My Fav Poem

Silence*

Edgar Lee Masters


I have known the silence of the stars and of the sea,
And the silence of the city when it pauses,
And the silence of a man and a maid,
And the silence of the sick
When their eyes roam about the room.
And I ask: For the depths
Of what use is language?
A beast of the field moans a few times
When death takes its young.
And we are voiceless in the presence of realities -
We cannot speak.


A curious boy asks an old soldier
Sitting in front of the grocery store,
"How did you lose your leg?"
And the old soldier is struck with silence,
Or his mind flies away
Because he cannot concentrate it on Gettysburg,
It comes back jocosely
And he says, "A bear bit it off."
And the boy wonders, while the old soldier
Dumbly, feebly lives over
The flashes of guns, the thunder of cannon,
The shrieks of the slain,
And himself lying on the ground,
And the hospital surgeons, the knives,
And the long days in bed.
But if he could describe it all
He would be an artist.
But if he were an artist there would be deeper wounds
Which he could not describe.

There is the silence of a great hatred,
And the silence of a great love,
And the silence of an embittered friendship.
There is the silence of a spiritual crisis,
Through which your soul, exquisitely tortured,
Comes with visions not to be uttered Into a realm of higher life.
There is the silence of defeat.
There is the silence of those unjustly punished
And the silence of the dying whose hand
Suddenly grips yours.
There is the silence between father and son,
When the father cannot explain his life,
Even though he be misunderstood for it.

There is the silence that comes between husband and wife.
There is the silence of those who have failed;
And the vast silence that covers
Broken nations and vanquished leaders.
There is the silence of Lincoln,
Thinking of the poverty of his youth.
And the silence of Napoleon
After Waterloo.
And the silence of Jeanne d'Arc
Saying amid the flames, "Blessed Jesus" -
Revealing in two words all sorrows, all hope.
And there is the silence of age,
Too full of wisdom for the tongue to utter it
In words intelligible to those who have not lived
The great range of life.

And there is the silence of the dead.
If we who are in life cannot speak
Of profound experiences,
Why do you marvel that the dead
Do not tell you of death?
Their silence shall be interpreted
As we approach them.

No Blog

Dear Blog readers there will be no blogs for a bit, I just recieved news of a dear friend loosing a baby and obviously don't feel up to it and hope to be helping my friend deal with this loss in whatever why I can instead of writing this blog. Despite sad news for me I wish all of you a wonderful weekend and a reminder to hold those you love just a bit longer . . .

Yours, K.

Song

Barcelona
Where the winds all blew
The churches don't have windows
But the graveyards do
Me and my shadow
Are wrestling again
Look out stranger
There's a dark cloud moving in

But if you could hear
The voice in my heart
It would tell you
I'm afraid I am alone

Wont somebody please
Hold me, release me
Show me the meaning of mercy
Let me loose
Fly, let me fly
Let me fly

Super paranoid
I'm blending, I'm blurring
I'm bleeding
Into the scenery
Loving someone else
Is so much easier
But I hold myself hostage
In the mirror

But if you could hear
The voice in my heart
It would tell you
I'm tired of feeling this way

God, wont you please
Hold me, release me
Show me the meaning of mercy
Let me loose
Let me fly
Let me fly
Let me fly

I wont be held down
I wont be held back
I will lead with my faith

The red light
Has been following me
But don't worry mother
Its no longer my gravity

Hold me, release me
Show me the meaning of mercy
Let me fly
Let me fly
Let me fly

Not Very Bloggy Today

Hola all. I am not feeling much like blogging today. Feel lonely and sad so I will spare you from having to read it. Hopefully tomorrow will be better. Ty for reading and I love you all so much. TY for all of you out there that are so kind and take such good care of Korban and I when we have needed a helping hand. I wish everyone a beautiful day! If I am not feeling the best, the next best thing is knowing those you love are happy :) XOXOXOXOXOXOXOOOXOXOXO

Yours, K.

Horton Hears A Who

As I'm sure everyone in modern society knows Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who is now a CGI movie. Needless to say having read it MANY times Korban and I went and saw it the day it came out (my sweetheart's b-day March 14th) and we read it again tonight and it got me to thinking about what the meaning behind the story could be. Dr.Seuss' stories, like Mother Goose tales, are political commentary or life lessons masked in the genre of a child's story, also notable is The Wizard of Oz.
Of course Ted (yeah we're that close!) is no longer alive so I can't very well write or email him about what he was trying to say through Horton and the Whos, but something Korban asked me made me start to think and I may have a close idea of what he was trying to tell us.
Near the end of the story, the inhabitants of Noo are all chasing after Horton and Korban asks me, "Mom, why are they all chasing Horton?" And I told him it was something called "mob mentality" and I explained to him that is when a group of people, who would otherwise wouldn't on their own, join together to persecute a person or certain group of people because of what they may believe or look like. He asked me why people would do that and I reminded him of the Holocaust (which we have talked about before) and how one person like Hitler can convince others something is true when it's not.
From this exchange it makes me think that Horton Hears A Who could very well be Ted's take on WWII and what Hitler did. Originally published in 1954, the timing would be correct. A less then a decade after the "end" of the war.
To me it seems that the kangaroo is Hitler. The Who's are the Jewish community. One of the major players is a black eagle named Vlad (the bird of the Nazi's being an eagle and we knew by then about Stalin).
I think Ted is trying to say that one person can turn a peaceful society (The Jungle of Noo) into wild animals (Nazi Regine) when they are told that something innate (The Jewish community) is a threat to their way of life. So it is better to destroy the threat that cannot be seen, heard, or felt, then let even the idea of it exists.
I can't figure out who Horton might be. I would say America because we ultimately "ended" the war, but we were more apart of the jungle. Not chasing after Horton, but looking past it for a long time. Not until Pearl Harbor did we come to help the "Jews/Whos". Maybe Horton is the alliance at any given time. A large force trying to stop the "kangaroo/Hitler" AND save the "Jews/Whos". Or the ultimate force for good, God.
I think the fact that the Jungle of Noo refused to believe that this group of people were being destroyed is a commentary also on the fact that many German's at the time and some to this day (I shouldn't say just German's because it is more then them) believe that the Holocaust never happened! That it was made up! Despite there being proof!
In the story the Whos have to endure many hardships. They suffer a lot of destruction. Yet they band together, looking to a voice in the sky to save them. A force bigger then they are. "We are here! We are here! We are here!"
You also get the message that "A person's a person, no matter how small." I believe Ted is saying as the bible does, that no voice is without out merit. The rain was made to fall on the bond, the free, the just, and the unjust, all are equal in the eyes of God. I have no idea what, if any, faith Ted followed, but I am certain he had some kind of faith in God.
And lastly I like how he ends the tale of Horton hears a Who in that the very SMALLEST voice in Who-ville makes all the difference. That one small Who, Jo-Jo, and his "YOPP" are the salvation of Who-ville and all the Who's!
There are so many examples of just one person making major changes in the world. Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Mother Theresa, Desmond Tutu, and many more.
In summation I would say that the moral of the story is, letting someone else think for you is dangerous, just because you can't see, hear, or feel it doesn't mean something isn't there, that no group of people (society) is without it's place in our world, and that every person's voice is meant to be heard and is very powerful!
Theodore Geisel was a very wise man. Horton Hears A Who, is only one of MANY powerful stories that he wrote, I think wisely knowing that children are more prone to bending with the change in the wind than to snap and break like adults, so we should tell them these great pearls of wisdom while they are young and through whimsical rhyme, they learn to be good people . . . wow! I guess another name to add to the list of a single person who has changed the world is Dr.Seuss.

Yours, K.