a journal on the writer's role in society edited by esther altshul helfgott |
LETTER & POEM FROM DON ROBERTS Sunday September 16, 2001 3:19 PM Hello again, Esther: I've sent this poem out to several friends in the last few days. I originally wrote and read it as part of the peace vigil in Pioneer Square in response to the random violence that occurred around Mardi Gras this year. It seems appropriate now. I believe that even in the light of the greatest disasters, these thoughts hold true. As most of us who write poetry should know, it's attention to details--and the going on step by step even when you can't guess the outcome--that count in the day-to-day writing and the day-to-day living. And we who work with art in any form are responsible to help remind the angry and the frightened not to lash out at the innocent, but to contribute in the best way we all can--by trying each of us to create our own life of love and peace and beauty, in whatever individual form it may take. Peace...Don After the Storm We search for reason in the aftermath, console the friends and families of the injured and the lost. Still stunned, confused by grief and fear, I ask my grandmother Charity for guidance on just how to be. (She's weathered storms like none I've seen, been tossed from home by brutal winds.) "Rebuild," she says, "replant--one room, one windowbox, one friendship at a time. Allay the storm within yourself; when hands are filled, they can't receive the gifts that come. Step forth to walk your path and hear the song that's played by each new day." -Don Roberts The poem was originally printed in a pamphlet as part of the Good Friday Meditation Walk and Noon Peace Vigil held in Seattle, April 13, 2001. |
a journal on the writer's role in society edited by esther altshul helfgott |
Contributors are invited to answer the question: What is the writer's responsibility to self & society? |
