I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. Then begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.
I have no desire for talking, my tongue is tied up.
Now that I am abhorred by my time, do I sing or not?
What could I say about honey, when my mouth is as bitter as
poison.
Alas! The group of tyrants has muffled my mouth.
This corner of imprisonment, grief, failure, and regrets –
I was born for nothing that my mouth should stay sealed.
I know O! my heart, It is springtime and the time for joy,
What could I, a bound bird, do without flight.
Although, I have been silent for long, I have not forgotten to sing,
Because my songs whispered in the solitude of my heart.
Oh, I will love the day when I break out of this cage,
Escape this solitary exile and sing wildly.
I am not that weak willow twisted by every breeze.
I am an Afghan girl and known to the whole world.
By CARLOTTA GALL KABUL, Afghanistan, Nov. 7 - Nadia Anjuman, who had been gaining a name for herself as a poet in Afghan literary circles, died over the weekend in the western city of Herat after being beaten by her husband, police officials said Monday.
The death of Ms. Anjuman at age 25 was lamented by colleagues and condemned by the United Nations as a tragic example of the violence that so many Afghan women still face despite their advances four years after Taliban rule.
Ms. Anjuman was knocked unconscious by her husband during an argument Saturday evening, Col. Nisar Ahmad Paikar, chief of the police crime unit in Herat, said in a telephone interview.
Her husband, Farid Ahmad Majid Mia, is in custody and has admitted hitting his wife and knocking her unconscious, Colonel Paikar said. Ms. Anjuman died later in a hospital, he said. "She had a dark bruise under her right eye," he added.
Ms. Anjuman, a literature undergraduate at Herat University, published her first volume of poems this year, titled "Gule Dudi," or "Dark Flower." She was to publish a second volume next year, said Sayed Haqiqi, a local journalist and colleague of Ms. Anjuman in Herat's Cultural Association. Her husband, who graduated with a degree in literature from the same university, worked as an administrator in the literature faculty, Mr. Haqiqi said.
A spokesman at the United Nations mission in Kabul, Adrian Edwards, called Ms. Anjuman's death tragic and a great loss to Afghanistan. Her death "needs to be investigated, and anyone found responsible needs to be dealt with in proper accordance with law," he said.
Tuesday, May 20, 2014
DO NOT LET YOUR FACE
BE TROUBLED
INTRODUCTION
The title of my
homily for this 5th Tuesday after Easter is, “Do Not Let Your Face
Be Troubled.”
In today’s gospel
– again from John – we have a recurring theme - about - not letting one’s
heart be troubled. [Cf. John
14:27-31]
As I was thinking
about that last night while working on this homily for today, I asked: “Does
saying ‘heart’ get to the heart of the matter – with what the text is talking
about?”
To a Hebrew – in
Jesus’ time – heart would not mean the pump. The doctors in those days wouldn’t
know what we know about how our hearts work. The word “heart” would mean one’s
command center. It’s the me that I am.
It refers to our mind – our personality – our will – our character – our
attitude - and a lot more – the me of me.
So translators
might do better - by using the word “center” – instead of heart – when we hear the call to love God - our neighbor – and ourselves.
So the
translation could be, “Let not your center, your you, be troubled.”
Yet on the other
hand, we get heart. Think of Valentine’s Day or all those bumper stickers and
T-shirts with hearts on them – that say things like, “Virginia, or Chocolates or Pugs or Naptown is
or are for lovers.”
WHAT ABOUT ONE’S FACE?
What would it sound like if we made the sentence go like
this: “Let not your face be troubled.”
We can’t see another’s heart, but we see each other’s
face.
How many times has someone said to us, “Is everything
okay?” And we say, “Yeah – ah ----- uh --- everything’s okay.” But along with the response there is that
tiny biting our lower lip or that slight shrug of our shoulder.
And as they walk away – and for the rest of the day or
the hour we wonder, “Is it that obvious, that I’m nervous about X or Y or Z?”
We are sculptors – the sculptors of our faces? Is that true?
I always remember a page in a book I read some time in
the past. I forget the name of the book or anything in it – other than that one
page. It had two pictures on it in black and white. The top picture had a table
filled with laughing babies. How did they get them all to smile at the same
time – and on the same table? And the
picture underneath had a scene of people in a New York Subway car – packed together
– maybe on the way home from a long day at work - and everyone has a closed mouth - and many have
a sad face. And underneath that picture were two words: “What happened?”
How many times do we have to be angry – to form a
permanent angry face?
How many times do we have to be sad – to form a permanent
sad face?
How many times do we have to be happy – to form a
permanent happy face?
