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Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia

0 posted 2003-07-06 03:37 PM


My GOD!
I searched the skies
for the truth of you,
I found more lies
in the mourning dew.

Not always refreshing,
is the rain.
Acid teardrops fell,
as I did to my knees
in anguish and pain.

No one came to the rescue in time,
and the heart of the hungry child
stopped mid-beat
in the forsaken desert heat.

His cry was too soft.
His life too short.
His mother now weeps into the dust
that covers her new-born.

Ethiopia.
My heart breaks
to see you suffer so,
again and again.
***
I'm sorry if this one is so dark, but my heart really is broken over the current state of affairs in Ethiopia. Drought and the threat of mass starvation on the same scale as 1984. I am almost embarrassed to turn on the faucet today.

[This message has been edited by Midnitesun (07-06-2003 03:46 PM).]

© Copyright 2003 Kathleen Kacy Stafford - All Rights Reserved
serenity blaze
Member Empyrean
since 2000-02-02
Posts 27738

1 posted 2003-07-06 05:44 PM


I love the way you take on the world, my friend. You have the heart of a dove and the voice of a lion. I'm so glad to know you through your words.
Mysteria
Deputy Moderator 10 ToursDeputy Moderator 10 ToursDeputy Moderator 10 ToursDeputy Moderator 10 ToursDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 TourDeputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Laureate
since 2001-03-07
Posts 18328
British Columbia, Canada
2 posted 2003-07-07 11:32 PM


You keep banging your drum Kacy and one day someone is really going to learn your song!  You sing it well I might add.
Local Parasite
Deputy Moderator 10 Tours
Member Elite
since 2001-11-05
Posts 2527
Transylconia, Winnipeg
3 posted 2003-07-13 03:35 PM


I want very badly to have a conversation with you.

The fact that you can write a poem about a sadness that has no way of touching your life other than in concept, is fascinating and beautiful... very, very few people possess such a pure empathy, and I've gone so far as to admit its inexistence.  I would like to know how genuine it is.

It's true, it's very very true... there is so much pain in the universe of so many others, but not in our cotton-pillowcase society.  No pain, no fear, just the looming figure of contrastive woe that we find so appalling somehow.

Ethiopia makes me weep too.

Parasite


Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world.
~Percy Bysshe Shelley

[This message has been edited by Local Parasite (07-13-2003 10:43 PM).]

littlewing
Member Rara Avis
since 2003-03-02
Posts 9655
New York
4 posted 2003-07-13 11:20 PM


Kacy - you are unique indeed . . .
xxoo

timothysangel1973
Deputy Moderator 5 Tours
Senior Member
since 2001-12-03
Posts 1725
Never close enough
5 posted 2003-07-17 01:30 AM


It is surely a wonderful heart that can not only take the time to think of a society thousands of miles away, but to write of it as well.

I see these children on the television, and I like you feel guilty for some of the things that I have.  FOOD is a big issue around my house...I HATE TO THROW SOMETHING AWAY!

I'm so glad to be in a circle that involves a person of your care and concern!

Wonderful write!

Aenimal
Member Rara Avis
since 2002-11-18
Posts 7350
the ass-end of space
6 posted 2003-07-18 01:53 PM


Kacy I love these insights into your life and heart, you're an amazing soul
Midnitesun
Deputy Moderator 1 Tour
Member Empyrean
since 2001-05-18
Posts 28647
Gaia
7 posted 2003-07-19 12:00 PM


I'm late to the table with thank yous on this write, as I'm packing to move again this week, and not able to spend as much time here as I'd like.
I'm humbled by your tender replies. Ethiopia holds a special place in my heart. Years ago I made friends in college with a wonderful student who worked for the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. Zellalem came to this country to receive advanced training in Public Health Education, and I had the pleasure of helping him secure an apt and a job, and introduced him to many of my friends at the college. He spent Christmas with part of my family, sharing some of his traditional customs. I learned through his friendship to love the Ethiopian people as if they were family, even though I never traveled there. My travels through Europe and the Middle East left me with a sense of comraderie and kinship for other peoples of the planet that has lasted to this day. I truly believe that to achieve Peace on Earth requires that we treat every human in every country with equal respect and fairness, and must love all of humanity unconditionally. That's not to say I have to agree with everyone...just respect their space and rights.
Meanwhile, each time I see the faces of children starving, with their kwashiorkor (sp?) swollen bellies, I really do find it difficult to swallow the next bite without a feeling of guilt.
And as I sit here at the PC in comfort, wondering if each keystroke means anything in the long run, if anything I write will have any lasting social importance.
If I've touched one heart or made one person more aware of this devastatingly poor corner of the world...if even one human is more willing to help change our communal sense of direction toward the good of all, then my writing time has not been wasted.
Thank you each for spending a moment with me here, and taking time to reply.

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