The forest, or: The trees

Posted on by ben Alexander

Poetry Partners #142

‘From my inner child’, a poem by Maria Pavlova of ‘Maria’s Poetry’

While many ‘Stand with Ukraine’
Or hate the Russian invaders
My heart is in beautiful northern forests
The place where my child’s feet stepped
Feeling connection to the Earth
Knowing even then that I am an inseparable part of the universe

My heart is filled with compassion
For those suffering, for the seeming division.
The painful separation is only in the mind
And what grotesque distortions are created.

I connect with spirit, the original spirit
That dwells in russian forests, in the streets of old cities
In the hearts of the people, knowingly or unknowingly

I close eyes and sit with pain
That I feel in every cell of my body
And in my very soul

There is so much compassion and love in my heart for this land
That has suffered so much.

A poem in blank verse by ben Alexander of ‘The Skeptic’s Kaddish’

My wife's cousin in Russia has a child,
a nine-year-old boy who knows nothing of
war but has had his future stolen from
him by a tyrant who knows nothing else.

Russian forests have not attacked Ukraine,
nor have any of the old city streets.
While I can't divine them, their beautiful,
original spirit's likely weeping.

The hearts of the people, on the other
hand, knowingly or unknowingly, have
become desensitized to actual
human suffering other than their own.

Words prefer not to be minced. Genocide
is not hypothetical in Ukraine;
this is the Russian government's plan for
all Ukrainians who don't surrender. 

And generations of future Russian
children's lives have been wrecked, largely because
their parents outsourced their political
awareness and responsibilities.

Let’s write poetry together!

When it comes to partnership, some humans can make their lives alone – it’s possible. But creatively, it’s more like painting: you can’t just use the same colours in every painting. It’s just not an option. You can’t take the same photograph every time and live with art forms with no differences.

–Ben Harper (b. 1969)

Would you like to create poetry with me and have a completed poem of yours featured here at the Skeptic’s Kaddish? I am very excited to have launched the ‘Poetry Partners’ initiative and am looking forward to meeting and creating with you… Check it out!

List of Poetry Partners

24 thoughts on “The forest, or: The trees”

  6. Great lines, evoke sadness… rather a helplessness.

    People may call it “collateral damage” or “fact of life” or “survival” and what not.
    But that’s not the direction humanity should be taking.

  9. Harsh but true. You can’t ignore the cost, to both humans and the lands they inhabit, which seems infinitely large and getting larger by the day. (K)

    1. 💚 Paula 💚 ~ personally, I don’t think of them as entirely blameless – Russia could have gone a different way after the USSR fell, and the Russian population was okay with the way things were going – they were content to accept Putin… even now – they’re not resisting Russia’s evil aggression against Ukraine – they’re resisting (to the extent that they’re resisting) the threat to their own lives (mobilization, etc.).

  12. ♡I close eyes and sit with pain♡

    I know this feeling, past and present

    ♡their parents outsourced their political awareness and responsibility.♡

    I know this feeling past,
    I felt about my parents to

    Poignant poetry.

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