THE BRUTAL PLANTING OF SOULS

For Rachel Corrie and Nan Freeman

“Quick eyes

Gone under earth’s lid”

-Ezra Pound 1921

 “La lucha continuara’/The struggle goes on and on”

-Rose-Redwoods 1972

Rachel, you had no way of knowing,

on that day, in 2003, US attacking Iraq, Israel

attacking Palestine, both

on a treadmill that goes

on and on and on, both

partway through an endless cycle of violence

You had no way of knowing, Rachel,

young girl with blonde hair

from Olympia Washington

your whiteness against the dark

of Palestine, no way of knowing,

back then,

that you too would be made

part of the treadmill, part of the cycle,

you too would be plowed

under the earth by war machines,

 like the “quick eyes”

of the young men of WWI,

like the body of Nan Freeman,

another student, killed in Florida

by other robbers of the earth, by their

machines that crushed soul and body,

in 1972,

no way of knowing that  you

would become  part of the struggle

That goes on and on, la lucha, al intifada

Que continua y continuara’,

No way of knowing that you too

Would be spoken of as a martyr,

Shahida, like scores of other people,

Breaking themselves against the war machine,

 lighting up the night

all over the world, from Germany

and Czechoslovakia  to America to Vietnam

to Palestine to Tunisia to Egypt to Syria

and back to Palestine

and back to your own

Disunited States of America

Year of Our Lord 2012,

9 years later, Rachel!

no way of knowing

when your name was given to you

In honor of the woman

of whom it is said

“Weeping is heard in Ramah, Rachel/Rahel

weeping for her children, and would not

be comforted,” and there is weeping heard, Rachel,

today in Ramallah and in Ramleh and in Jerusalem

and in Jenin and in Gaza and in Rafah

and in Damascus and in Halab and in Homs,

and in Cairo and in Tunis and in New York

and in Seattle and Portland and Oakland

Rachel weeping for her children

and cannot be comforted but you,

Rachel Corrie, you can be comforted!

You can be celebrated!   Mother of the revolution,

martyr to youth, wake up call

to us all, your body and soul

are planted seeds in the earth, seeds

of truth and light, which shall sprout

once more

into the Tree of Life, beacon for us,

inviting acts of light, acts

that keep the human race going forward.

Forward, people, together, Avanti popolo!

Let us harvest the seedlings of light!

Woodstock. January 23, 2012