In the Face of One--eyed Jacks

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

Since the early days of the so-called Arab Spring, civil war has caused untold suffering to the Syrian population. Anti-government protests had been ongoing in the Syrian city of Hama since March 2011, when large protests broke out in the city, similar to others elsewhere. In July, the Government sent the Syrian Army into Hama to control protests on the eve of Ramadan, often referred to as the ‘Ramadan Massacre.’

Ever since, both security forces and “rebels” have carried out numerous large-scale operations, resulting in mass executions, killings, arrests, kidnappings and torture across Syria. Many families and elderly people are suffering above all from the shortage of electricity, water and lack of food/ medical supplies; frequently they no longer have a home. There are blackouts several times during the day, and gasoline is rationed. No one knows when or where the next bomb will fall.

There has to be a diplomatic solution although the neutral observer may well feel prompted to ask  whether - in the murky world of politics - that old saying, ‘where there’s a will there’s a way’ is not more aptly applied to expediency than to will … on anyone’s part? If inhumanity is a vicious circle, it is one that's drawn and expanded by human beings.

This poem is a villanelle.

IN THE FACE OF ONE-EYED JACKS

Watch inhumanity boxing clever

as the toll of dead and injured grows;

world’s cyclopean eye on Syria

As face-saving excuses endeavour

to explain away as its politics allows,

watch inhumanity boxing clever

Freedom, a dirty word, all the surer

for (ever) wiping its poor bloody nose;

world’s cyclopean eye on Syria

A century’s children living in terror,

all innocence cheated of its tomorrows,

watch inhumanity boxing clever

No stranger to either war or massacre,

(cue for United Nations to strike a pose)

world’s cyclopean eye on Syria

May humanity yet endure, be the leader

sheer common sense alone sure to choose;

watch inhumanity boxing clever,

world’s cyclopean eye on Syria …

London: April 2018

Copyright R N. Taber 2018 

[Note: A cyclops is described in ancient Greek and Roman mythology as from a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the centre of the forehead; the word "cyclops" literally means "round-eyed" or "circle-eyed".  – Wikipedia]

Islamic State (So-Called); Rivers of Blood, Sea of Hate

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

(Update, December 12 2018: The appalling attack on a Christmas Market in Strasbourg yesterday evening is being treated as a terrorist attack; the perpetrator, known to French police, is believed to have been radicalised in prison.  Whether or not Islamic State claims responsibility, they must surely take the lion's share of responsibility for any terrorist event which involves the perpetrator shouting 'Allahu Akbar (God is Great) in the course of its execution. The hearts of decent people worldwide will be reaching out to the family and friends of the dead and injured.]

[Update. March 23 2018]: Hearts across the world will be reaching out to the families and friends of those killed/ traumatised by events near Carcassonne in southern France earlier today; indeed to all the people of France, tragically no stranger to such atrocities. First reports are suggesting a link to so-called Islamic State. The terrorists can, do, and will bring fear and grief wherever they go...but they can never win if only because there is more humanity than inhumanity across the world and the former, for all the hurt it may suffer, remains indestructible.]

[Update. August 18 2017]: Re-publishing this poem/post is becoming frighteningly familiar. All good hearts cannot help but go out to the families and friends of those killed and all those injured in two horrific terrorist attacks in Spain; one yesterday and another in the early hours of this morning. It is awful enough when natural events like the recent mudslide in Sierra Leone cause devastation and death, but terrorism is a deliberate, human act and all the more horrific for that.

[Update. May 23 2017]: Events in Manchester last night have shocked and horrified the civilised world. Our hearts and thoughts fly not only to the families and friends of the dead and injured, but to anyone who was there, and may well be haunted by this senseless tragedy forever. One death is one death too many, but the ever growing total from terrorist attacks around the world must not deflect a common determination to give the greater good of human spirit a free rein to rise above it all and express itself in such acts of all-inclusive kindness as we have seen in the past; as good a message as any to terrorists that they will not and cannot win.

[Update, March 22 2017]: Our thoughts this morning are especially with the families and friends of those who died and were injured in yesterday's terrorist attack in London. Those who witnessed the attacks on Westminster Bridge and outside the Houses of Parliament will have seen scenes likely to stay with them for the rest of their lives. We can only trust that time will be kind to everyone in helping to alleviate their distress. As for the terrorists, whoever they may be, the bastards can never win if only because the better side of human nature and the natural goodness in people is stronger by far than anything they can throw at us.]

[Update, Jan 2nd 2017]: Yet again our hearts go out to the families and friends of victims and survivors of yet another terrorist atrocity carries out by so-called Islamic State, this time at a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year's Eve. The same, of course, applies to the victims of the latest car bomb attack in Iraq (Baghdad). Around the world, fanatics attached to I S strike at the very principles of our personal freedoms, but they will not emerge victorious in the ultimate endgame...if only because the majority of human kind are better than they can ever hope to be.]

