The War Has Started
POETRY FORMAT, 29 Apr 2019
Luis Henrique Beust – TRANSCEND Media Service
For the Behrouzi Family
The War has started
But life goes on:
(This conclusion is pathetic and painful,
Yet so, so true…)
Life goes on for those that live,
(But especially for those who die!)
Life continues to be pathetic and painful,
Yet so, so true.
The War has started
And fresh blood is spilling
From shattered men and women,
From shattered children,
From human beings, broken and smashed,
Like jars of jam tumbling off the shelf:
Lie on the floor, bloody and incurable;
Lie painful and in putrid form,
Yet so, so true…
The War has started, and the world groans.
And the world dances and sings.
The world has fun, buying and selling,
And life rolls on, pathetic,
Painful.
Only God understands this pain! Only He groans!
The pain of His image and semblance
Decimating His image and semblance.
And so many images and semblances lying there,
Shattered,
Broken,
Bloody.
Only God understands the silent scream
Of infant corpses.
Alas! A painful lack of groans,
The terrible lack of sobbing,
A devastating silence…
(And then: the shovels digging graves.)
And life goes on
Shattered,
Splintered,
Bloody.
Putrid like hate in the hearts.
Pathetic like vain words.
Like vain rhetoric, that in itself kills.
The War has started,
But life goes on.
It carries on, without a purpose,
Each time more without a purpose.
Like silent corpses.
Like smoking ruins.
Like hearts without God.
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Luis Henrique Beust was born in Porto Alegre, Brazil, in 1958. Beust is a consultant in human and social development at the UN-UNDP (United Nations Development Program), having worked in more than 30 countries in the three Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Asia. He also works as a consultant for corporations, governmental and nongovernmental organizations in Brazil and abroad. Since 1977 he has been a member of the Bahá’í community, having served in local, regional and national bodies throughout the decades. Like all Bahá’ís, he believes that “peace is not only possible but inevitable.” That world peace is the next stage of the collective life of mankind on this planet. He has been professor in graduate courses in Brazil and abroad, and has several published texts and books, including poetry. His book Educar por Inteiro (Wholesome Education), originally published by the UN, can be found in Portuguese in electronic format on the website of Anima Mundi (www.animamundi.org.br); and his most recent publication, Afinal, Por Que Sofremos? (After All, Why Do We Suffer?) may be obtained from the same site. lhb-poesia.
Tags: Direct violence, Poetry, War
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 29 Apr 2019.
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