A Prayer for Houston…. And,
POETRY FORMAT, 4 Sep 2017
Gary Corseri – TRANSCEND Media Service
Please help the people in Houston, Lord.
And, while You’re at it, in Palestine, too!
Though worlds apart, they are kindred,
as all suffering creatures are kindred.
Is the child who is crying black or white?
Do I speak the same tongue as the mother,
holding her frightened child—against the storms,
against the bombs; against cold and hunger?
That old man and woman, alone in a home
in Seoul or Pyongyang could be my parents.
Those siblings stumbling across burned-out fields,
scratching at roots for food, are my siblings, too.
In Alabama or Massachusetts–
the same gnawing. In Rio’s favelas,
in Tehran or Beijing: cancer carries away
the beloved father, husband, son or daughter.
The veterans of war remember friends
whose lives bled out in foreign lands,
in nameless places where speakers came
to lay down wreathes on withered graves.
Please help the people of Houston, Lord,
and of Chicago, Moscow, Damascus
and all those places I have heard evil
dwells…and turned my eyes away…in fear
that I would see myself—trembling, alone,
confused, bitter, failing…shouting at ghosts,
full of regrets, too easily misled,
believing lies dividing one jeweled world.
_____________________________________________
Dr. Gary Steven Corseri is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment. He has published and posted articles, fiction and poems at hundreds of venues, including, TMS (Transcend Media Service), The New York Times, Village Voice, Redbook Magazine and Counterpunch. He has published 2 novels and 2 collections of poetry, and his dramas have been produced on PBS-Atlanta and elsewhere. He has performed his poems at the Carter Presidential Library and Museum and has taught in universities in the US and Japan, and in US public schools and prisons. Contact: Gary_Corseri@comcast.net.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 4 Sep 2017.
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Gary is just the sweetest-voiced poet with the open heart of a saint. His work is a gift to the world. The spirit of love animates his work. Bravo, Gary!