THE ATOMIC LANTERN

 
 
Dreams of warriors
and cowards and peace
campaigners
twelve poets
the old, the ill
women
and children
and a dog
Are revealed as indistinct shadows on the wall
 
Dry grasses merely burn
Birds in flight are dust in the wind
And the words in this poem burn on the page
 
No creature moves
A strange kind of peace
 
 
 
 
This poem alludes to a famous haiku by M. Basho (first line of which is: The summer grasses). Who in his poem alluded to an even earlier poem by Du Fu [also know in the west as Tu Fu] (called: Gazing at Spring). Both works are well worth reading but neither is essential to an understanding of this poem. Both poems deal with the interaction between nature and war.
 
 


This poem is one of two of my peace poems to be published in a Peace anthology: Dove Tales peace anthology (A kind of Stupidity)