Thanks to Rumi’s Facebook page for this powerful picture.
Maybe children should control the world.
10 Responses to “Child Teaches Man”
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Our revels now are ended. These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air:
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep.
-- William Shakespeare
"O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of male and female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know and cooperate with one another."
- (Quran 49:13)
by Maryam Chahine
SONG FOR THE MUSIC IN THE GAZA GHETTO: VARIATIONS OF OSHEROW
by Maryam Chahine
Pity the eyes that are told not to cry.
Pity the voices that are told to be silent.
Pity the child whom the world sanctions to die.
Pity the survivors who turn to violence.
Pity their freedom choked behind walls.
Pity their rights locked behind bars.
Pity the genocide hidden in museum halls.
Pity the world's silence driving by like cars.
Pity the olive trees that press through slaughter.
Pity the breaths kidnapped from shores.
Pity the tears that become ocean waters.
Pity the living, dead in an unending war.
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Featured Posts
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One Poem in A Hudson View
A Drowning of Six Feet was published in the Spring of 2011 issue of A Hudson View. The beginnings of the poem came quite easily to me, but it took me a long time to finally complete this piece. A Drowning of Six Feet It was a drowning of six feet giant black birds […]
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One Poem in Free Verse
Song for the Music in the Gaza Ghetto was just recently published in the summer 2011 issue of Free Verse. It is a publication I read quite often and admire very much. I’ve discovered many valuable poets through this literary journal. It just so happened that Sherman Alexie’s work appeared in the same issue as […]
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Two Poems in Damazine
The two poems include A Terrorist Family and Not to Steal the Breath of Another which appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Damazine. I wish this publication the best of success as it tries to bring literature relating to the Muslim world to the public. This was my very first paid work Thanks […]
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Two Poems in Ghoti
The two poems include Exit of Zeekoff and I Erase into the Ocean which were published in Ghoti Magazine in 2009 if I’m correct on the year. Ghoti closed down recently; I was quite sad to see it go. I received some very good feedback from the editor. Many literary magazines don’t make it for […]
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Three Poems in SPAM
The three poems include Advice to a Diminishing Girl, An Unforeseen Meeting, and Rainstorms that Closed My Eyes which were published in Sacramento Poetry, Art and Music in 2008. Advice to a Diminishing Girl Diminishing girl, do not seek confirmation: in crescent brows, rogue lips, cursory eyes. Do not despise your own (un) cluttered self. […]
Poem of the Week
LOVE
By Sarah Flower Adams
O Love! thou makest all things even
In earth or heaven;
Finding thy way through prison-bars
Up to the stars;
Or, true to the Almighty plan,
That out of dust created man,
Thou lookest in a grave,--to see
Thine immortality!
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This is so adorable. Omg, sometimes it seems like a child understands life way better than grown women and men. How sad…
Yes, it is sad. Images like this try to remind us.
This world is so complicated and annoying sometimes…
-_-
A picture can say it all- and this one certainly does just that. Thank you
Yes, indeed. When I first saw this image, I knew I wanted to share it on my blog. So simple, but says so much.
The Rainbow by William Wordsworth
“My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
The Child is father of the Man;
I could wish my days to be
Bound each to each by natural piety.”
That’s one of my favorite poems by Wordsworth. Yes, the “child if father of the Man” goes perfectly with this image. Somewhere along the way people forgot the childlike innocence that is inherent in them. Greed, power, money and its pursuit covers over our true nature I think. Thanks for sharing the poem, Richard : )
I thought you would find it fitting.
Yes, indeed : )
What a wonderful lesson, Maryam – something all of us need to keep at the fore.