Whence the Child - Personal Writing

Whence the Child
Standing as the child, in the distance and from a place very far away, the wind brings upon it a faint and foreign melody. The tune soothes and calms as none have before yet it instills mystery and intrigue but before it can really be heard it is gone as if it were never there. Now here, in what was once a childhood paradise, the melody heralds back to the ears and heart that have patiently awaited its return. Many years have hardened history’s child but the melody can still calm and soothe, not like the echoes of memory but the true vibration of melody in motion. Suddenly, without so much as a shred of warning the melody swells to the grandest level as though played by a worldwide symphony of angelic musicians and then all at once is stolen away by the tide and the emptiness that follows is a crushing silence that seems to have no end. Then, as the child who once was, the melody sweeps across the spaces of time and light but the melody has changed caliber and has taken on a grand variation while still maintaining the tones and the marks that made the melody so dear to the heart. As it plays out in endless fashion in all corners of the mind and heart its rise in volume is slow but sure, steady and never falters.

Don't Let It Happen Here

Don't Let It Happen Here
By Charles Mingus
One day they came and they took the communists,
And I said nothing because I was not a communist.
Then one day they came and they took the people of the Jewish faith,
And I said nothing because I had no faith left.
One day they came and they took the unionists,
And I said nothing because I was not a unionist.
One day they burned down the Catholic churches.
And I said nothing because I was born a Protestant.
Then one day they came and they took me.
And I could say nothing because I was guilty as they were,
For not speaking out and saying that all men have a right to freedom.
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I discovered this a while back when I gave my sisters play-list a spin. I was floored by the power of this poem in its simplicity. The song that accompanies the poem is wonderful as well. For someone raised on freedom and diversity it was refreshing to discover this, literally by accident. If you've heard it you will know exactly what I'm talking about. If you haven't, give it a spin.