{"id":125762,"date":"2019-01-14T12:01:26","date_gmt":"2019-01-14T12:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=125762"},"modified":"2019-01-10T14:57:17","modified_gmt":"2019-01-10T14:57:17","slug":"astonishing-the-enemy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2019\/01\/astonishing-the-enemy\/","title":{"rendered":"Astonishing the Enemy"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is a poem about people who challenge us to acknowledge our common humanity\u2014and the way they are too often rejected and ostracized\u2014and even worse.\u00a0 I\u2019m working in quatrains and a quiet rhyme scheme, but more important, a certain tone, an ironic tone that reveals the limitations of the speaker.
\n<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/em>\u201cAnd I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies<\/em>
\nthat dwell therein shall be astonished at it.\u201d —<\/em>Leviticus; 26.32<\/p>\n

About Mr. X., we need not be too kind.
\nHe was never one of us, but rather
\nOdd, the way he urged we keep an open mind
\nAbout things we\u2019d already made our minds up on.<\/p>\n

He seemed inclined to constantly upset
\nOur apple carts, not so much by anything
\nHe said as by the way he\u2019d sit and fret
\nAbout our doing nothing about suffering.<\/p>\n

We never tired of explaining how
\nWe had our lives and were content to fill
\nOur places in the Grand Design\u2014or how
\nThe world went on and on and men would spill,<\/p>\n

From time to time, innocent blood, or
\nHow this figured in the Great Necessity,
\nWas inexplicable, taken for
\nGranted, part of our preferred reality.<\/p>\n

Mr. X. grew gloomier, began to quote
\nBiblical text about loving neighbors.
\nOur holy seers advised him not to note
\nInconsistencies in the human heart.<\/p>\n

I do not know when we began to perceive
\nMr. X. was an alien being;
\nOr when, one by one, we came to believe,
\nFor the good of all, he must be deleted.<\/p>\n

It is ever so much more pleasant now
\nWithout that vague malaise overhanging
\nOur transactions; we barely remember how
\nHis sad expression made us all uneasy.<\/p>\n

_______________________________________________<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/em>Dr. Gary Corseri is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment.<\/a> He <\/em>has published\/posted poems, articles, fiction and dramas at Transcend Media Service<\/a> and hundreds of publications and websites worldwide.\u00a0 He has performed his work at the Carter Presidential Library and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta.\u00a0 He edited the \u201cManifestations\u201d literary anthology.\u00a0 He has published 2 novels and 2 poetry collections, has taught in US public schools and prisons and in US and Japanese universities. <\/em>Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a poem about people who challenge us to acknowledge our common humanity\u2014and the way they are too often rejected and ostracized\u2014and even worse. I\u2019m working in quatrains and a quiet rhyme scheme, but more important, a certain tone, an ironic tone that reveals the limitations of the speaker.<\/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-125762","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\/125762","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=125762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/125762\/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=125762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=125762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=125762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}