Terror

[SOteric]

The devastation numb within us
trapped in the heart, tumbling
in the brain like pebbles. The feeling
resembles lumps of raw dough

weighing down a child's stomach on baking day.
Or Rilke said, "My heart...
Could I say of it, it overflows
with bitterness...but no, as though

its contents were simply balled into
formless lumps, thus
do I carry it about."

We have breathed the grit of it into our lives,
our lungs are pocked with it,
the mucous membrane of our dreams
coated with it, the imagination
filmed over with the gray filth of it:

the knowledge that human kind,

delicate Man, whose flesh
responds to a caress, whose eyes
are flowers that perceive the stars,

whose music excels the music of birds,
whose laughter matches the laughter of dogs,
whose understanding manifests designs
fairer than the spider's most intricate web,
turns without surprise to the scheduled breaking open
of the entrails of still-alive children
transforms witnessing eyes to pulp-fragments.

We are the humans whose language imagines mercy,
lovingkindness; we have believed one another
mirrored forms of a God we felt as good-

who do these acts, who convince ourselves
it is necessary; these acts are done
to our own flesh; burned human flesh.

Yes, this is the knowledge that jostles for space
in our bodies along with all we
go on knowing of joy, of love;

our nerve filaments twitch with its presence
day and night,
nothing we say has not the husky phlegm of it in the saying,
nothing we do has the quickness, the sureness,
the deep intelligence living at peace would have.

[DS1]

1. I remember this one well

:hug:

[SOteric]

2. It's got to be unusually hard on you Brits right now.

:hug:

I wish there anything more I could do than care deeply. But don't re-up for this one, m'kay?

[DS1]

3. It's fun being called a twit and an obnoxious asshole

by people bleating their likeness towards true survivors.

[SOteric]

4. You want me to kick their asses for you?

I'm small, but I have a very sharp tongue.

[DS1]

5. Nah

I think I've made my point. Any further would be falling on deaf ears.

Besides, I've seen my first deleted subthread today, didn't know that was possible. Anyway, I have homework to do for my "Ethics" class

[SOteric]

6. Okay, sounds like a plan.

But I'll be stropping my tongue just in case you need it.

And yeah, Ethics today could give you a few snickers. :hug:

Remember all the folks here who love and treasure you and forget the fucktard gooberheads.

[DS1]

7. -end threadjack - you may all go about slathering praise about

Levertov's poem