What Is War?
POETRY FORMAT, 5 Aug 2013
Tom Greening – TRANSCEND Media Service
What is war, and whom shall we ask?
Clausewitz gave his bland definition,
“nothing but the continuation
of politics by other means,”
but he did not then bleed.
The survivors, some of whom did bleed,
and who saw horrors,
did not die,
so even they only know part of it.
Generals, soldiers, medics, politicians, journalists,
historians, women, children, looters—
whoever survived does not know all of war.
Only those who lived their final seconds
immersed in it,
whose consciousness
to the very end
was steeped in the cauldron,
grasped the whole truth,
and they aren’t telling.
__________________________
Tom Greening: “I engage in five professional activities:
Faculty Member at Saybrook University
Private Practice of Psychotherapy
Clinical Professor of Psychology, UCLA
International Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Psychology
Writing (Poetry).”
www.tomgreening.com
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 5 Aug 2013.
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