Terrorism

. One Afternoon One hot Arabian afternoon a boom reverberated through my flat and woke my napping wife and children; in each room the windows shook, but not so much they broke. Two cars with insurrectionists aboard had tried to breach the oil field’s back gate and when they failed,...

. Sonnet of September Two thousand one eleven September, terrorists hijacked four planes in the sky. The crew, the passengers, did surrender, to those Bin Laden had sent to die. Two thousand one eleven September, the Pentagon and Twin Towers were hit. Buildings collapsed into ash and ember, and bodies...

. Twenty years . . . So long ago as that? When fantasy became reality And falling human bodies turned to splat. Death in living color on TV. Maxwell’s silver hammer coming down On our collective metaphoric head; Manhattan’s shredded, bloodied wedding gown, Pentagon’s and Shanksville’s mangled dead. Terror’s Krakatoa...

. Heroes Where are they now---the bold who brave The choke of smoke to ways that pave The path to breath beneath wide skies? Where are the ears that hear the cries Of souls they fight death’s bite to save? Through 9/11’s hellish wave Of terror, angels fought and gave...

. The starlit sky is filled with smoke ______and men succumb To dread, while folded hands invoke ______to overcome This awful plight; yet prayers heard ______through fervid faith Are breath for Satan. Death’s preferred ______to blows that scaith And wake the human soul. If eyes ______could only find A route...

. Sestina 276 On the night of April 14-15, 2014, 276 mostly Christian female students were kidnapped from a high school by the Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram in Nigeria The dream was vivid, sickeningly strong, the type that wakes you up because extreme duress propels your pounding heart along...

  They tried and failed. They’re trying still To steal our freedom; break our will--- The terrorists who torment days With ire and fire and Hades’ blaze. Our bones burn with their evil chill. Their deeds are scribed with Satan’s quill--- Twin Towers Felled! They aimed to kill The Western...

It Matters Not On Sunday, June 21st, three men were stabbed to death while sitting in Forbury Park in Reading, England. by Susan Jarvis Bryant On Sunday in a leafy English park, A knife slashed in the gleam of evening fun, Till emerald sprawls of lawn were stained and dark...

  Through barren fields, beside the ruins of man, The sunlight hardens stains of blood and gore; Macabre deeds that years ago began, Their horror still would haunt forevermore. This open graveyard 'round whose ghastly dread, The trembling air is scared and scarcely moves; A mother somewhere weeps for children...

  We shake our heads, and wonder, “Why?” aloud each time some speeding truck plows through a crowd, or grinning gunman gloats at blood and breath spilled and extinguished by his date with death; or when some faithless man, supposing life is little more than sex, discards his wife and...

  For Lori Kaye and Riley Howell I sing in praise of Lori Gilbert Kaye. When racist hatred paid a deadly call On Congregation Chabad of Poway, She stood and “took a bullet for us all.” I sing of Riley Howell of UNC. “He knew” exactly “what he had to...

  O, curse Zahran Hashim and, yes, Abu Mohammad too, for evil at the Shangri-la and Batticalao, just two, of all those vicious men, who hit Sri Lanka's calm. O, Lord, the people cry aloud; they long for love and balm. Jihadist, suicidal, evil tools o' th' hateful Beast came...

My Wife Is Clad in Cloth From Head to Foot My wife is clad in cloth from head to foot. How deep her eyes, how vast and sane her eyes. As we leave, I drink her clear brown eyes Then she walks behind me by a foot. The buggy that...

Joy Comes Softly silent; kindly kept, ___the haunted hours crept. Moonlit minutes—marked and mute, ___the lonely doubt takes root. The tendrils twine; the rootlets reach. ___Somehow the sun must breach. Morning breaks; my bridegroom’s come— ___virtue’s vigil done. The light of love shines stronger still. ___Awake, Amore’s thrill!   What...

(All poetry by Bruce Dale Wise) The Children's Crusade Amendment II of the US Constitution: A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. by Brice U. Lawseed While armed police protected thousands...

The Fall Now, if you’re sitting comf’tably, then listen to my ballad; it is a Summer evening tale of pizza and of salad. “I’ll take the plates out, love,” I said, "for your hands tend to shake, but I am steadier and I’d hate the crockery to break." The threshold...

This life—O, how much more of it remains? The night is brief. Toward those short trees, we saw a bird, descending with our grief. Chris Hixon, Aaron Feis, Scott Beigel vanished in the day. Luke Hoyer, Meadow Pollack, Carmen Schentrup went away. Helena Ramsey, Alex Schachter, Jaime Gutenberg: alas their...

Whenever Terror Strikes Whenever terror strikes, wherever death enshrouds the land, its people live in fright of crowded places. Masses hold their breath. Perhaps another truck will crash tonight. We gather, hand in hand, for loss enshrined or hold aloft the candle's golden flame. The dripping wax upon our skin...

  Justice Rendered by Cal Wes Ubideer "Sanctuary cities help protect undocumented aliens." —"Weird" Ace Blues July 1st, 2015, Miss Kate Steinle had been shot. A single bullet struck her in the back, as there she walked upon Pier 14 with her father, San Francisco Bay. She died, killed by...

