May 02 2008

For Eli

We’ve all felt it…the rage followed by the exhaustion and the fear that our souls will be deadened by the overwhelming pain and destruction that is being reigned on human beings by our occupation of Iraq. Its why so many really don’t want to know and numb themselves with distractions.

So many times, that is where the artists come to the fore…the writers, painters, musicians, poets, and yes, even the comedians. They can reach down past all the numbness to remind us that we still feel and we’re still human, even though at times we’d rather not be. But if there is any hope for the world, we have to keep in touch with our humanity.

In a difficult way, that’s what this poetry did for me yesterday when a friend sent it to me. Here’s Andrea Gibson’s “For Eli.”  

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  1. Our truest responsibility to the irrationality of the world is to paint, or sing, or write, for only in such response do we find the truth.

    And a hug for Eli, in the hopes that someday he’ll write poetry again.  

  2. That is a great poem … so many images packed into each phrase, so many bursts of emotion.

    Thanks for this, Pandora.

    And a hug for Eli, in the hopes that someday he’ll write poetry again.

    Amen to that.

  3. the writers, painters, musicians, poets, and yes, even the comedians. They can reach down past all the numbness to remind us that we still feel and we’re still human, even though at times we’d rather not be. But if there is any hope for the world, we have to keep in touch with our humanity.

    We have to keep in touch with our humanity.  

    Truer words were never spoken.

  4. And that’s a gift.

    The part about wounds that aren’t visible, or something to that effect, reminded me of my favorite short story of all time.  The central theme in For Esme with Love and Squalor by J. D. Salinger is the innocent wisdom of a French girl, who tells a soldier about to go into combat, “I hope you come back with all your faculties intact.”  That phrase “faculties intact” hits the nail on the head.  The story, all the more heartbreaking for its droning understatement, depicts the psychological cost of war.

    Thanks for the video.

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