Men Are Only Good When they Die From War
Submitted by okcitykid on June 27, 2007 - 3:13pm.
Book Club: Poetry
Men Are Only Good
When They Die
From War
Men have hands
But cannot touch
Arms
But cannot hold
Hearts
But cannot feel
For this
They are bad
Men are only good
When they die
From War
For this reason
No boy will ever strive to be a passionate man
Rather
Boys
Play war
By: Roger Harkness
The Okcitykid
Is war or violence the answer? I don't know. "What is the question?" Who is being asked? Politiicans or soldiers?
How can deterrence be credible if the answer is NO! If you can't have a credible deterrent doesn't that increase the probability of violence?
Thank you for understanding this poem and for those who didn't, I don't think less of you, poetry is difficult sometimes. Sometimes the writer doesn't understand what they have written.
The more I think about it the more I realize, yes. Video games, movies, tv shows, stories. But where is the truth. How many have seen a soldiers cry? A thousand tears are cried by soldiers everyday in Iraq, but there will never be a movie made about it, there will never be a tv show or comic book made.
You just kill somebody and don't even blink and tomorrow is another day - bull shit.
They need to know the truth and boys should be taught that its ok to cry.
Seeing that we're being truthful here. This poem was to be my suicide note because I did not know what else to say. But then I decided, why kill myself, why don't I just publish this poem on all of my blogs and see what people say, and strangly enough, people liked it, even the ones who didn't understand.
I hope my honesty didn't scare you, I'm ok, I feel a lot better now.
There's more ahead, and we're going to need people with compassion. It's really hard to be someone who has their eyes wide open, and feels things. And often it feels like too much, and you start to thing you're crazy when you look around and no one else seems to care.
But we have to care - even when it's hard and makes us think we're the weak ones. There is more power in compassion and thoughtfulness than in any amount of money or weapon.
At least that's what I think. And I am glad you feel better now. And I quite like your poem - although the title on the sidebar made me go, 'huh?' Compelling.
...sets forth a big problem we face.
Until those who have seen war can convince those who haven't, that war has usually not been the answer, many boys will continue to be reared believing war --- and violence in genereal --- is the answer.
Thanks for sharing this.