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Per Diem Archive: J. Baranski August 2014, War and Peace

War and Peace

Why the theme of war/peace for this month's Per Diem poems? Because the issue is forever with us. In my brief 66 years on this planet alone a day hasn't gone by without some kind of war or conflict going on somewhere in the world. From the Cold war of the Twentieth Century to the Asymmetrical War on Terror of the Twenty First the same scenes of death and destruction play themselves out. Beyond the battlefield there's playground and internet bullying, domestic violence, eco war, cyber war. And then there's the ever present threat of nuclear weapons. Nobody likes violence and war but it's an addiction hard to overcome. These poets have something important to say about war and peace. We all best listen to them.

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Author: Terry Ann Carter
killing fields:
the wind carries a butterfly
bone over bone
Author: Melissa Allen
long-stemmed roses
he's back
without his leg
Author: an'ya
Kosovo Polje
new snowfall whitens
the Fatherland
Author: Don Baird
refugees-
the faceless presence
of innocence
Author: Francine Banwarth
wolf moon
another battalion
ships out
Author: Roberta Beary
pearl harbor day
buried somewhere deep
in the news
Author: Johannes S. H. Bjerg
the splinter in brother's eye his head in the wind
Author: Terry Ann Carter
in the glass case
of skulls, a reflection
of my own face
Author: 'Haiku Elvis' (Carlos Colón)
cloudless sky
for a second or two
world peace
Author: Marco Fraticelli
september 11
all my TVs
on the same channel
Author: Terri L. French
the stars
misaligned--
burial flag
Author: Sandra Fuhringer
kittyhawk
        i
        r
        o
        s
        h
         i
         m
         a
Author: Victor P. Gendrano
cyber bullying 
even elementary school pupils 
unwilling victims 
Author: Michele L. Harvey
beyond ideas
of  right and wrong…
tonight's stars
Author: Alegria Imperial
with a shredder 
he talks of restoring 
a broken vow 
Author: Jim Kacian
found at the bomb site:
two lines of haiku
Author: Carole MacRury
Baghdad -
lovers still will be
lovers
Author: Annette Makino
machine gun fire
she stirs more honey
in her tea
Author: Paul David Mena
stepping into the cockpit
of a bomber
named after Mom
Author: Marlene Mountain
against a 'correct' war what's an artist to do
Author: Angela J. Naccarato
paper lanterns…blue shadows on corn snow
Author: Christina Nguyen
the patch 
on the soldier's vest
"Viet Cong Hunting Club"
Author: Alexis K. Rotella
Vietnam War Memorial
there's Frankie
the kid who stole my beanie
Author: Michael Rehling
over coffee
we talk of global warming
in a well lit café
Author: Carmen Sterba
roundabout
a war is a war is a war
Author: Hansha Teki
rehab farm — 
unspent shells weather
into ploughshares
Author: Karma Tenzing Wangchuk
Hiroshima Day --
in my heart, I release
a thousand paper cranes
Author: Michael Dylan Welch
small-town diner
      the young widow
            opens her mail
Author: Don Wentworth
stop counting syllables
start counting the dead
Author: Kath Abela Wilson
family heirloom
dad's tiny war journal
full of poems
Author: Sheila Windsor
Auschwitz does the wind still howl?
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