Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CV: "the sounds of death"
First "thought experiment" tanka to George Berkeley's ghost
if one-ton bombs fall
on housing blocks, but no Israeli’s there
to hear them ...
in a mobbed pub I muse
does they make the sounds of death?
FYI: "If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is George Berkeley's philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and perception. For more about writing sarcastic tanka, see To the Lighthouse: A Rhetorical Device, Sarcasm.
And this tanka could be read as a sequel to the following:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XVIII: "Rafah"
attacks on Rafah ... (now on both Gaza and Beirut)
will the sound of bombings
echo, echoing
in the ears of the World
thousands of miles away
Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CVI: "one year on"
One Year On
this silent scene
spins in a mother's mind
like a kaleidoscope:
smashed blood-stained photo frames
cover lifeless kibbutz children
shrapnel wounds
on the faces of Gazan kids
who look for mothers ...
another US-made bomb falls
to finish all that remains
an old man
crying out, where should we go?
the Heavens blocked
by a swarm of fighter jets
and the fire-smoke of Death
this endless loop:
October 7, October 7 ....
[and yet
the decades before
and the day after...] bloodshedding
For more poems about the Israel-Hamas War, Special Feature, October 7: Selected Poems for Reflections on "CeaseFire Now" and "Saving the Children"
