Blood seeping into the rivers of humanity,
flowing, raging in despair.
Tears of innocence lost,
hands scarred with evil.
When did humanity become so vile?
Why did it lose it's moral compass.
Life snuffed out and saturated by evil.
The morning news too hard to listen to,
a retired priest takes a plea for molesting
a child years ago.
Minutes later a report on four teachers
arrested in a sting operation seeking
sex with minors.
Human remains found of
a little boy in a backyard
where his parents lived.
The world has gone mad,
Human remains found of
a little boy in a backyard
where his parents lived.
The world has gone mad,
my heart sinks like a rock.
Children fragile,
good and pure,
a monster lurking in their closet
waiting to invade their world.
The snow in their snow globes
turned to slush.
The pillows listen to their cries.
Their voices muted .
I feel anguish ,
then I remember wise words,
Children fragile,
good and pure,
a monster lurking in their closet
waiting to invade their world.
The snow in their snow globes
turned to slush.
The pillows listen to their cries.
Their voices muted .
I feel anguish ,
then I remember wise words,
by a wise man,
Gandhi said,
" You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity
is like an ocean, if a few drops of ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty. "
These words comfort me,
These words comfort me,
I think of the balance of life,
evil and good,
they walk side by side.
I choose to have faith
in the good,
I choose to believe that
one day the world will be a better place.
I choose to believe that
one day the world will be a better place.
Meet us here, http://dversepoets.com/ where we share our thoughts and our hearts.
the remains of the boy in the back yard...you ripped my heart out right there...the every day attrocities that we hear about...i often wonder just what we have come to ....
ReplyDeleteMy heart was ripped out along with yours. :(
Deletelove that gandhi quote and that you end this on a hopeful note..sometimes the evil things overwhelm us and we can't see the light any more..the first part really left me in tears..
ReplyDeleteClaudia, that's the kind of day I was having...listening and not wanting to accept how horrid things are....
DeleteAyala, I agree that we are surrounded by so much that is vile in the world; but we each have to do our own thing to counteract it in our own little corner of the world. You have written a strong poem though; and I wonder if the world is really more vile today than it was a few decades ago or if we just HEAR about things more.
ReplyDeleteYes, we do hear about it more...but people have become so numb...so sad.
DeleteLove the quote and your decision to believe in the good despite the heart breaking and evil events around us ~ The world has gone mad, I agree ~
ReplyDeleteThank you, Grace. Yes, it has....
DeleteI choose to believe that, too... and stay away from the news as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteEven if I stay away from the news..it is still a reality that's out there.
Delete... sometimes it is a choice
ReplyDeleteSometimes....
DeletePoetry is good therapy for the ills of life, a small piece in the protest of them. My poem is a small sliver from this larger fabric.
ReplyDeleteYes...poetry is therapy...
DeleteGreat optimism at the end.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Tony.
Delete*tears* very touching and soul-stirring, Ayala. sometimes it's so hard to see the light after such atrocities..but i try to keep belief in humanity too..
ReplyDeletethank you for this.
Thank you, Yelena. I believe because there is so much good as well.
DeleteI agree, the news is hard to watch these days. I usually avoid it if I can. "The snow in their snow globes
ReplyDeleteturned to slush"... that line really got me.
Thank you, Alex. It is hard to watch.
DeleteI choose to have faith in our kinder nature too Ayala, there is a spark of good in everyone... some have lost their way and no longer see their own illumination or the light that exists in others... and this breaks our hearts as it should... it can also create more space for our own light to shine so we can be candles for those harmed by darkness... reaching out, reaching out...
ReplyDeleteI appreciate your sentiments, Laura. You have a beautiful heart.
DeleteI choose to believe that too...I love this poem, so powerful... I love the Ghandi quote...we can't lose faith... thanks Ayala. :)
ReplyDeleteThank you, Di.
DeleteBeautiful evocation of hope in the possibility for the betterment of humankind. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThank you, James.
