Luzern Symposium: Der inszenierte Terrorismus & Recalling V-J Day, 8/15/1945
by Peter Dale Scott
[ poetry - january 08 ]
Luzern Symposium: Der inszenierte Terrorismus
For Hans Peter Roth
It's different, having circled round the world,
The lightning flashes searing storm-black Aceh,
The Andamans, Goa's coastal lights,
Oman, the terminal brilliance of Dubai,
The blackness of Arabia and Iraq,
To my host Hans Peter I've never met
Whose chalet overlooks the Thünersee,
Cowbells, clouds, glaciers, the Jungfraujoch.
When I was last here in 1950, all
These snowy spruces seemed far from Quebec.
Now time and the world both shrink. We talk again
Of Rudolf Steiner and the unborn child,
Empire, 9/11, Skull and Bones,
The quest for justice again mystical.
Hotel Rothorn, Schwanden, Sigriswil, 10/30/03
Note: Of this exceptional storm it was reported a week later that 200 people had died in flash floods, caused in large part by illegal logging with the connivance of local troops and police.
Recalling V-J Day, 8/15/1945
Into the dawn, the raucous pent-up crowds
Danced and embraced along St Catherine Street,
Strangers were partners in a different world.
At peace, the future would set us free,
All things be possible. But what we celebrated
Was our omnipotence. No enemy
Was in sight, so some youths instead,
Laughing, burnt a small Chinese laundry.
Torn white shirts of peace - they served to flag
The mindless revelers. I was sixteen.
Did no one see these banners as a sign
Of our karma, what Yeats missed, the proud bomb
By which we were made victors, and betrayed
As soon this tenuous morning star will fade?
