{"id":111909,"date":"2018-05-28T12:00:46","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T11:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=111909"},"modified":"2018-05-23T11:26:45","modified_gmt":"2018-05-23T10:26:45","slug":"war-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2018\/05\/war-6\/","title":{"rendered":"War"},"content":{"rendered":"

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been said,
\nThat has not already been written,
\nThat has not already been sung in song,
\nRecited in verse, shared in epic tales?<\/p>\n

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been committed to screen,
\nIn iconic movies with legendary actors
\nFighting and dying with glory amidst waving flags;
\nOr in heralded documentaries carefully
\nEdited with photos, letters, and poignant
\nWords of lament, spoken amid haunting tunes?<\/p>\n

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been in sculpted in marble,
\nPainted on canvases,
\nPhotographed in black and white,
\nAnd vivid color,
\nRevealing: blood is red, bone is white,
\nDeath is endless.<\/p>\n

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been inscribed in minds and bodies
\nOf soldiers who survived,
\nCivilians who endured,
\nPrisoners captive to trauma,
\nScars visible and invisible?<\/p>\n

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been carved
\nOn ordered granite gravestones
\nIn national cemeteries, honoring sacrifice,
\nDeath veiled in shade and sunlight?<\/p>\n

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been said<\/p>\n

About heroes and villains,
\nSoldiers and generals,
\nWarriors and misfits,
\nFreedom fighters and terrorists,
\nVictims and collateral damage,
\nApologies and reparations?<\/p>\n

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been said about
\nGlorious and evil causes,
\nLusts for power and control,
\nAccess to wealth and resources,
\nMessianic responsibilities, moral duties,
\nDomination . . . ascendancy . . . revenge?<\/p>\n

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been eulogized
\nOn fields of battle,
\nWhere lives were lost, minds seared,
\nHistorians\u2019 crafts polished
\nWith the biased narratives of victors:
\nWaterloo, Hue, Fallujah?
\nThere is no winner in war!<\/p>\n

And why, if so much has been
\nSpoken, written, and engraved,
\nWhy do the lessons of war,
\nContinue to be ignored, denied, distorted?
\nAnd now . . .\u00a0 Syria.<\/p>\n

___________________________________________<\/p>\n

This poem was published in TRANSCEND Media Service on September 2, 2013. <\/em>https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2013\/09\/war\/<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The poem is also published in A. J. Marsella (2016). Poems across Time and Place: A Journey of Heart and Mind.\u00a0 <\/strong>Pp. 63-64. Alpharetta, GA: Muntain Arbor Press.\u00a0 ISBN: 976-1-631183-040-2 <\/em><\/p>\n

Comment:<\/strong>\u00a0 I wrote this poem in the course of two days as I witnessed the tragedy of death and suffering in Syria, bewildered again and again, by the endless uses of so many death technologies. I was dismayed a score of nations were pursuing selfish interests amidst ethnic, tribal, and religion cleansing and genocide. We are living with endless war.<\/p>\n

Nothing more can be said about war. Violence begets violence, war begets war! No cries of noble responsibilities to protect and defend from either side are sufficient or warranted. They are merely part of tactics, strategies, and policies sustaining war. Lies! Who benefits from war?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In 1954, at the age of 14, I was selected as one of two finalists in a school poetry recital contest. I recited the following poem by an unknown author, likely written in the WW II days:<\/p>\n

Dead in battle,<\/em>
\nDead on the field,<\/em>
\nMore than his life can a soldier yield?<\/em><\/p>\n

Dead for his country,<\/em>
\nMurmured the drums,<\/em>
\nSlowly the sad procession comes. <\/em><\/p>\n

The heart must ache, <\/em>
\nBut the heart must swell with pride \u00a0<\/em>
\nFor the soldier who fought so well.<\/em><\/p>\n

His blood has burnished his saber bright;<\/em>
\nTo his memory honor,<\/em>
\nTo him \u201cGood night!\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I lost the contest, but the words were seared in my mind; they have remained as reminders of the many victims of war.<\/p>\n

_________________________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., a member of the <\/em>TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment<\/a>, is a past president of Psychologists for Social Responsibility, Emeritus Professor of psychology at the University of Hawaii\u2019s Manoa Campus in Honolulu, Hawaii, and past director of the World Health Organization Psychiatric Research Center in Honolulu. \u00a0He is known internationally as a pioneer figure in the study of culture and psychopathology who challenged the ethnocentrism and racial biases of many assumptions, theories, and practices in psychology and psychiatry. In more recent years, he has been writing and lecturing on peace and social justice. He has published 21 books and more than 300 articles, tech reports, and popular commentaries. His<\/em> TMS articles may be accessed<\/em> HERE<\/a> and he can be reached at <\/em>marsella@hawaii.edu<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What more can be said of war
\nThat has not already been said,
\nThat has not already been written,
\nThat has not already been sung in song,
\nRecited in verse, shared in epic tales?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":97653,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111909","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\/111909","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=111909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}