[Update, Dec 20, 2016]: Our hearts go out to all the families and friends of those killed and injured in what appears to have been a terrorist attack on a Christmas market in Berlin yeaterday. Terrorists are worse than just murderers; they have no conception of decent humanity beyond their own warped idealism.  But humanity is comprised of a stronger resilience to attack than these sick minds can possibly conceive; its innate goodness WILL triumph, although the road ahead be long and many more tears shed before terrorism (and all hate crime) hangs its head in shame and concedes defeat.] 

[Update, June 26th 2015: I am sure most if not all readers will join me in utter condemnation of the murderous attack by Islamic State fanatics on innocent civilians in Tunisia, France and Kuwait yesterday. Our thoughts today are with the victims, their families and friends for whom life will never be the same again.]

[Update, November 14th 2015: Yet again, the so-called Islamic State have caused carnage. It is claiming responsibility for the deaths of many innocent civilians in Paris last night and I am sure all my readers hearts go out to the family and friends of those killed. The bastards will not win. The principles of democracy, freedom and the humanitarian values upon which they are founded and from which they will always take their strength and survive, no matter what, WILL prevail.]

Regular readers will know that I try to record certain world/national events as well as my personal relationship with body, mind and spirit and various communications with nature. My collections reflect this, too. 

I once had the idea that, centuries on, someone might come across my poetry in a time capsule and see that, for all the early twenty-first century was a mess, the finer qualities of human nature endured, survived and overcame even the atrocities committed by Islamic State (formerly ISIS) in the name of a form of Islam Muslim friends, acquaintances, and colleagues have assured me for years that no true Muslim would countenance

This poem is a villanelle.

ISLAMIC STATE (SO-CALLED): RIVERS OF BLOOD, SEA OF HATE

A raging tide, Islamic State,
(creating floods of fear);
rivers of blood, Sea of Hate

Religion, at the Devil’s Gate
(password ‘power’ here);
a raging tide, Islamic State

Good people left to their fate
(even the sun sheds a tear);
rivers of blood, Sea of Hate

Women and children but bait
(up for grabs, world media)
a raging tide, Islamic State

Islam dragged into disrepute
(its peace lovers in despair);
rivers of blood, Sea of Hate

Poisonous radicalism at root,
(no care for Earth Mother);
a raging tide, Islamic State;
rivers of blood, Sea of Hate

[London, August 30th 2014]

Copyright R. N. Taber 2014

War and Peace, Elements of the Human Condition

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

I have been watching the BBC2 TV series, Generation War: Our Mothers, Our Fathers that follows the lives of five German friends during World War II. It is an apt reminder of not only the horrors of war but also how the real victims of any conflict are those ordinary men and women, on both sides, struggling to survive and left to pick up the pieces both as it progresses and when it is all over. Events in various parts of the world today - Syria and Ukraine to name but two - are a cruel reminder of history’s penchant for repeating itself.

This year, 2014, is the 100^th anniversary of the outbreak of World War I. It is especially disturbing, therefore, even if only (dangerous) rhetoric, that President Arseny Yatseniuk of Ukraine should be accusing Russia’s President Putin of trying to start World War III. He also warned the crisis in his country could spread throughout the rest of Europe. We may like to think such a thing could never happen, but history tells us differently.

People fight, initially at least, because they believe or are led to believe they are in the right and any opposing force has to be in the wrong. It is one of humanity’s greater tragedies that there are at least two sides to every conflict, and that we believe or are led to believe we are free to choose if only for freedom’s own sake. Yet, win or lose, the Mandarins of Power, for all they may well undergo a cosmetic transformation,  remain free to stoke the ashes, penetrate the dust, and go about their business in much the same way as before…

Last but never least, of course, many if not most of us find ourselves at war with the inner self for one reason or another, peace of mind attainable only at a price we are not always willing to pay.

WAR AND PEACE, ELEMENTS OF THE HUMAN CONDITION

Ready to fight,

kill or be killed for the right

to live, be free,

and let others, too, go free

from whatever cage

imposed on us by powers that be

last glimpsed haunting

shadowy corridors, responsibility

taking cover in morality

In the thick of a war

against the inner self, denying

mind, body, and spirit,

intent only upon survival

of the fittest,

no time to consider the weak

and vulnerable except

to defend a moral high ground

for their sakes

Battles lost or won,

history will make out it was all

for the best

in the longer run of humanity’s

kinder attributes,

winners and losers joining forces

to create a better world,

take a more constructive view on

bettering its betters

Ashes, to ashes, century to century;

opposing forces, same cover story

Copyright R. N. Taber 2014