Two Poets and a Prayer

Before now, poetry has
taken notice of wars, but
what are wars but politics transformed
from chronic to acute and bloody?
--Robert Frost

Say whatever you want. Do whatever you like, but on this day, two days before Memorial Day, a time of remembrance of those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom, and those who will be paying the price in the future, the daddy is not discussing US political campaigns and their by now all-too-familiar ugliness. He's not posting about an illegal, pre-emptive war that never should have started in the first place. And he's definitely not writing about political candidates who used their vote for the Iraq war to show that they're as tough as any other senator or congress person on war or terrorism.

Today, he is thinking about two poets; and he's in prayer.

He's thinking of Pablo Neruda 1904-1973), that devoted Chilean who served his country for so many years as consulate and ambassador from 1970 to 1973. He remembers that Neruda was a wise man and a great poet. He remembers that, when friend and Chilean composer Acario Catapos died, Neruda honored him with an elegant, one-sentence eulogy:

Today,
We deliver into the shadows
A brilliant human being
Who gave us a star everyday.

The daddy is thinking of Neruda as not only a representative of his country but a servant of peace. In "Memoirs" (Cinfeso Que He Vivido: Memorias), he wrote:

Poetry is an act of peace.
Peace goes into the making of a poet
As flour goes into the making of bread.

The daddy is thinking of the Oxford-trained English poet W.H. Auden, who was influenced by Thomas Hardy, William Black, Robert Frost and Emily Dickenson. He is thinking about the notion of evil, a recurring theme in Auden's work. He remembers him saying that, to find evil, you needn't travel to some distant land; you needn't look at anyone you perceive to be different. You need only look at yourself and those around you:

Evil is unspectacular and always
human, and shares our bed and
eats at our own table.

He said:

I and the people know
What all schoolchildren learn,
Those to whom evil is done,
Do evil in return.

A Memorial Day Prayer

By Rev. Nancy S. Taylor
Old South Church in Boston
Boylston & Dartmouth Streets at the Copley

Almighty God, our heavenly Mother and Father, in whose hands are the living and the dead; we give thanks for all who have laid down their lives in the service of their country. Grant to them thy mercy and the light of thy presence.

Grateful in heart thy people turn to thee, O God of all humankind. Give us wisdom and strength to save our land from greed and corruption; from pride and presumption; from tyrants and misrule. Deliver us from war and the menace of war. Give to our leaders wisdom and to our people patience, that together they may achieve a better law, a purer life, a more abundant opportunity for all. Grant unto our land to be numbered among he peacemakers and become a hope to the oppressed. Give her the desire to promote honor and humanity throughout the earth, that in liberty and self-restraint, in charity and gentleness, she may be worthy of her origin and of thy favor.

O Thou in whose hands are the hearts of thy creatures; shed abroad thy peace upon the world. By the might of thy Holy Spirit quench the pride, quell the anger, and cast out the greed which cause person to strive against person, and tribe against tribe, and nation against nation. Lead all nations in the ways of mutual help and good will and hasten the time when no evil deeds shall defile thy glorious creation; through Jesus Christ. Amen.

Peace to one and all,