Monday, September 11, 2017

9/11 + 16 Years, Why Remember? (A Rubaiyat)

Sixteen years ago today, the world changed for all of us.  +maricris cabrera and I invite you to join us in commemorating this day, not just by looking back, but also forward. How can we as world citizens find the path toward a peaceful and harmonious tomorrow?  Add your thoughts, poems, essay, art, music.

9-11 plus 16 years: Why Remember? (A Rubáiyát)

In sacred space I bow my head to pray
And promise that I’ll ne’er forget this day
The day that Hell came screaming with a flare
Once again, a world ignored, made us pay.

In solitude, my soul, stand in the square
Feel the presence of their faces as they stare
Into visages of fear and fate, this date
Not so long ago, and we’re told “Beware!”

High above my head those jets smashed glass plate
The Cup of Fools was lost, Death did berate
A Nation unprepared ‘til winds of change
Foolish pretensions did emasculate

Not wanting to be us? We thought that strange
But hating what we stood for? So deranged!
People in despair, thinking no one cares
Fall prey, demagogues spout violent rage

On what to meditate in moments spare
The take-away which wisdom will declare?
From this alone will come security
That flame of hope as all look to its flare

Our times call for mental dexterity
Cut through jargon with perspicacity 
Penetrate the surface with discernment 
Understand my brother with clarity

Take the constant struggle, no adjournment
Yet not against religion’s commitment,
But bigotry, hatred which fears diff’rence
Narrow minded dogma, labels instant

Hiding my brother’s face with persistence
Behind a cursed wall’s long insistence 
Let me be first to reach and break fear’s spell
Else hate, triumphant, reigns with consistence

Hail Brother, we have much we both do well
Let’s see each other eye to eye and dwell
On commonalities where we agree
Not in shadows where lines of difference fell

Cheapening of life in a violent spree
Is not godly in any faith to be
We must resist terror’s war so grown
Else our world die in flame without reprieve.

You try to change the world into your own
Warheads on foreheads more souls fall unknown
Islam is religion of peace betrayed
Disguised in symbols of noble cause, disowned.

Do you really love the world around you
You pray for peace with head bowed down, don't you?
Nations grieved as the flesh were torn apart
Tarnished sands where camels chew and oils brew.

Don't you realize their footprints are gone now
Blasted into smithereens I hate thou
Your number is few, don't let your children
Pay your wicked acts, teach love show them how.

Misguided, you're bringing war to the fore
Innocent dreams you charred, ash to the shore
Unfortunately, questions unanswered
Nemesis breathe 'til you exhale no more.



© 2017 Maricris Cabrera & David W Palmer

Saturday, September 9, 2017

I wish to invite all my friends to join with me on Monday, September 11 at 8:05 AM Eastern Daylight Time (UT +5) the moment the first jet slammed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center, 16 years ago. Our purpose is not to rehash old injuries, but to focus on which direction we may journey to promote harmony and understanding in a world to often ready to divide along lines of prejudice, judgmentalism, intolerance, and fear of those whose appearance, values, dress, religion, politics and interests differ from ours. I hope you will join me Monday, to add your comments to my post, "Which way forward to Understanding?


Sunday, August 6, 2017

Sadako's Cranes (InvertedHexaduad)

Sadako’s Cranes

Folding
Brightly colored paper
Origami cranes, and we fly
Away with them
From this world’s illusion
Power and pain
Just fall away
And soar into the sun
Of peace and joy
We invest hope our with you, child
Folding brightly colored
Paper

© 2017 david w palmer

Sadako Sasaki was only 2 the day the black rain fell over Hiroshima
Ten years later she would die from leukemia, complications of her
Exposure to that radiation. She was told if she folded 1000 origami
Cranes she could have one wish granted. She died after making 644 
Of them. Her classmates folded the thousand in her memory and they

Are buried with her. Her family kept her 644. This is her memorial in Hiroshima.

Paper Lanterns -- Inverted Hexaduad

Paper Lanterns (Inverted Hexaduad)

Victims
We always remember
Paper Lanterns floating on glass
Seas forever
Always away from me
Plunge after you
And draw you back 
To my safe shores I would
But free spirits
Belong to God, never to me
We always remember
Heroes

© 2017 david w palmer
In memory of the victims of the Atomic Bomb detonation

Over Hiroshima, Japan, August 6, 1945, 8:15 AM

Monday, July 31, 2017

Headdesk (Fibonacci Sequence)

Headdesk

In
My
Moments,
Clarity
Encounters me like
A brick wall, immovable -- these
People are not going to change, nor see reason today
If I can see what needs to be done, then do it. Headdesk banging just bruises my brain.

© 20l7 david w palmer

Sunday, July 30, 2017

Lenity (a Free Verse Quatrain)

Lenity (free verse quatrain)

Not the thunderous pontifications of dictators,
Nor the terror visited upon our cities too often,
Nor advanced weapons systems and missile tests
That move our world and effect lasting change.

Not the weight of monetary gain, nor one percent wealth,
Nor the intelligence behind presidential think tanks
Nor the noisemakers, talking heads, or media celebrities
That shake our world’s convictions nor advance our condition

These are but distractions in a purposeless existence
Jesters in the marketplace of ideas vying for our purchase
Blaring, glaring, daring voices convinced of their own importance
And they will be but yesterday’s news come the rising of next sun.

Not the famous, nor historical, not the man who would be king
It’s the quiet voice of lenity, the gentle voice almost drowned out
That makes us face ourselves and stop and think. It’s the saints
We know on local shores whose moral suasion gravitates the tides.

The movers and shakers who shape the things to come are not
They who bully, legislate, sermonize, philosophize unceasingly.
Look for the gentle man with the heavenly dove at rest on his hands,
The roaring lamb whose life exemplifies the better self we all could be.

© 2017 david w palmer
30-July, 2017
Auburn, Washington, USA



Saturday, July 29, 2017

Cerealogy (A Gwawdodyn - Tongue in Cheek)

Cereology (A Gwawdodyn – tongue in cheek)

Visitors from the Great Beyond?
Or bored frustrated artists bound
For Des Moines, not the stars above?
“Earn coin, Plow it, they will come ‘round.”

Prepare to be invaded, Love
Martian hostiles seek warmth, will shove
Human Earthlings into exile
Living in homes we’re deprived of

They’ve been appearing for awhile
Such sophisticated style
I wonder what they’re here for, though
Ponder their journey, million miles.

Wonder what message they disclose
Why do we live here in repose?
Please, Miranda, not this facound
“On Andromeda, Eat at Joe’s.”

© 2017 david w palmer

“Des Moines,” Capitol city of the State of Iowa, USA (French, means “Of the monks”)
“Facound” from the French and Middle English, meaning eloquent speech. I am being sarcastic here.