WAR
Wendell Berry

The year begins with war.
Our bombs fall day and night,
Hour after hour, by death
Abroad appeasing wrath
Folly, and greed at home.
Upon our giddy tower
We'd oversway the world.
Our hate comes down to kill
Those whom we do not see,
For we have given up
Our sight to those in power
And to machines, and now
Are blind to all the world.
This is a nation where
No lovely thing can last.
We trample, gouge, and blast;
The people leave the land;
The land flows to the sea.
Fine men and women die,
The fine old houses fall,
The fine old trees come down:
Highway and shopping mall
Still guarantee the right
And liberty to be
A peaceful murderer,
A murderous worshipper,
A slender glutton, or
A healthy whore. Forgiving
No enemy, forgiven
By none, we live the death
Of liberty, become
What we have feared to be.

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From Wendell Berry's 1998 collection
A Timbered Choir: The Sabbath Poems,
Counterpoint Press

Video: Not My Enemy

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Click Image for: "Unseen Gulf War"

"The war on Iraq has made moral cowards of us all."

100,000 CIVILIANS DEAD IN IRAQ (The Lancet 29Oct'04)