war

WOMEN IN WAR

Women in woad*
Shaking undressed breasts
Leading the warriors
Down Irish roads
Banshee-ing through the air
To cause enemies fear
O, to be with you
When war was for defense
Against Romans marching
Through sacred forests

Women in revolt
Beside their men
Stuffing the cannons
Riding like Revere
Founding Mothers
Some disguised as men
As their great-great granddaughters
Four decades later did
In a civil war of economics
O, to be with you
When war was for
Something grander than balls
And women of all races
Did their part
Against Kings of foreign lands
And decades later
With amazing bravery
Against Kings of slavery

Women in partnership
In the War to End All Wars
But no, once again,
In the War to clean up
The economic and territorial mess
A second world war where
Women were winding through alleys
With secrets in their minds
Torn apart by the enemy
No chance of apology
The height of equality
In the torture culture
In hindsight, I would not have wanted
To be with you

On and on
And then I came of age
Married during the Vietnam war
Mom threw out everything
Even my genuine winter pea coat
And summery field jacket
From the Army & Navy store

Here’s an aside:
Why did we protest
That ambiguous conflict
Yet wear war gear?
Sympathetic magic?
Or, worst of all,
A mistaken glamour?
Clad in the garb
Bathing it in words
From Dylan and Ochs
Peace, man
What a joke

Decades later, sadly
Homo sapiens still wants to kill
And despite taking classes
For karate and gun safety
Defense for my sons and me
I’m still wondering
Where have all the flowers gone
Still damning the masters of war
And me, I ain’t marching anymore
Not lifting my voice in protest
It’s for the new young to do

But the desire
The belief
In love and peace
Is still in my aging heart
Still want global good
Still sign those petitions
Still write Congress letters
Now tweeting and emailing
Now posting and texting:
Stop it! Please stop it!

Why have we buried
The end-the-war manifesto?
Why are we all still
Killing the men
Raping the women
Destroying the children
Poisoning the pets
Polluting the water
Burning the books
Cremating the crops
All in the name
The name that does change
Of the jealous god
Let’s build a wall
Around hate and death and war
Because destruction
Is not glamorous at all…
(c) 2019 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: Woad 2

*Used this verse in Selfie-Reflections (c) 2016

ME FOR YOU

Who says we’re the “Me” generation?
“Free” definitely
But remember all we did
For the Cosmos?
Some went to war
Some protested same
Learning the game
Of politics
Trying to save
Earth and clean up
Acid Rain
Not easy

Indulgence?
Yes, we were teens
Milestone to adulthood
Looming like a shadowy
Twist of steam
Competing with our
Psychedelic auras
So we indulged
But remember, we didn’t know
That drugs, cigarettes
And even sunshine
Were traps of death

Indulgence?
Oh, the music
Need I say more?
the melody of
Make love not war
Thrumming in our heads
Never to be forgotten
Decades after the first riffs
Of incomparable songs
Echoed along the
Space-time continuum

Me
And you
My lovely cohorts
(No matter our politics)
We made a splendid skydive
Into time
Ticking to the
Rhythm of
Rampaging, riotous
Life
All for the benefit of
You, the future generations…

(c) 2018 clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: MUSHROOM & PEACE UKULELE

A BRIEF HISTORY

Tripartite divisions
Time wounds all healing
Historic time unchanged
Lives still worth stealing

First tree struck by lightning
Branch fell on singed earth
Potential for weapons
Anger now gave birth

Wooden equalizer
Swing it through the air
Smash the enemy’s head
In war, all is fair

Stones are so much stronger
But they still can break
Blazing fires shape bronze
Blood lust now to slake

Iron changes the game
Scissors-paper-rock
Right through the techno age
Add lizards and Spock*

Childish games teach us well
So why work for peace
The world is so crowded
War aids that decrease

Songs of peace resounding
Through harsh centuries
Voices must continue
Profound harmonies

*The Big Bang Theory quantum addition to old game

(C) 2018 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)
IMAGE: My peace ukulele

 

 

MANCHESTER SUNSHINE

 

(scroll down for YouTube video)

 

As we Baby Boomers begin our final journey

To who knows where

I wrestle with thoughts

Of how sure we were

That the sun would shine in

And all would be love, peace, music and poetry

 

Youth was a time

When even the place names

Far away

Magically wooed us

Manchester was one

Appearing in a song from “Hair”

Making no sense to me

Then or now

But a city I’d want to someday visit

 

Perhaps I’m so poor at Geography

Because some places exist

In realms uncharted

An alternate Geography

Living and breathing

In the mind

 

Now, Manchester has a new meaning

Sunshine, stardust, all the magic of youth

Blown apart…

 

© 2017 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Manchester Evening News

 

 

YouTube video (song begins at 2:49   https://youtu.be/fhNrqc6yvTU

Lyrics for Let the Sun Shine In http://www.songlyrics.com/hair/let-the-sunshine-in-lyrics/

 

ANOTHER FAIRY TALE MIA

 

Moving away from the city that day

No longer able to tolerate cement suffocating the earth

Never seeing the universe’s nightly planetarium

Hiding out in the country

Ostriching my head

As the daily news counted the dead

Telling myself, I’m safe

But I know now it is the absolute end

Glass face of the moral compass

Shattered

If there was still a molecule of belief

In love and peace

It has been sucked into a

Bottomless vacuum

And nothing

Not a speck

Not an iota

Can ever be seen

No matter how strong the

Scanning electron microscope

Zaps

Seeking an image

Gone, all gone…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: pollen molecules under scanning electron microscope

