“It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war is nothing but an act of murder.” Albert Einstein

Hello everyone!

Let me start with a disclaimer today…I know expressing an opinion on religion or politics can perhaps provoke potent emotions and lead to controversy. But as human beings we are all able to see when human rights are violated…I do not want to start a discussion on good war vs bad war or it being a necessary evil, BUT on the inhuman side of war.

Strip a war of jingoism and romanticism and all that would be left is the miasmic putridity of death and depravity. The senseless slaughter, the perverted tortures, the gang rapes, the indiscriminate bombings that should fill us with revulsion, are pushed into the background when we eulogize the dead soldiers who did not have to die. When we remember those soldiers years later, we are at the same time forgetting scores of civilians whom we term just collateral damage. They were individuals with an identity, dreams and aspirations but now are cold numbers only.

War adversely affects not just combatants but non combatants too. Death, disability, sexual violence, malnutrition, psychological trauma, PTSD, depression and anxiety are some of the most threatening physical and emotional consequences of war. It can sever family ties and disrupt communities.

Those that do survive the mindless mayhem, the numbing horrors, carry the scars of wars on their psyches that remain festering and unhealed. Sometimes love and therapy are not enough to bring them back from the brink. Wars make us carry crosses that are totally unnecessary. Lives should matter more than lines (on maps).

Beyond the toll that a war takes on human lives, think of what it does to the environment! The impact of any conflict, whether aerial warfare or chemical contamination contributes immensely to the reduction of flora and fauna in the conflict zone. Attacks lead to water and soil contamination and release of pollutants. Nature becomes a silent victim of war too.

The Challenge

For today’s Poetics, I would like you to write an anti war poem. Let it not be an ode to the slain soldier. Let it be about his dilemma about killing strangers, his despair at taking lives, his inner turmoil about nationalism. Let it be from his mother/father/wife or kid’s point of view. Or write from an ordinary citizen’s perspective. Let us all raise our voice against wars that do nothing for anyone…not even victors!

Here are excerpts from two poems to inspire you.

The end and the beginning

                  by Wislawa Szymborska

After every war

someone has to clean up.

Things won’t

straighten themselves up, after all.

Someone has to push the rubble

to the side of the road,

so the corpse-filled wagons

can pass.

The man he killed

                    by Thomas Hardy

Had he and I but met

            By some old ancient inn,

We should have sat us down to wet

            Right many a nipperkin!

            “But ranged as infantry,

            And staring face to face,

I shot at him as he at me,

            And killed him in his place.

You can also read “Wichita Vortex Sutra” by Allen Ginsberg for inspiration.

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