My #poem in #Quiddity IN TRAGEDY LET THERE BE THE ECONOMY #SarahSarai #Leviticus @farstargirl

Marc Chagall
 Jeremiah's Lamentations
Original Lithograph, 1956

I continue to be astonished to have found a remarkably contemporary quotation in Lamentations, of all books. I was prepared for wisdom but not for such specific-to-my-times wisdom.

We have drunk our water for money; 
our wood cometh to us for a price.

Jewish Publication Society tr., Tanakh, 1917. 

When I chanced on the contemporary in the ancient and sprang into a poem. And my poem, “In Tragedy Let There Be the Economy,” sprang into Issue 12.1 of Quiddity, which may no longer be in print (as of 1.6.22).

Translations of that verse vary. The above is from the 

Think: Vitamin Water. Think Nestle and their lethal baby formula. Think: Monetizing the planet. Think: We never learn.

For These Things I Weep



The Healing Tree*

 I don't have words for what happened in Tucson, AZ, today. The story is unfolding but already there are six deaths and Representative Gabrielle Gifford's fate is unclear.

A troubled fool who could get a weapon as easily as a snow cone, took aim. Sarah Palin is partly to blame. John McCain for bringing her into the national eye. The endless ugliness and willful ignorance of the Tea Party.

So much will be said and written about this latest killing spree. I feel so bad for the people of Tucson. It sounds so simple to say it, but my heart is broken, and I'm in tears. America becomes uglier and uglier, more and more dangerous.  From Lamentations:

For these things I weep; mine eye, mine eye runneth down with water; because the comforter is far from me, even he that should refresh my soul; my children are desolate, because the enemy hath prevailed.

*"The Healing Tree" is by Terry Dunne, an Irish tapestry and rug weaver. His website: http://www.terrytheweaver.ie/