a-men

(NaPoWriMo, Day 18)

a-men 

a-men

for we who have not the grace

to bear witness to the rending

of flesh and jagged tearing

of blood and bone

without defacing

the purity

of others’

hurt

with devices

of redemption

or revenge

a tragedy

a-men

(c) Julie Bartha-Vasquez, 2013

Notes on the Poem:

The writing prompt was to use the same word at the beginning and end of the poem. I --being me-- had to go with a little word play, but this time it wasn't to be whimsical or silly. I was trying to make a point. I was going to blah blah blah about what I wrote and how and why. Instead, I'll just suggest that you read this piece in the New Republic: "The Case for Looking: What We Can Learn from Extremely Violent Photography." I will also ask that you take the time to read Esquire's The Falling Man, originally published in 2009, about one of the people who was photographed falling from the Twin Towers on 9-11. (Out of kindness to my blog readers, I will warn you that the Esquire link does have the picture if you click it.)

Updated from first publishing late last night: I was also thinking about the media coverage of the Boston bombing this week, summed up by Buzzfeed's takedown of CNN and Gawker's takedown of the NY Post's breathtakingly irresponsible coverage of the hunt for the suspects. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart also managed to sum it up perfectly: ("CNN's exclusive report on an arrest in the Boston Marathon bombing was exclusive because it was completely f**king wrong.")

But this should be enough to give you an idea of where I was coming from when I wrote this last night. --WNG