DeleteIt is a choice - not easy to remember that always...this is a lovely reminder. It's been years since I've watched the news. Just can't let all that stuff in. As I was reading this I thought of some of the different things you've written about your son - a healer...and the good he brings. Then my mind jumped to each of our kids, and...on and on. The ocean felt bigger and cleaner. It's really one person kindly taking the hand of the one next to them - over and over. Keeps me faithful.
ReplyDeleteYes..there is so much goodness and it gives me faith and light...but sometimes I feel a rage at the ugliness in this world.
DeleteLove the way you've included the Gandhi quote. Good and evil do indeed walk side by side; as Solzhenitsin said, "The line between good and evil runs through the human heart,"
ReplyDeleteGreat quote, Tony. So true!
DeleteAnd so we all hope. I love those words of Gandhi, but sometimes I think we have made it our mission to turn the whole ocean dirty--I hope he, and you, are the ones who are right. The line about the snowglobes was very moving, ayala.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joy. Fortunately..I believe there is more good than evil...and sometimes I do think that we have made it our mission to turn the whole ocean dirty..but then I have hope.
DeleteI think the world has been ever thus. What makes it so hard for current inhabitants is the barrage and speed of bad news...too much for anybody to absorb. That you have chosen faith is heartwarming ...for you, for your family and friends, and certainly for your readers! An important write :))
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jackie.
Deletevery deep, painful and meaningful. thank you so much for Ghandi in the end - we need his words now more than ever.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Miriam. Gandhi's words are powerful.
DeleteI thought a very moving poem. And thanks for the Ghandi especially. But I also think it always feel terrible in the time. Think about WWII and the terrible atrocities -millions and millions killed, in really horrendous ways, or Cambodia under Pol Pot, or even the Jim Crow times of the 1950s (which people sort of idolize but had plenty of violence for some). We are very aware of all these things now and have very high expectations, and there does genuinely seem to be a certain kind of moral decay, and over-sexualization of the culture for sure, but I don't think we necessarily take the cake on depravity! I'm not sure this will make you or me feel better! k.
ReplyDeleteI did think of those times as well but somehow the daily atrocities that are happening at home, school, and religious sanctuaries is what moves me right now. It's a daily war of survival. It's voices muted ...
Deleteit really is distressing to watch the news; there are many times when I simply have to turn it off. But Gandhi's is a voice to be reckoned with, and i like the turn your poem took, in the end.
ReplyDeleteI hope you are coping, after the loss of your friend a few months ago. I really believe that their spirits live on, too.
The problem is that we can turn it off ...and it will continue to happen. Thank you so much for thinking of me. It's been hard and sad but I am doing my best to think of our wonderful life together. I will see her again one day. xo
Deleteyou found a way to lucidly weave the ocean parable into your poem about the ills of the world that always were and ever will be, I suppose.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.kimnelsonwrites.com/2013/01/15/chilling/
Thank you, Kim.
DeleteThis world has become a sad place and you have captured that in your words here
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gretchen.
DeleteThere is so much crap around, but really it was always found, just now we see it more and hear it more, doen't make it any better though.
ReplyDeleteYou are right!
DeleteThis is why I have stopped listening to the news, it becomes overwhelming. I do agree with Pat though, I think we just hear about more now that the world has grown so small.
ReplyDeleteThe snow globe line really slated me.
Always, I hold onto hope. xo
Thank you, Kelly. xo
DeleteStrong write, Ayala. I love the conclusion you come to. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Charles.
Deletesad, deep and moving
ReplyDeleteThank you.
Deleteyes - I was wondering if the apocalypse did happen...just slowly.
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
Deleteyou are making it a better place. Thank you
ReplyDeleteAloha from Honolulu,
Comfort Spiral
~ > < } } ( ° >
> < } } ( ° >
Thank you, Cloudia. Kind of you to say.
DeleteYes, and thanks for helping to make it a good place.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Pat.
DeleteI love that quote!
ReplyDeleteThat is an awesome place to be... not losing faith in humanity, in life itself!
Thank you, Dana.
Deleteme, too. I haven't given up on us yet. thank you, Ayala.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Jane.
