Manifesto for Murder

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._N._Taber

Feedback suggests that some of my poems go down well in Russia, possibly because many Russians enjoy poetry, certainly, the few I have had the pleasure of meeting over the years have taken pleasure in the genre. I have always wanted to visit Russia although it will not happen now as I have too many health problems...but anyone can dream.

I have tried to record many world events good, bad, and ugly - in poems, mostly in the villanelle form, and this is one of them. As I continue working my way through my poetry collections with a view to publishing them online one day, I expect to come across more poems that are not on the blogs; since some (not a lot)of interest has been shown so far, I will continue to let readers decide for themselves whether they belong here or not.

This poem was written the day after two female Islamic suicide bombers aligned with Caucasus Emirate and Al-Qaeda. caused carnage on the Moscow Metro during the morning rush hour, March 29th 2010. There have been other attacks since, but this was possibly the worst.

I have always felt a poet has some responsibility as an archivist. Having been given to understand that my poetry is being archived in the British Library and elsewhere, hopefully the likes of this poem may be of interest to future generations. More importantly, we should never forget that behind every tragedy, wherever in the world, there are families and communities.

Terrorists worldwide have much to answer for, but we must never judge the many by the few. It is my experience that the majority of ordinary men and women, whatever their belief or non-belief, are ready and willing to take others as they find them and don't let religion - or any other differences - get in the way of being kind or even establishing lasting friendships … however much some of their leaders, deliberately or otherwise, might encourage them to do so.

MANIFESTO FOR MURDER

Carnage, a Moscow Metro station

as suicide bombers strike;

when, oh, when will we ever learn?

Speculation on political intention,

the politics of blame at work;

carnage, a Moscow Metro station

Chechen rebels, focus of attention,

Muslim extremism and the like;

when, oh, when will we ever learn?

Same tit-for-tat strategies for action

in denial of mutual needs to talk;

carnage, a Moscow Metro station

Buy into a constructive contribution,

and invariably find pigs in a poke;

when, oh, when will we ever learn?

It’s down to us, the ordinary person

in the street, to vote as we’d like;

carnage, a Moscow Metro station;

when, oh, when will we ever learn?

 Copyright R. N. Taber, 2010

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