Image source: Common Dreams, June 2, 2013, via twitpic. |
In the mines
and slag-heaps
of bards and patriots
that our ears
do not follow
in the early June dust
of yesterday's cries
where all peaceful
people will crystallize
in freedom's march
like Nazim Hikmet,
his life stolen away
yet stone-hard
under a strong sunshine
of the mountains
he is there with you
for liberty
against sorry evasions
and invasions of the mind
from the wounded in body
in the heart of your cities
lodged by history's
freed sheltered souls
yet a militant solidarity
suddenly without notice
enfolds upon another fold
faced by jury and injury
circles upon circles
not to be hesitant
or silent.
B.Z. Niditch is a poet, playwright, fiction writer and teacher. His work is widely published in journals and magazines throughout the world, including Columbia: A Magazine of Poetry and Art, The Literary Review, Denver Quarterly, Hawaii Review, Le Guepard (France), Kadmos (France), Prism International, Jejune (Czech Republic), Leopold Bloom (Budapest), Antioch Review, and Prairie Schooner. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.