Aleppo - Katharine L. Gordon

 
Aleppo

Skinny men dressed darkly
cradle weapons
cling to shadows
along old stone walls
filling hollows left by others
Greeks and Romans, Christians, Turks
who clung to those city walls
along dangerous streets
holding sword and scimitar, rocket and rifle
all believing they would control the city
un-shadow haunted hollows
have some kind of freedom to prevail,
the blood-drained dead forever part of the walls.
Markets  once the remnants of a thousand societies
held in curio acclaim in family of man
now rubble
attesting
our weapons are worse
our shadow-world more perverse
enough to demolish the past
destroy the present
erase the future
pulverize shadows.
 
Katherine L. Gordon
 






Full Moon Ends September

A hologram moon
scattered the landscape,
trees became fronds of separation
pierced by silver bodkins
a glittering dangerous lace
that trapped the dreamer
transformed presumed reality
into a near-truth --
everything shifts
light is a cosmic trick
we are not patterned anywhere
all our particles migrate
                                 separate.
 
Katherine L. Gordon
End of September, 2012.


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Conrad DiDiodato has left a new comment on your post "Aleppo - Katharine L. Gordon":

Katherine's are poetical prophesies that have the migration of particles and pulverized shadows as final resolutions to life's stupid brutalities.

These are (have always been)my own prayer.



Posted by Conrad DiDiodato to Riffs & Ripples from ZenRiver Gardens at 5 October 2012 17:18

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Oct. 6/2012

 Have a golden holiday dear Chris and Chase.  There is a ceremony of colour making the valley transcendent.

Glad you could post “Aleppo”   we are so fortunate for this little while to live in a bubble of light while so many suffer, wish we could help each one.

Kelly is a Guelph girl, was written up in the local paper,  many in Guelph went to that infamous protest,  none were treated well at all.  Kelly is brave and I think she is a political target while many turn away not wanting to see.
You know that story well.

Good luck with all those great poetry projects Chris,   thanks for being the pivot of action in Canadian literature.
Love from Katherine.

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Oct. 6/12

Hi Katharine & Don,
It was a treat to log on this morning - pre-coffee - and to read your email  :  ) It is a wonderfully colourful fall here as well, surprising after the many months of summer drought.

I feel the same way about the perfect "bubble of light" we usually live in as rural Canadians. I express this thought often to my friend Sylvia - that most Canadians seem unaware of the almost mythical life we Canucks enjoy.

And thanks for mentioning Kelly. She is the best young Canuck poet I've read to date. And she's in jail for a long time to come ...
Canucks do seem to specialize in cutting down the tall poppy, & the more politikal the poppy, the more brutally it's chopped off at its stalk.

Out here in Marmora the poppy field must be so stunted that even I've had a recent narsty backstabbing re my ZenRiver Gardens. An anonymous caller complained to Peterborough Conservation authorities that someone was putting rocks in the river below the bridge beside my property and this was slowing the river flow. I didn't think I had any enemies in the tiny hamlet of Malone, but obviously someone is actively shit stirring against me. Arggggggggggggggghhh! One neighbour happened to be on the bridge when the out-of-area officer arrived to investigate the call, & she kindly gave my name & where I live to the officer. Arggggggggggggh again  :  (

A few days ago a marked squad car with a uniformed enforcement officer visited me unannounced for questioning. I explained to him that the rock & cement foundation from the old dam (my prop was initially a mill - that's why I own both sides of the river) is still in place on the river bed, and that the distinctive "W" shape the current makes around it has been there for decades. I showed him the pic of the river on the cover of my ZenRiver book to prove this fact. Also the officer was surprised to learn that years ago I signed an agreement with Quinte Conservation Authority granting permission to access my property for water testing & for sampling aquatic populations.

If the various levels of conservation authorities had checked their records, before arriving in an accusatory manner, they would have saved taxpayers many hundreds of dollars in dealing with what must be some sort of personal vendetta. Ironically, local Quinte Conservation staff take weekly water samples from the very spot the out-of-area officer was directed to by the cowardly anonymous caller. If there had been any genuine problem, they would have noticed it immediately. Now a little enjoyment with my ZenRiver retreat has been stolen from me by the anonymous 'tipster' and by the conservation authorities I've invited to cross my land & to share my picnic tables.

Anyway, writing this down makes me feel a bit less upset, and it is time to take Chase for his poopifying hike on this gorgeous fall day. Can't let the bastards grind us down, as Atwood said in a Handmaid's Tale.

peace & poetry power!
Chris ... and a patient Chase ... Wrfffffffffffffffffffffff!

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