Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Peace

by Angie Capozello

It started with a whisper of wings And the sound of trumpets

The birds fled as the first mortars fired They’re ‘softening us up’ before the charge

Voices raised in song filled the heavens Then fell silent before the hiss of drawn swords

If you hear the shriek of the shells, you’re okay It’s when it goes quiet that you worry

The sky trembled as the angels fought Brother against brother, the first holy war

Then the thundering starts, and the earth shakes As the bombardment falls like an unholy rain

It lasted forever, for a moment, an eyeblink An eternity, but it wasn’t over

The War to End All Wars wasn’t the end It just sowed the seeds for the future

There were still souls to win, Hearts and minds to sway

War rose again, like a ghastly Phoenix From the ashes scattered across a million graves

Heaven and Hell, all to win And everything to lose

Again and again, war returns With the question on the lips of humanity

Even in heaven a war was fought

How can man find peace if God could not?

7 comments:

Marisa Birns said...

Beautiful art and poetry.

Yes it's a neverending struggle between good and evil. And until the lessons of the past are truly heeded, it is one that will continue to define the future.

Cynthia Schuerr said...

The first two lines depict the art perfectly. And it became impossible NOT to read on, Angie.
A sad, but true message for us all to heed.
Thought provoking, indeed. (I did not mean for that to rhyme):-)
Happy Writing!

Anonymous said...

lovely writing :)

Jim Bronyaur said...

AWESOME! Just awesome. . . this is the kind of poetry (and art) that made me want to start a project like this!

Jim

Lindsay said...

I love the form you use. I just may have to "borrow" it.

Also, I recently wrote a phoenix related poem on my blog.

Anonymous said...

I chose this form to make it easier to see that there are really two stories, but they are telling the same story. Back and forth, heaven and earth reflecting each other.

I generally use whatever form fits the idea, rather than choosing a form and writing something for it :)

Joz Varlo said...

Simply beautiful. The last two lines were so soul wrenchingly powerful. Great poem.