Good Grief, Gaza

[mtmynd]

<center>Hamas hurling rockets into Israel
Israel responds with bombs
thousands of pounds of punishment
an eye for an eye
a tooth for a tooth
the Hatfields and the McCoys
the Catholics and the Protestants
yin and yang
but you're both the same!
really!!
both sides
are the same one
one in the dark
the other in the light
like the moon
~O~
the battle rages
death tolls mount
and, and, and
nothing
i
s
ever
accomplished
it's always the same
macho vs macho
dueling
under a sun
that has
warmed the land
thousands of years
((ago and now))
but
n
o
t
h
i
n
g
(no thing)
ever
fucking changes
the same bombs
the same hatred
the same screams
the same losses of life
and nobody ever wins
but both eventually
... pause ...
taking
inhaling
one big breath
under the
one big sun
~O~
and regain their hatred
((resembling stupidity))
and then
the bombs drop
the guns fire
the hate kills
only to
pause
and begin
again and
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
again
then!
BOOM!
nobody
nobody
not a soul
is left
to
f
i
g
h
t
the
silence
is deafening
more than the
BOMBS
that
were
heard
all over
the world
-
zero
gained
zero
won
zero
hero
fear-o
is all that
is
left
.
.
.</center>
Good Grief, Gaza...
((is there really any grief that's good?))

[Doreen Peri]

well said

so sad

scary



(i worry about judih)

.
.
love the formatting

[judih]

i read this

if you lived here
you would write something else

you're interpreting with your eyes
based on your experience

it's a generalized poem
all war is disgusting
true, true

but the hatfields and the mccoys have nothing to do with this situation.

that's all i can say.

[stilltrucking]

I am waiting for the guns to go silent
For peace to break out again
It always does

take care j

[Doreen Peri]

judih .... it's hard for any of us to interpret situations other than through the camera lens of what's shown to us through news media......

the animosities between various groups often do seem like hatfields and mccoys .... from the outside .... same with all the infighting of groups all over the world... why does it look that way to me? i know there's a lot more to it than that and the analogy is a huge oversimplification and probably in error

i hope you will share your viewpoint and feelings about what's happening over there in poetry form or on your artlog or eyewitness reports

i am anxious to know more from a firsthand viewpoint

[mtmynd]

"but the hatfields and the mccoys have nothing to do with this situation."

two sides, two families of man, always two - one against the other = conflict... always.

Judih... why is this any different from any other?

[stilltrucking]

Cecil it is more like a World War than a family feud.
Everybody has a hand in it not just the Arabs and the Jews.

[mtmynd]

"Cecil it is more like a World War than a family feud."

Jack, howdy. I understand what you're saying, but I was attempting to say (miserably, obviously!) the Hatfield/McCoy analogy is symbolizing two factions fighting each other... two families of mankind. This is always the case in any war on any level - two sides/two differences = one battle/one war. It's historically old news. This has been going on (war) ever since we, the collective humanity, punched a stranger in the nose for being a stranger.

My poem wasn't meant to pick sides but to see what is happening there as nothing new since 1948. If a hundred nations jump into it there will be some of that 100 hundred on opposing sides. Ain't no stopping it... not every country will be against one or the other in this recent rage.

For every Israeli killed by rockets from Hamas there will be at least 10 in there family that will avenge Hamas.. and vice versa... for every Palestinian killed from bombing there will be at least 10 in the family who will never forgive the Israelis. It sucks but it's always sucked. War is a giant sucking machine.

[stilltrucking]

Sooner or later the killing will stop for a while.
That is the best I hope for
I used to like history, now it leaves me depressed.

Grey Steel
(The Biography of General Jan Christiaan Smuts)
'A Study In Arrogance' by H.C. Armstrong
http://www.ourcivilisation.com/smartboa ... /index.htm

The idea of Zionism, of a National Home for the Jews in Palestine, was put into practical politics by a Roman Catholic Norfolk squire, Sir Mark Sykes, who had specialised in the Near East and had much influence with Balfour.

[mtmynd]

"Sooner or later the killing will stop for a while."

That's the problem, don't you think? The killing never really stops but only pauses (like I put in the poem). .. a time to recatch the breath and take a rest before the next round begins. Sixty years of this and nothing seems to change except a new day, a new year and a new generation...

[stilltrucking]

sixty years?

there you go again Cecil

that is a mighty short view of the situation

It is a forever war Cecil

How many wars have we had in the past sixty years?

I will take a pause in the killing.

Even if it is just a Christmas truce.

What makes this war so special?

Plenty of wars going on to write poems about.

[mtmynd]

1948 the state of Israel 'began'... but yes, war in and of itself is as long as the history of mankind. but knowing these things doesn't seem to make a bit of difference in the warring mentality.

like we discussed somewhere else recently (yesterday?), perhaps war should be viewed as shit... a necessary function of the human collective. I really don't know and I'm pretty damn sure nobody else does either.

one thing is certain - the older i get the less tolerance for war i have.

[stilltrucking]

I wonder what is so special about the situation in Palestine/Israel?
No body writing poems about the wars in the congo that have killed over 3million people in the past sixty years.


Maybe because of my age but I have become more grateful for any pause in the killing.

Anytime the guns go silent
it is good for me
I will take a pause any day

[mtmynd]

truck : What makes this war so special?
Plenty of wars going on to write poems about.

Sixty years of brutal, violent wars with one's neighbors is not very common, I don't believe.

[stilltrucking]

Sixty years of brutal, violent wars with one's neighbors is not very common, I don't believe.

you are mis informed Cecil,over three million people killed in Congolese wars in the past sixty years.
I was editing while you were posting read my above post.
The most people killed in any wars since WW2
http://www.theirc.org/news/conflict_in_ ... e_irc.html

And it is breaking out again plus there has been constant warfare in Africa among neighbors.
And there there are the Balkan wars, and India and Pakistan and...




I liked the poem I had no problem with it.

In a way World War One has never ended Cecil, whe are still paying for the white man's burden, the plundered colonies in Africa , the lines drawn in blood on a map of the middle east.