IRISH MYTHOLOGY WIP FRAGMENTS*

Women in woad

Shaking undressed breasts

Leading the warriors

Down Irish roads

Banshee-ing through the air

To cause enemies fear

O, to be with you

When war was for defense

Multi-married Maeve

“She Who Intoxicates”

Queen to Eochaid

Demanding a dowry paid

By a trinity of promises:

A husband who would be without

Fear, meanness and jealousy

Maeve, brave survivor of

Rape, war, and her own soul-sucking envy

Powerful woman or perhaps a goddess

Embodying the Sacred Marriage

Guaranteeing fertility

In a viridescent land

*Inspired by the work of Heather Awen

PLEASE SEE HER WORDPRESS SITE:

https://heatherawen.wordpress.com/pen-pals-political-pagan-lgbtq/

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Woad, ekmpowershop3

AN ARM AND A LEG

 

**scroll down for YouTube video**

 

Separated only by a belt

Japanese legendary war

Between the Taira family

As red as Betelgeuse

And the Minamoto family

As {blue-tinged} white as Rigel

Stars still battling

Orion’s belt

No-man’s land

A war

A constellation

A leg and an arm

Emblems of a mythos

Red and white

Like the Japanese flag

Symbolizing

Duty, sacrifice and loyalty

The Hunter a mighty sum

Of his parts

In the eternal aethers…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Earth-Sky.com

 

YouTube: Orion by Metallica https://youtu.be/mmNpYwMpeJE

SOCIAL STRATIFICATION

WROTE THIS WITH A LOT OF ANGER. NOT SURE IF i AM ANY MORE PEACEFUL THAN THOSE I WROTE ABOUT…

What makes a war?

I get it when you say

Young men

And now young women

Should refuse to carry a gun

But that is victim-blaming

War is a social class problem

Poor youth, no job, no education

Join the service and the government

Pays for college, food, shelter

You get the magic beans for the price of your life

Mystery fans know

That murders are solved

By figuring out

Who benefits

Look at the many suspects:

Military-Industrial Complex

Super wealthy want war

Winning territory or oil

Politicians clamoring

For more

Reelection under the guise of patriotism

Most misunderstood word in the

English language

Bankers line their dragon-caves with gold

War enables merchants to become wealthier

Junk yard dealers selling rusted metal for weapons

Factories producing uniforms from fabrics

So-called food needed in cans and plastic packages

Benefits the huge farming conglomerates

Journalists who no longer report the truth

Ignoring the Double-Yous of

Who, What, Where, When, Why

Just talking, pretty faces of ignorance

Snapping soon-to-be photoshopped

Award-winning pictures of children

Blown to bits

But never lifting their voices to just say STOP

And the grieving goes on for

Spouses, partners, children

For aging grandparents and parents

Losing their babies to

Death, dismemberment or

Post-trauma hauntings of the mind

War is a class-thing

And as always

The lower class pays the highest

Retail price

Who is the enemy?

Most are like us

Wanting to shop on Ebay or Amazon

Wanting to rock out to current music

Wanting to love and laugh in nature

Caveat:

Don’t hate the Arabs

Don’t hate the Israelis

Don’t hate the Irish

Don’t hate the British

Don’t hate the Africans

Don’t hate the Hispanics

The victims are people like me

And you

Any more I tremble from

Lightning strikes in my back yard

House-shaking from thunder

But no way can I ever comprehend

A baby’s fear

As bombs explode

Interrupting their dreamy sleep

Waking, screaming

Because the boogie man isn’t

Hiding under the bed

Or in the closet

The boogie man is flying through the sky

Infiltrating to make them die

Physically, spiritually

So the survivors grow up

Losing their humanity

Whatever the current definition is

For that old-fashioned word

I look at my box of Sixties souvenirs

Peace necklaces that still retain

My sweat and tears

From my bleeding seventeen-year-old heart

ERA badge from the Eighties

Equal Rights Amendment

I campaigned for it

But women told me

They didn’t want to share a bathroom with men

Sound familiar, trans-gender people?

Homo sapiens

So unwise

TV has muddled the mind

That really needs to be nourished

Like a feed-the-masses sprout

Reaching toward the sun and rain

Instead of being blindingly

Dazzled by the beautiful and rich

Brainwashing the audience

Dictating what people should think

All geared to elevate those

Ruled by greed and gluttony

Go inward and contemplate what is really important in each precious life…

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: My peace jewelry worn when idealism existed

ANTITHESIS

 

Black holes on Earth

Sucking the light

Into permanent night

Portals to realms of horror

Evil’s way of gathering

Stray souls

Homeless, yet living in a house

Loveless, but part of a family

Poor, although paper and coin

Line the pockets of emptiness

Eons of fear

Beginning with the first sign of life

Biological imperative

Eat, reproduce, kill

Never let anyone take yours

Single-cells, fish, amphibians,

Reptiles, mammals

Interspersed with ferns,

Plants, trees and fungi

All obeying the call to survival

Can you believe that biological life

Actually evolved?

Physically, yes, but

The brain, the emotions, seem the same

How many of these black holes

Exist on Earth

I do believe

(And I’m not trying to deceive)

That negative power spots

Aligned along their own antithetical Ley Lines

Continue to increase

As we sleep

As we write songs of peace

As we begin to weep…

 

© 2016 Clarissa Simmens (ViataMaja)

IMAGE: Black Hole, NASA