Smile someone’s taking your picture.
Smile someone’s being affected by your face.
William
Shakespeare said, “God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.” Is
that true? What’s your take on that comment?
TWO TRICKS
I guess two
tricks are: One - look in the mirror and ask yourself, “Self! What’s going on
in there today.” Two - Without looking in the mirror, feel your face from the
inside and ask that same question other’s ask us, “Is everything okay?” Then
answer that question for yourself.
We’ve all felt
our face squinch and squirm and squiggle at times – as we say, “Ah – no - not
again. Crud. I hate it when he does that. Every dang time. Dang it! Uhhhhhhhhhhh
Ugggggggh!”
William Ernest
Henley said in his well-known poem, Invictus,
“I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
I’m wondering out
loud in this sermon, “Am I the sculptor of my face.”
And Jesus looks
us in the face – and says, “Peace!”
He says, “Peace in there baby, inside there, baby. What’s going on inside your
self – behind that face today?”
See his face.
Hear that word of “Peace!” Be aware of what that does to our face today.
CONCLUSION
Uh oh! After
Mass, I hope nobody here says in our parking lot about us, “Oh no! Was that
person at the same Mass I was just at this morning?”
SPEECH IMPEDIMENT
Poem for Today -May 20, 2014
STAMMER
Stammer is no handicap.
It is a mode of speech.
Stammer is the silence that falls
between the word and its meaning,
just as lameness is the
silence that falls between
the word and the deed.
Did stammer precede language
or succeed it?
Is it only a dialect or a
language itself?
These questions
make the linguists stammer.
When a whole people stammer,
stammer becomes their mothertongue:
as it is now with us.
God too must have stammered
when He created Man.
That is why all the words of man
carry different meanings.
That is why everything he utters
The title of my short homily for this 5th Monday
after Easter is, “Zeus and Hermes.”
Paul and Barnabas in today’s first reading from The Acts of the Apostles are called Zeus and Hermes by the people of the townof Lystra. [Cf. Acts 14:5-18]
Paul – along with Barnabas – had called on God - for the healing
of a crippled man – who is lame from birth. Paul seeing that the man had the
faith to be healed calls out in a loud voice, “Stand up straight on your feet!” Surprise! The man jumps up and starts to walk about.
The crowds seeing what Paul just did cried out, “The gods
have come down to us in human form.” It’s then that they call Barnabas “Zeus”
and Paul “Hermes”.
GREEK AND ROMAN
MYTHOLOGY
I don’t know about you, but down through the years –
whenever I run into names of the Greek gods – as well as the Roman gods – I say
to myself, “I have to take the time to study up on all this.”
I’ve tried several times. I never seem to get it. And
I’ve often been impressed by those who know all about the names of the Greek gods
– and their Roman – counterparts – and who is god of this and who is god of
that.
It’s like those who know all the names of the characters
in The Chronicles of Narnia or The Hobbit series. For them, it's as if the
characters lived next door.
This morning, once more, I looked up who these gods were
and what they stood for.
Zeus is the top god – the god who presides over all these
other gods. When sculpted he’s a statue of a male - standing there as a father
– with thunderbolt in hand. He’s
described as father – the head god – the one who presides over various other
gods. He’s described as an eagle, or a bull or an oak. He’s described as the
daytime god.
Hermes is described as one of the children of Zeus – and
he had many. He is described as a messenger – who brings messages – from here
to there and back. In Roman mythology he’s called Mercury – with wings on his
feet. You’ve seen that in fast messenger – as well as fast flowers –
services. At times he’s described as the
trickster – the cunning one. He moves between two words: human and divine. One
descriptions that he’s the god of transitions and boundaries. I like that one.
I know him better than the other gods – because he’s the
god of public speaking – and that’s how the folks of Lystra and elsewhere saw
Paul.
CHRISTIANITY
Christianity all but put an end to this whole system of
gods and goddesses.
I have to do my homework – and that means more reading –
about all this.
At times I wonder if there is a human tendency to want
gods – or powers above our powers, abilities, and weaknesses. If there is, what
happened with Christianity taking over. I wonder at times if it was replaced by saints being named
patron saints of this and that.
I know Protestants at times think we made Mary a Goddess.
I don’t know.
I do like it that I was blessed being born into
Christianity – with Jesus as our God – and he introduces us into how the Father
is – and if you see Jesus – you see the Father.
CONCLUSION
In other words I’m lame and crippled when it comes to
this whole pantheon of gods – in both Greek, Roman, as well as Hindu religions
and mythologies.
However, in other words, I like it that Paul said just what Jesus said
to the crippled man. Stand up and walk. Amen.
