I am headed to New Zealand to present at an International Peace Conference and have been thinking of resistance so needed today. Music, poetry, and art play a significant role in resisting violence, including that imposed by governments and other institutions that are supposed to protect.
One of the first albums I bought was The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan. I was about 16-years old and I still have the album. It is iconic with songs like Blowin’ In the Wind (melody based on a spiritual called No More Auction Block), Masters of War, A Hard Rain’s a-Gonna Fall, Oxford Town about resistance to desegregation in the American South, and Talkin’ World War III Blues. Dylan covered Lead Belly’s version of I Shall Be Free.
Talkin’ World War III Blues is my favourite song on the album. Dylan was at his best in the spontaneity of the song and it fits with the talking blues genre. In I Shall Be Free, he sings about making love to Elizabeth Taylor. Even in the early 60’s a was a way to avoid the reality that hung over the world was to turn to popular culture as a distraction from the threats of nuclear war.
About the same time, I wrote a poem in school. I know Mr. P. writes poetry is hard to imagine for my students. The poem was about the tragedy of war and it stole lives in absolute ways whether through death or through the physical and psychic damage done to those who were forced into service in a war they did not understand. Many of those who died or were left deeply scarred with the trauma of war were from the African American population, which was about 12% of the American population at the time. Their deaths alone represented about 25% of the casualties, so statistically overrepresented. The personal narratives within their families and communities can not be quantified.
The poem I wrote as a teenager is below.
Win or Lose: What Difference Does it Make?
A game–
Darwin misunderstood,
No great thing to win.
War and it language!
Bells ringing hollow,
Men, women, children gone!
Woe! vanquished losers and winners;
Humans, vanquished in every sense–
Thriving on dividing.
Resenting conquerors,
Rebuilding ruins–
On countless graves.
Morally rudderless,
Blaming the fallen,
Beggaring humans.
Homes on streets,
Hollowing souls–
What war brings?
Innocence dying–
Prryhric victories,
What war brings?
Comrades fallen,
Enemies vanquished–
Proving nothing.
Will we learn?
I pray
For human survival.
ivonprefontaine
Teacher as Transformer 