Etching © by Julie Maas; permission to reprint free to antifascists
Etching © by Julie Maas; permission to reprint free to antifascists
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they sing in chile in an empty stadium seventy thousand more sing in el salvador they sing in peru brazil guatemala a song for you the poor sing babies mothers fathers priests sisters brothers the song of missing the song of disappeared the martyrs' tongueless notes of suffering eyes pressed to flesh the blind notes of where were you from vietnam cambodia laos they sing they sing from names chiselled in a black stone wall from the silent death camps of europe they still sing they sing along death row with each moment's breath condemned to death for innocence or circumstance or guilt of lives broken to death's use and sing along back roads when the food runs out when winter takes the last sense tuneless in the corner of an old age home in each city song of a final no they sing along the road to basra the retreating army going home farmers shopkeepers in ill-fitting uniforms defeated without firing a shot riding hot metal in the sun they sing a song of fire the unresisting angel of each soul rising like flames from each desert brother thousand on thousand angels joining their god sing over whips of sand over the new world ordered mass graves of human family winds between the continents sun across the sky thrust of spring in stalk and bud summer's leaf and flower fruit and berry sing with their innocence a spirit passing here in words a song of innocence, from 37 Poems (ISBN 0.941917.19.3), was first published in akwesasne notes, mohawk nation. John Bart Gerald's poems have appeared internationally and rarely since the Sixties; currently he writes in Ottawa. Julie Maas is a graphics artist and painter. She began working in the early Sixties in New York. Gerald and Maas founded Gerald and Maas * editions / atelier in New York City (1978) before moving to Canada in 1995. They also maintain a small Community Online out of concerns for the Iraqi people [says Gerald, "There are so many peoples..."]. The poem and the etching are published with the written authorization of the author and the artist respectively. Please, DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans, which will seek permission from the author. This poem is copyrighted, © John Bart Gerald 1992. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. |
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Gerald and Maas * editions / atelier
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