Encyclopedia of Questions: Weeping in the Winds
George Patterson, US
George Bradford Patterson II is an American expatriate, living in Laur, Nueva Ecija Province, Central Luzon, rural Philippines. He has a Masters Degree in Language Education with a Concentration in Teaching English as a Second Language Education (ESL). Rutgers -The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, New Jersey, USA May, 1982. He also has a BA in Religion, January, 1974 from Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, including a concentration in Spanish courses. He taught taught ESL Composition, Reading Skills, Grammar, and syntax to non-native speakers in the Writing Program, called also the English Language Enrichment Center, Temple University , Fall Semester, 1982 Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. He also was a Substitute Teacher, teaching ESL and Spanish and English as a Bilingual teacher in the Philadelphia public school system from September, 1984 to December, 1984. He also taught EFL/ESL in Korea, China, Honduras, Colombia, and Peru from 1982 to 1993 in universities, colleges, binational centers, and language institutes.
E-mail: borgesmagic@hotmail.com
To the Palestinians, Israelis and Lebanese
Menu
Why
My Appendix to the Vision of Peace
Encyclopedia of Questions: Tears in the Mist
Afghanistan
Reality Insists
I
Why do the cypresses sigh
around Gaza City in scarlet twilight -
and who they thirst for?
II
Why do the falling leaves murmur
for peace in the winds outside Gaza City -
and who do they weep for?
III
Why do the children cry like violets
in Jabalya refugee camp -
and who do they pine for in Khan Youness?
IV
Why do the Roses of Sharon repine
in Beit Lahiya -
and who do they sob for in Beit Hanoun
V
Why does the Palestinian librarian weep waterfalls
amidst the rubble of the American International School in Gaza City -
and who does she grieve for?
VI
Why do the innocents scream
in Rafah at midnight -
and who do they mourn for at Rafah Crossing?
VII
Why do the palm trees quiver
in Beersheba -
and who do they wail for in Askelod?
VIII
Why do the orange orchards suspire
in Sderot -
and who do they groan for in Netivot?
IX
Why do the olive groves shake
in Nahariyeh -
and who do they moan for in Ashdod?
* The Rose of Sharon is the biblical name of a sacred and mystical rose of love, peace, and beauty in the Old Testament.
After Yehuda Amichae
Don’t cease after beating spears
into pruning hooks, don’t cease! Continue beating
and craft visual tools out of them.
Whoever desires to make war again
will have to change them into pruning hooks first.
Let’s design a magical world and cosmos
of infinities of infinities of infinities of infinities
through the mystical science of the eye.
* Visual greetings to all who celebrate festivals of visual genres(paintings, drawings,
prints, calligraphy, sculptures, architecture, woodwork, tapestries) and convey visions
of the visual muses to the Promised Land of peace, justice, & love.
To the people of Lebanon and Israel
Why do the orange orchards cry
around Tyre in purple twilight –
and who they weep for in Abbasiyeh?
Why do the cedars quiver
for the widows in Nabasiyeh?
Why do the pines sigh
for peace in Bint Jmeil –
and who do they pine for?
Who do the roses glow for
in Beirut –
and why do they mourn?
Why do the falling snowflakes whisper
for justice in the mountains outside Beirut –
and who do they glisten for?
When will the apple orchards stop shaking
outside Haifa
and why do they moan?
Why do the olive groves tremble
outside Nahariyeh among white candlelights –
and who do they groan for?
Why does the emerald grass droop
outside Safed –
and why do they glimmer between hope and mist?
Why do the violets wail
for the innocents in Quana?
Why do the bushes murmur
in Atta al-Shaab –
and who do they grieve for?
To the people of Afghanistan, Noam Chomsky, Judy Chomsky, and Ed Herman
Why did you bomb that hospital?
Because we’re looking for the Taliban and Al Qaeda.
Why did you bomb that hospital?
Because the Taliban and Al Qaeda are there.
Why did you bomb Al Jazeera radio and the television station?
Because they sympathize with Islamic jihadists.
Why did you bomb that Muslim wedding?
Because they’re terrorists.
Why did you bomb those peasants?
Because the Taliban and Al Qaeda are hiding there.
Why did you shell that town?
Because they’re spies for the Taliban.
After Wisława Szymborska
Reality insists
that we also say this:
Life persists.
It continues at Sarajevo and Serbrenica,
At Pristina and Guernica.
There’s a restaurant
next to a mosque in Gaza City,
and murals
on the walls of Bir Zeit University.
Letters glide back and forth
between Honolulu and Bataan,
a moving pick-up truck passes
between the eyes of the tiger at Manila Zoo
and the blooming guava farm near Cabanatuan
cannot elude
the approaching typhoon.
There is too much Everything
that Nothing is concealed rather pleasantly.
Music streams
from the yachts anchored at Valparaiso
and couples dance the cueca on moonlit decks.
Very much is always carrying on
that it must be carrying on everywhere.
Where not a stone still stays
you see the Cotton Candy Man
overwhelmed by children.
Where Nagasaki existed,
Nagasaki exists again,
Producing so many goods
for daily use.
This horrifying world is not lacking in charms,
of the evenings
that make waking up meaningful.
The rice is golden
on Mindanao’s fields,
and it is saturated with dew
as is normal with rice.
Maybe almost every field is a battlefield,
almost every ground is a battleground,
those we recall
and those that are disregarded:
the teak, pine, and bamboo forests, the reeds,
the white sands, the coal black gravel, the mangroves,
the valleys of black defeat,
where, in times of conflict,
you can cringe under a caimita tree.
What moral pours from this? Perhaps none.
Only the blood spurts, drying rapidly,
and, as always, some lagoons, some cloud mists.
On tragic mountain paths,
the typhoon smashed trees over roofs of unwitting heads,
and we can’t help
crying at that.
|
