
The tsunami a few days ago,
the one that killed 500 people so far,
and the volcanic eruption hours later –
they didn’t happen.
Sleep, baby, sleep.
©Susan Bright
Susan Bright is the author of nineteen books of poetry. She is the editor of Plain View Press which since 1975 has published one-hundred-and-fifty books. Her work as a poet, publisher, activist and educator has taken her all over the United States and abroad. Her most recent book, The Layers of Our Seeing, is a collection of poetry, photographs and essays about peace done in collaboration with photographer Alan Pogue and Middle Eastern journalist, Muna Hamzeh.
Note: Possibly we should all go to Middle East school.
Here is a fascinating analysis of the Israeli/Hezbollah/Hamas situation by Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar that you will not see in the MSM. It is long, but worth the time, lays out a credible history, examines implications for the region, and places a flash point for the attack on Lebanon on the election of a Hamas led government in Palestine, a democratically elected government, by the way, which Israel and the US attempted (but failed) to unseat, so far.
The coup attempt that started a war: Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, its causes and consequences
Posted: 20-07-2006 , 12:39 GMT, By Dr. Abbas Bakhtiar
posted by SB @ 10:10 AM
7 Comments:
Abbas Bakhtiar presents a compelling senario for the start of WWIII. Is it time to blow the tunnel and block the canyon road?
El Gringo
Do you know about the CODEPINK retreat in Austin????
Pass it on, it will be fabulous!!!
jodie
--
Join our Troops Home FAST, www.troopshomefast.org
check out our summer retreat in Texas at the Crossings www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?
CODEPINK is a women initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement that
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www.codepinkalert.org
Gringo, there are a few of us still outside the compound. Hold up on lighting the punk.
If I'm not mistaken all three of these "nationalities" have common DNA. It's hard for me to sort the victims from the perps since it is an endless conflict that has gone on as far back as I can remember. I saw a t-shirt once that proclaimed, Kill them all, let God sort them out. It seems to me apropo of the present tri-partite conflict without end--that America has paid into while our own countless-but-uncounted citizens die of conditions arising from homelessness. Could they be victims of a war-of-neglect here at home?
It's hard for me to accept nation-speak when it is individuals who are affected. I think the Mid-Eastern conflict in reality is more like crime than some justifiable crusade style war for some bizaare nationalized rightousness.
FM
Thanks for sharing this. It reminds me of my difficulty with what to do when all these hard things are happening in the world and our responsibility.
Interesting FM... maybe we should think of all warfare as crime?
I went back today 8/16 to check on comments and found these which I hadn't seen before. This is the sort of dialogue that earthfamilyalpha should generage.
My own best peace experiences have come from gatherings of women and children, families.
I like to think of a world council, the smell of bread baking, a circle of tables for adults, children playing within the circle, games, toys. Decisions binding.
Thanks everyone!
SB
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