{"id":109840,"date":"2018-04-23T12:01:23","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T11:01:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=109840"},"modified":"2018-04-22T15:48:19","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T14:48:19","slug":"in-a-time-of-endless-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/04\/in-a-time-of-endless-wars\/","title":{"rendered":"In a Time of Endless Wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

I write for the men of a thousand years hence\u2014
\nand the women\u2014and their healthy children.
\nAnd\u2026, if you are suffering, if night is day
\nand day is night,
\nI will drink the cup of despair with you,
\nfor I have tasted of despair.<\/p>\n

But\u2026, if you are happy and wise,
\nmay my words animate your limbs;
\nmay you dance\u2014as I danced
\nin the spring of my days.
\nIn your dancing, my words will come again
\neven as they came from the Old Ones long ago
\nto fill my cup with dreams and desire.<\/p>\n

From the grunting in the caves,
\nfrom the maker of the paintings
\nand the reaping praise of critics–
\nthese words, crystallized over lifetimes,
\nwill come again\u2026.
\nOutside, howling winds; inside, warming fire.<\/p>\n

And if you have kept the flame of comradeship,
\nin spite of arrows and explosions;
\nif you have nurtured the flame–
\nI send salutations from a blood-drenched past.<\/p>\n

But\u2026,
\nif blood has drowned your best
\nand you find these strange and faded words\u2014
\non microchips, or chipped on cavernous walls–
\nthen you have fulfilled the worst of us;
\nthen: drink these words with gall!
\nMay these words burn and die in your guts
\nfor they and you have dwelt enough in darkness.
\nEnmity and fear will have hollowed us all.
\nLet the words burn and fester like a dying star.<\/p>\n

Then, my son, my daughter: you will confirm
\nwe could not shake free
\nof the chrysalis of war, entombing us,
\nstill-birthing you.\u2026<\/p>\n

Never forgive us!
\n___________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Gary Steven Corseri is a m<\/em>ember of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.<\/a> He<\/em> has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including,<\/em> TMS (Transcend Media Service<\/a>)<\/a>, The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and<\/em> Counterpunch.\u00a0 He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on<\/em> PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere.\u00a0 He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons.\u00a0 Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I write for the men of a thousand years hence\u2014
\nand the women\u2014and their healthy children.
\nAnd\u2026, if you are suffering, if night is day
\nand day is night,
\nI will drink the cup of despair with you,
\n for I have tasted of despair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":84067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}