DeleteI sometimes wonder though if it's just a few "bad apples" in the bunch. But maybe it's just the media making us believe that evil is rampant in our world. I sure hope that's the case. Because I can hardly take it either...
ReplyDeleteHard to take...
DeleteYour words are heartfelt. Sometimes I just have to avoid the news...I wish there were more reports of good happenings.
ReplyDeleteJen..I agree.
Deletewe must hold onto hope to survive, i think. beautifully written from your heart, ayala.
ReplyDelete♥
With poets like you writing poems like this, the world already is a better place. Never lose faith in the good. Great poem.
ReplyDeleteI think on average, most people are trying to live their lives the best way they can. But everyday, one gets to hear about some horrible or beastly thing happening in the world. Just causes one's blood to boil sometimes!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the reminder through your poem.
My blood boils a lot...
Delete...those were the reasons why i stopped patronizing television these days... co'z i hate to see news of such kind - heart ripping, thrilling, inhuman, atrocious, devilish, ah...what more to find... at a glance i hate this world... i hate being human... i hate myself... co'z i can't do anything... for a moment i wonder why and how we come to this end... i'm digging every bottom line of everything... ah, Ayala... you've tendered a very affecting read... i wanted to say more but words are not just enough...sentiments not either to make all of these stop from haunting...
ReplyDeleteIt is a helpless feeling because we can only do so much..but it's important to be aware and if we can help one person and it matters and it counts.
DeleteThat quote is so important. Otherwise it all seems for not. It is so hard to read the dark and awful of humanity. I think it will always be there, but it is so sensationalized right now that it is much more in our faces. Have faith....
ReplyDeleteThank you, Corinne.
DeleteAyala, You can't help but thinking that even Gandhi's faith would be tested nowadays, not by the great evils we have always confronted on the world stage, but by the day to day atrocities that seem to spring up around us with regularity and without seeming explanation. Very thoughtful writing in this.
ReplyDeleteI agree, Steve. Senseless atrocities...
DeleteSo glad you chose to believe in hope, rather than believe in despair. I try not to watch the news too much or it draws me into sadness and anxiety. Also, I feel somehow I contribute to the chaos, by acknowloedging it too much. Peace to you. What you write has truth.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Myrna.
DeleteI read of such evils and am overcome by helplessness. I realize that living a good life will affect lives around me but I am only one. I hope that others join the quest toward good. Strong and honest.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Beth. I hope others do join the quest toward good.
DeleteI'm with Beth, Ayala. I don't watch the news anymore...the world has gone mad.
ReplyDeleteI was reading this book: "Savage Continent" about the 10 years after WWII in Europe. Oh, God...my heart breaks reading this. But it is no different now....there are two lines in your poem that jump out:The world has gone mad...etc.
Sometimes it seems like that. Turn off the media and do random acts of kindness. What else are we left to do?
Wonderful, genuine poem.
Jane
Yes...Jane !
DeleteGreat write
ReplyDeleteAyala, you pose the same questions in the beginning, that I ask myself quite often. Strong writing.
ReplyDeletePamela
Thank you, Pamela.
DeleteYay, Ghandi!! His wisdom rocks eternally.
ReplyDeleteThe whole passage about the child's terror is very impactful, Ayala.
I stopped watching the news some time ago, and my life is so much better for it. Look at all the wonderful poets I get to visit on the Net instead of hearing all the gunk that new people are so quick to report!
Long live the poets.
xoxoxo
Long live the poets. :)
Deletexoxo
news people that should read.
ReplyDeleteoh, i like that you brought us hopeful words there at the end.... wisdom, indeed. thanks for this, ayala.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joanna. :)
DeleteDeeply moving. Oh, Ayala, you capture the sadness with such power.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Rudri.
DeleteThank you kindly and I will.
ReplyDeleteKeep the faith. You're blog is a little haven from evils and despair.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary. You are sweet.
DeleteI think of the ocean. That's us, you included. Many thanks.
ReplyDeleteGreetings from London.
Thank you kindly.
Delete