  The Morning after the Parade On the terrorist attack on October 31, 2017 Most cowardly violence No moment of silence Let’s pretend that all is well All that once mattered Now fallen and shattered Here in the Great Living Hell The bicycle path The parade of wrath Chilling the...

  What is my body that was never mine, That, fevered, it should waste below the deck? I rise, instead, to face the ocean’s brine, The Muslim’s wrath, the ending of my trek. What is the ball that penetrates my chest, If not the lead that tipped the Roman’s scourge...

Blasphemy A Reflection On the Murder of Two Women Outside the Gare Saint Charles in Marseilles, France, This Morning, October 1, 2017 “Allahu akbar!” The words rang clear, As if the man was shouting them at me. I had no way of knowing they would be The final words that...

  'Twas so much more on that morn before fall that we all came to mourn as it fell As the shadows that touched had borne, by its clutch, a scorn we remembered so well From the sky rained a fiery metal as flowers and petals were mired with soot...

Cloaked in rumors of religion, looming bloodthirst Brings upon world’s drowning morals bouts of horror, As the force of chaos calls you... Depths that holler For damnation fan your frenzied rampant outburst. Charity extends its hand... to face your onslaught! Burning words you read do send your minds, which dream...

  At last, the sunset’s knell forebodes the ceasing day— The merchants in their silken garments trudge their way Along, with Turkish camels and Koranic tunes. Diurnal light retreats from dromedary’s dunes, And Bedouins arrive, commencing ev’ning hours And drive their caravans across Saharan bow’rs Where fading clouds announce the...

On the Special Meeting of the Manchester City Council (Wed. 12th of July, 2017) to reflect on the terrible events that took place at the Manchester Arena on the 22nd of May   Amendments and agendas put aside to mark the memory of those who died; the damaged lives of that...

  "Our Creator contritely comprehends that the ancient story of Genesis once retold through a patriarchal lens, has become women's patient nemesis ... Despite Eve's fleeting transgressing, our Eternal Lord, lovingly present still deems the Daughters of Eve a blessing, rendering orders their harmers repent! Harsh is the shared punishment God shall...

Post your poetry on the recent terrorist attacks in England in the comments section at the end of this post.   The Light of New Hope By Connie Phillips I. Bombings, beheadings, bizarre wanton slashings; Babies are burning, their mothers all dead; Fathers are bleeding, and die ’mid the ashes;...

The tears of a nation are shared by us all, We stand with those countries whom terror befalls; The innocent taken, destroyed by the vile, Their heinous objectives we can’t reconcile, Or count them as acts of religious devotion; No God promotes terror, their piety’s a notion To falsely give...

  Sonnet IV. Edward the Confessor Edward, the Cross no more on England’s shores Thy people blesses. The light of faith is gone. From stolen thrones the foes of Christ wage wars Against thy sons, and not one sword is drawn. Thy Westminster, by pagan rites profaned, Where thy pure...

If I had words grating and crude enough That really could describe this horrid hole Supporting the converging weight of hell … Canto XXXII, Dante If only we could but we can’t Release some souls from hell through words, Or maybe better by some chant So magical it would be...

Degrees of Light She squinted, watching circling gulls Fly overhead; small rhythmic waves Slapped steadily upon ship hulls. Brown crabs dashed out from wet sand caves Evading hungry birds; dried fins Of fish lay underneath palm trees. Sleek dolphins laughed with long fixed grins, Warm west wind stirred, strong humid...

  Rising unbidden, a fury unspent, I hear the high keening of tribal lament, Of ancient injustices never forgiven, Never forgotten, rising unbidden. Where are the horsemen who raided our village, Came without warning to plunder and pillage? Who are they now, in what lives are they hidden? An old...

  Humanity is a word to be earned─ I sing my song as a bitter wind blows, a chant from my heart to be carried far, I sing my song as falling darkness grows; as I sing  my sadness and sorrow grows. How can I tell the world that love...

  Spring is Coming From naked trees, droplets of dew, Drips like tears onto my upturned face. Everything is bleak, nothing new. No creation feels like outer space. Hear ye, hear ye, everyone come. What, a spot of bright green on that tree? Although it’s as small as a crumb,...

By Basil Drew Eceu At least four people have been killed and forty injured in a terrorist attack in London in the afternoon. Here near the cradle of great Parliament'ry government, a cruel terrorist went mad upon the hard cement. He rammed, and slammed, his car into the people that...

Cold and Uncertain shaken and stirred; Flying through clouds so quickly they’re blurred. Hold, comfort and buckle me in; Make us trust in safety again. Sitting armed with a passport and strapped with hopes from the past; Remembering the memories which are certain to last. Then optimistic voices, so assuring...

  Heat waves frolic along the desert’s endless edge I hear the shuffling of camel’s toes The soft landing of camel dung The smell adding to my woes My knees embedded in sand Awaiting the wrath of the queen of hearts The bald ibis watches from his rocky perch I...

  Winter’s Passing Now I can see no sky above your space, For dark clouds hide the blue that may be there. The air is full of rain that pelts my face, The ground is flood and mud the grieved must bear. I think of those that live in warmer...

On the Protesters Filled With Hate By Bruce Dale Wise And while American airports were filled with screaming hate, Chief Petty Officer Will "Ryan" Owens met his fate, caught in a raid against Al-Qaida's force in Yemen's love. Who gives a damn for him who gave the last full measure...