Poetry By Charles C. Finn
We can no longer be tribal if we're to survive.
We've literally got what it takes to extinguish ourselves,
to destroy the Family,
to blacken the green Earth.
It will take more wisdom to avert this than collectively
we've so far displayed.
Would that that magnificent vision from the lifeless moon
of the fragile splendor of the blue living Earth
crash through eyes to heart and understanding.
We must see beyond nation,
recognize Family beyond tribe,
declare broader allegiance
or else leave behind a shriveling legacy for the children
of our children
who will wonder, with air less fit for breathing,
how their forebears could look but not see.
Many And Diverse The Warriors And Heroes
We're late welcoming Vietnam vets home,
honoring their service and sacrifice, their grit to survive a
literal hell the rest of us can't imagine--
grossly late.
For many of them these have been desperate years--
isolated, bitter, terrifying still for memories erupting.
How good that they're coming home at last to honor
within their nation, within themselves.
But let us not forget that these were not the only warriors
and heroes.
"Defectors to Canada" never did have a popular press
for seeming to take the easy way (many don't hesitate to
say the coward's way),
but thank God for their service and sacrifice to something
deeper than nation-state at war,
as well as for the millions of demonstrators back home
lending moral outcry words and feet until at last the saving
retreat.
Many and diverse the warriors and heroes
in those days that tested out soul.
They Missed The Lesson
"We didn't lose the war, they wouldn't let us win it."
They missed the lesson.
Defeat, because humbling, can be humanizing.
Unless man or nation experiences humbling,
self-inflation reigns.
Justify then absolutely anything.
In the long run our demoralizing withdrawal from Vietnam
may prove morally empowering.
Until we own our dark side,
we'll not treat others equal for deeming them inferior.
Size, power and technology have thrust us into leadership,
but God help us and Earth if morally we continue feeling
superior.
Vietnam can yet turn blessing
if we see in its cracked mirror our blindness.
Such is not to attack our honor but to own our humanity.
Despite bright gifts we have dark flaws which, unacknow-
ledged, make us monstrous.
The lesson is lost if our collective ego insists we never
lost,
insists the chickenhearted and the disloyal prevented the
job from getting done.
If no change of heart from chastened self-vision,
then remembrance smoldering and calculaton cold
determine next time we won't be thwarted.
Sky High If We Have To
Sell your soul for a consumptive lifestyle
and your nights will be an anxious for fear of losing it
as your days to defend its encroachment will be building
for war.
Never mind whose homeland and soil,
we'll blow it sky high if we have to
to protect our oil.
The Idolatry Of Nationalism
You never get a better look at the idolatry of nationalism
than when, fervor rising to a religious pitch, a nation is at war.
Cause becomes holy.
President becomes high priest.
Congregation of patriots becomes born again.
Flag becomes icon.
Enemy becomes diabolical.
Dissenters become heretics burnable at the stake if the
age permits.
In the present war check out both sides
to see if the shoe fits.
Not Yet The Requisite Courage
From the commonsense perspective of reason
pacifism seems indefensible,
easily dismissed with "surely you'd have the decency to
kill to protect your family."
But can it be denied that spirit giants past and present
(changing societies if not civilizations)
whose values and teachings we claim to live by
were confirmed pacifists?
If we but remember Buddha and Jesus, Gandhi and King,
we might at least in honesty admit we haven't yet the
requisite courage
to rise to the heights of the mountain they reached,
of the peacemaking they lived and preached.
Our government has the gall to call Hussein an
environmental terrorist
for spilling millions of barrels of oil
when it has just unleashed upon the body of Earth
"the greatest aerial attack ever."
Seeing selves virgin and enemy whore:
sure recipe for war.
