(no subject)
Jan. 11th, 2005 10:22 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
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Now that he is safely dead
Let us praise him
Build monuments to his glory
Sing hosannas to his name.
Dead men make
Such convenient heroes: They cannot rise
To challenge the images
We would fashion from their lives.
And besides,
It is easier to build monuments
Than to make a better world.
So, now that he is safely dead
We with eased consciences
Will teach our children
That he was a great man … knowing
That the cause for which he lived
Is still a cause
And the dream for which he died
Is still a dream,
A dead man’s dream.
Carl Wendell Himes, Jr.
Let us praise him
Build monuments to his glory
Sing hosannas to his name.
Dead men make
Such convenient heroes: They cannot rise
To challenge the images
We would fashion from their lives.
And besides,
It is easier to build monuments
Than to make a better world.
So, now that he is safely dead
We with eased consciences
Will teach our children
That he was a great man … knowing
That the cause for which he lived
Is still a cause
And the dream for which he died
Is still a dream,
A dead man’s dream.
Carl Wendell Himes, Jr.
no subject
Date: 2005-01-11 08:28 pm (UTC)You who offer wine, we are waiting on the lip
Of the ocean of ruin. Take this moment as a gift; for the distance
Between the lip and the mouth is not all that great.
--Hafez (Translated by Robert Bly)
no subject
Date: 2005-01-12 01:22 am (UTC)Hits the nail on the head. Over and over again. And over and over and over again, that is.