Aleppo
A father sings to his son,
dead two days,
and the platitudes persist.
Widow of night. Lantern’s trick.
What trace, you wonder,
exists of humanity in these etched
walls? Light bleeds through a crack
like rules unheeded and scattered.
Another sheer looming of hours.
The song, continued.
“Aleppo” was first published in Vox Populi in August 2018. I am grateful to editor Michael Simms for his continuing support of my work.
O at the Edges 
Yes, what trace?
heart wrenching
LikeLiked by 1 person
It us, indeed. Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Heeding rules in order not be scattered….. π
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or ignoring them.
LikeLike
You might be caught if you don’t heed the rules….
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thatβs always a danger!
LikeLike
Thread cautiously……
LikeLike
The destruction of Aleppo is a humanitarian evil, and especially a cultural evil. Aleppo was the home of Syria’s greatest singers, so much so that it was called “Umm Tarab”, the “Mother of Emotion.” Since music is learnt at the feet of masters in the Arab world, if the singer dies, the students’ musical lives die with him or her: thousands of generations of tradition gone with a single bullet or bomb. To destroy Aleppo is to murder the heart of Syrian music, cultural genocide. Imagine destroying the Giza pyramids, how the world would mourn, or if the Statue of Liberty was destroyed; song can be as vital and as important to the soul of a civilization. Syria has had such things done to it in cities like Aleppo…
LikeLiked by 1 person
We have a great capacity to do evil. I feel like that capacity expands daily.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We expand as our technology and morality either expand or contract. If our aspirations are not tempered by wisdom, well… we get both our Hitlers and our angels.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi Robert, thanks for sharing your poem. It’s incredibly sad. I think about Syria all the time and it’s just horrible. Feel like commenting on your poem but don’t know what else to say… I would say well done but it doesn’t fit with a theme like that. So hard to write about, but also not to write about. As someone who’s also written poems about the war in Syria I would find it difficult to explain why I was doing it. Poetry makes nothing happen as Auden said, and I normally think that’s fine, but certain themes throw me… Anyway thanks. Daniel
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you, Daniel. Your response is all that I could ask for from a poem.
LikeLiked by 1 person
This is actually very sad man.
LikeLiked by 1 person
We live in sad times.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I swear.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I wrote a poem about Aleppo two weeks ago; Under The Rubles
Good to hear that what’s happening up there is stirring emotions in the hearts of men world over…
LikeLiked by 1 person
Itβs sad that Aleppo is just one of many…
LikeLiked by 1 person