Last night I attended a Poetry Society of N.H. public reading, War and Remembrance, at the University of N.H. with Paul Nichols, best friend, Vietnam combat veteran, and one of the featured poets. The poems read vividly depicted the brutality, immorality, and soul-sucking destructiveness of War–along with addressing the causes of this abomination.
I was particularly struck by the words of Burkhard Hoene who died in 2006 at the age of 46. Some of his poetic journal entries were poignantly read by his brother last night from the Poetry Society's anthology, The Other Side of Sorrow. An excerpt from his poem, what package is this? accompanies my photographs below:
just who are we when we become
a media mind?
what is it that builds the power
of a such a country as ours?
similar resources, similar
television, similar people,
similar topography.
yet we have become the
cause and barometer of how
the world feels a about itself.
Is this an open society?
What is an open society
when it behaves as we do?
what values do we accept
and what values do we
impose on ourselves?
what values do we impose on others?
can we remain
indifferent?
can the blind remain
indifferent?
forgive them for
they know not what they do
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