(About a 3 minute read)
The internet has made it now
Bound to happen
Tomorrow or the year after.
Bound to happen.
Maybe.
Up to you.
The politicians and the preachers,
The two dogs of the capitalist class,
Will once again want a war,
Just as they always do.
War to them is a gift, you see,
It’s not personal, it’s not their blood.
But war makes some folks rich
And you will never change that,
You will never change that,
Though the dogs will bark it’s not so.
A war of aggression
Against some people somewhere,
Most likely brown,
Most likely poor,
Most likely weak,
Most likely no real threat.
War for the sake of the banks
And for the merchants of death.
War for the sake of the pulpit,
And for the corridors of power.
But not a war for the sake
Of you and of me. We don’t count.
Our side is the one side
That has never counted.
Never.
That’s how war goes, it’s always been so
And it’s bound to happen again,
Soon happen again.
This is your world,
How it really is —
The world you think,
The world you were taught,
The gods want you to live in and love
Them more than you love each other.
In your world are great nations:
Nations the greatest in history,
Nations with the power of suns,
A thousands suns,
To do good, make truths come true
For even the poor man, the poor woman,
The poor child. Make truths come true.
But these nations,
Nations great and greatest,
Act only like whores,
Filthy whores,
Fucking folks raw,
Spreading their diseases,
Recruiting new girls,
Ever younger girls
To fuck you, to fuck all of you,
To fuck everyone.
This is your world
Your world without end.
But now someday you see
Someday now for once it will happen
For once it will stop
Stop the day they give a war
And you
You rise up, join hands
By the millions, possibly billions,
Linked together by the net
And by love, and by common sense.
At last,
At last you will rise, singing
“At last my spirit shall have water!
At last my cries shall be heard!
At last my thirst shall be slaked!”
Yes, you will rise up and you will say
In a voice thunderous and magnified
By the whole world joining in,
Say, “Those people are our friends,
We chat with them by day and by night.
We know their hopes, we know their dreams,
We know their troubles, we know their fears.
We know them, we know their names.
“Jane and Matthias. Terese and Sindhuja.
Mark, Parikhitdutta, and Min.
We even marry them now and then —
They shall not this time be murdered.
“You will not touch them,
Our brothers, our friends;
This once the bombs won’t fall.
This once the bombs won’t fall.
You politicians and preachers,
You capitalists and bankers all —
This once the bombs won’t fall.”
Yet you know it will ever be a dream
Just a dream, just a mere dream.
It will ever be a dream
If you, if we, keep on dividing,
Never uniting, never joining,
But instead just staying, just keeping,
To my echo chamber or to yours.
So let’s come together
Let’s come together,
Let’s come together.
So let’s come together
Before the nukes fall,
Before the demons fall.
Before we die in the winter,
And we come together
Never once come together at all.
Please seriously consider spreading this poem — spreading it to your site, to the social media sites — in an effort to make it go viral. We need it viral well before the next war, we need folks mulling over the idea of rebelling against the violence. Spread this poem and then you too write — write about the ideas presented in the poem. For you, for your brothers and for your sisters, for your children after you — stop the wars of aggression!
Please Note: Matthias has responded by dedicating his poem, Pooling Strength, to this cause.
Bruce has reposted the poem on “The Life and Times of Bruce Genencser“.
Kat has responded by posting this article: I Don’t Know Anything About War.
beautifully written………
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Thank you, Wendi. That means a lot to me.
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you are very welcome
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May I beg you to think about sharing and/or reposting the poem, Wendi? It you don’t that’s fine — You should feel no obligation to do so, but if you decide to do so, that would be great too.
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I LOVED this, Paul! One of my favorite genres of poetry is anti-war poems and to see something like it written today is exhilarating. I was wondering- did you just mention WordPress bloggers in the middle of your poem? Hahaha 😀
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Sure did! I had to force myself not to mention everyone too! But it would have ruined the poem for sure. Thank you so much for your kind words. I hope you’ll seriously consider reposting the poem and/or sharing it on social media.
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I must add — you should feel no obligation to repost, Soundarya. Absolutely none. There must be no compulsion about this.
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You’re fun, aren’t you Paul?
Hahaha 😀
I will definitely share it on social media!
I don’t do reposts, err sorry!
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Thanks so much! No reposts necessary!
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There’s a saying that a pen is mightier than a sword. I truly agree. May your words reach many readers.
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I think the pen is mightier too! Please consider reposting, Winnie — but under no circumstances should you or anyone else feel any obligation to repost. That would be terrible if anyone did.
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A very passionate piece of writing. I’m all for anti-war anything.
This part was especially powerful:
“But not a war for the sake
Of you and of me. We don’t count.
Our side is the one side
That has never counted.
Never.”
That part makes it all very personal. Wars are fought between those in power (whether they are big countries or big “men”) and rarely have anything to do with the average individual. And yet it is the average individual who suffers. It’s not fair. It never has been.
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I so agree with you about that, Sindhuja! To me, among the greatest evils of war is the fact that the common people bear most of the burden of them. In fact, I have read that it has been over a 100 years now since the last time a war killed more combatants than it killed non-combatants!
By the way, I do not wish you to at all feel any obligation to post about any of this on your blog, but please do if you can see value in it.
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I certainly see value in your post, Paul. I have some ideas for a war-related post; once I find time to type it out, I will definitely link it back to you.
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That will be excellent! Who knows where this could go?
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Thank you for this! I wrote something as a response because you inspired me with your beautifully written and very powerful words.
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Thank you for standing in solidarity with Kat, Matthias, Bruce, and me. Now we are five.
Your poem was raw, powerful, and explosive.
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Shit, Paul, I’m sorry it took me so long to get here. I have to go to bed soon, but I’m reblogging this, or maybe copying and pasting. I’m pretty tied up the next couple of days, but I’ll do a follow-up when I can.
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Thank you Jane, I’m looking forward to your follow-up!
Sharing is caring, this phrase whas beaten to death, but hey
we all need a revival, from time to time!
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I’m looking forward to my follow-up, too. Hopefully I’ll find time this evening – though I have my doubts; the doorbell has just rung…
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There is no need to rush. Nobody is going anywhere, except our writing that wil hopefully span the globe someday!
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Wouldn’t that be amazing!
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Here is my take written 13 years ago … time for me to write another
https://arousedblog.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/w-o-e
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Yay Kate! Our cause is timeless, isn’t it? Now we are eight.
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good … another coming hopefully within the week!
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A great poem Paul, a great cause, I’m up and going.
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Outstanding! Welcome aboard, Ivor! Thanks for standing in solidarity!
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I’m honoured to be here. Thank you for your initiative, and stirring the possum
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Love that phrase, “Stirring the possum”
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Thank you for writing this and sharing it, Paul.
I read it on Ivor’s site and left a a comment…
but, I had to stop by here to thank you.
(((HUGS))),
Carolyn
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Thank you so much, Carolyn! That’s touching of you.
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Enjoyed this Paul, thank you, thoughtful and provocative
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Thanks so much!
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Thanks for helping wake people up to the realities of war, and promote peace Paul. Peace is one of my main focuses. I don’t know if I will join this challenge, but here is one of my favorite posts about peace that you’re welcome to use. https://writingtofreedom.com/2013/09/07/imagine-peace/
If I write a new one, I’ll link to yours. Thanks, Brad
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Thank you so very much for the heads up!
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You’re most welcome.
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