{"id":41003,"date":"2017-03-20T12:00:22","date_gmt":"2017-03-20T12:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=41003"},"modified":"2018-12-20T09:50:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T09:50:16","slug":"never-forget-for-rachel-corrie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2017\/03\/never-forget-for-rachel-corrie\/","title":{"rendered":"“Never Forget” (For Rachel Corrie)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rachel Aliene Corrie<\/i> (April 10, 1979\u00a0\u2013 March 16, 2003<\/b>) was an American peace activist and a member of the pro-Palestinian <\/i>International Solidarity Movement. She was crushed to death while trying to stop an Israeli Defense Forces armored bulldozer from demolishing Palestinian homes in Rafah, in the occupied Gaza Strip. This poem is dedicated to her, <\/i>in memoriam.<\/i><\/p>\n

Barely a woman, twenty three years old–
\nSoft, vulnerable\u2026. Surely, the Monster
\nWill stop in its tracks!<\/p>\n

She steels her will,
\nThinks of the tank in Tiananmen Square–
\nOne little man stopping a tank!<\/p>\n

Surely,
\nThey will perceive her love-resolve:
\nTo die in a great cause is to mortar–
\nNot martyr–the Cause!<\/p>\n

She must not die!
\nCannot break her parents’ hearts–
\nBack home! (She sees them now!)
\nIf only they knew
\nHow she had grown!<\/p>\n

They would understand\u2026
\nThis other love that held her now
\nIn place, this love of home and place,
\nAnd the Other,
\nOf the faces, the voices, the laughter…
\nOlive groves and sun-scented skin;
\nThe love she’d found for dispossessed:
\nChildren, fathers, mothers–also of her,
\nBelonging to her, because
\nEveryone suffering was One.<\/p>\n

It was hard to explain… but the Monster
\nTruck was coming now–remorseless Caterpillar,
\nSci-fi bulldozer to scoop her up!<\/p>\n

It would stop in its tracks!
\nBecause a man drove it!
\nA man who would see her,
\nIn her orange jacket
\nLike a bumble bee!<\/p>\n

He would see she had to
\nDo it\u2014stand there in its way
\n(Though its iron mouth gaped,
\nThough its hard lips snarled.)<\/p>\n

To save their houses, olive groves… to save
\nHerself! And these other selves–part of her
\nAnd part of the one who drove the Monster
\nCloser now, with droning, cacophonous,
\nTank-like clanking,
\nAnd the sun burning its panes like eyes.<\/p>\n

Surely
\nIt must stop, if she steels her will, is resolute,
\nPeers in his eyes… surely… then… understand…
\nHe will–the suffering\u2026 the children\u2026 why she stood
\nIn its way–<\/p>\n

Barely a woman, bones against
\nThe iron tread, encircling,
\nWinding, crushing, crackling,
\nBursting in sunburst light,
\nIn the dying light,
\nFor the sake of all.<\/p>\n

_____________________________<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Dr. Gary Steven Corseri is a m<\/em>ember of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and 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":"

Barely a woman, twenty three years old–
\nSoft, vulnerable\u2026. Surely, the Monster
\nWill stop in its tracks! <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[182],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry-format"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003","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=41003"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41003\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}