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War and Peace

Poetry Index

Out of My Skin
Monarch
A Matter of Scale

Heat Wave
Poet and Pet
Awakening
Rebirth

A Reasonable Life

Snapshots 2006
Haikus
Hush and Listen
Faces
Lizard Thoughts
Thunder
White Rose
Mother of the World
Finally

Poems 2005 —
Passion & Discontent
Absence
Blind
Dance
Dry
The Wake of Disaster

Evening
Mama's Tears
Nude
Old Furniture
Pertoglyphs

Rest
Saved
Sounds of an Empty Promise
Entertainment
Sycamores
Three Quarters
Vientos del Mediterráneo
Weavings

Battle
Giving In

Poems 2004
The Dissappearance of Lao Tsu
Nameless Beauty
Commuting
Memory Game
Every Little Thing Counts
Landscapes of Yo Yo Ma's Brazil
Miles (to Miles Davis)
The Colors of Piazzolla's Tango

War and Peace
Making Friends
Old Glory
Kabul Update
Take Heart
March Madness

Poems 2003
Johnny Cash
Between Heartbeats
"Naked Poetry"
Sunflower Sonnet No. 1.5

New York City
My NYC is not your NYC
SanitationWorker, NYC
Gentrification
Passing By
Belly-button Renaissance
West Chelsea

Poems 2002
Crisis
Finding Each Other
Kindred Spirits
Meteor
To Our Youth
At Sunset
Questions
Hollyhock
Holland in Winter

On Society
Mirrors
McKinney X-Tex
Lady Liberty
Making Friends
Old Glory
Walking

Life's Lessons
Child's Life
Crashing Surf
In Search of the Unknown
Love at First Sight
Holding Hands
Grandpa's Tools

Musings
First Snow
Impressionism
Anonymous
Downcast Eyes
Sagrada Familia

In France
French Gardens
Air Show
Cell Phones 01-04

Churches
Lovers in the Castle


 

Kabul Update

National Public Radio, All Things Considered, January 24, 2002:

"The bird markets which were banned under the Taliban have reopened again."
- Noah Adams, NPR News

"Afgans find a real joy in seeing birds; it's one of the few joys that Afgans seem to have."
-
Ernie Torriero, Chicago Tribune from Kabul Afganistan

The bird markets
are once again
beginning to appear.
A sweet song
on feathered wing
greets the longing ear
which for so many years
has suffered
with the pain and noise of war.
Even the singing call to prayer
has not soothed
the wounded hearts
whose shattered dreams
and youthful joys
lie in ruin and in fear.

The wings and songs
so sweet and delicate
weave into lives so desperate
melodies and memories dear
of a time before screams and hunger
a time before wings and bombs
a time not remembered
by the young
whose entire lives
have been a war
devoid of beauty
devoid of culture.

These songbird emissaries
remind of nature
messengers of the God
missing in the prayer
forced out by rituals and laws
of men hungry for power.
Sweet songs are food
for starving souls
nourishing more
than repeated prayers
or bowls filled with donated grain
that feed the body
but can't ease the pain
of broken lives
or broken pride
of cruel and needless sufferings.

© Richard Sidy 2002

© 2002 SNS Press
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