Sunday, February 17, 2008

Mourning Their Father's Death in Iraq

In this picture, I see American sons, Palestinian sons, Al-Queda sons, Iraqi sons, and Israeli sons. Two boys in pain. The loss feels unbearable. I see in their mourning the failure of all the world's leaders to embrace peace and to forgo violence. I see revenged attacks, government stupidity, corporate boardroom dealings, the hypocrisy of religious groups, and foolish men making foolish decisions. Here is the human result.



The photograph below reminds me of "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel T. Coleridge. It was taken after the petmarket suicide-bombing in Baghdad. These doves are the victims of that bomb. Their death seems like a weight around our necks. A bad omen. In the poem just after the old seaman has shot down the albatross for the crime of flitting around the sky: "And I had done a hellish thing/And it would work them woe: For all averred, I had killed the Bird/That made the Breeze to blow." The allegory of the poem suggests that man's violence against nature will be his curse. That nature will punish man. The wind and the sun will retreat until the sins against nature are acknowledged by those who participate in violence until their passion for revenge is weakened by the magnitude of their murders, and, broken, they might bless those they've killed. Only then will that blessing enable the curse to be lifted, and the world will be restored.

2 comments:

Nabeel said...

what a wonderful poem. It's makes the pain go away. After reading the story one feels sad but it is lessened with the poem. Did you write it? Very well written (and I don't say that to people that much)

D.L. Hall said...

The poem is "The Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I was trying to link Coleridge's message to the world today, especially Iraq.