<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=367956" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>In California During the Gulf War</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">Among the blight-killed eucalypts, among<br>trees and bushes rusted by Christmas frosts,<br>the yards and hillsides exhausted by five years of drought,</div><div style="margin:10px 0">certain airy white blossoms punctually<br>reappeared, and dense clusters of pale pink, dark pink--<br>a delicate abundance. They seemed</div><div style="margin:10px 0">like guests arriving joyfully on the accustomed<br>festival day, unaware of the year's events, not perceiving<br>the sackcloth others were wearing.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">To some of us, the dejected landscape consorted well<br>with our shame and bitterness. Skies ever-blue,<br>daily sunshine, disgusted us like smile-buttons.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Yet the blossoms, clinging to thin branches<br>more lightly than birds alert for flight,<br>lifted the sunken heart</div><div style="margin:10px 0">even against its will.<br>But not<br>as symbols of hope: they were flimsy<br>as our resistance to the crimes committed</div><div style="margin:10px 0">--again, again--in our name; and yes, they return,<br>year after year, and yes, they briefly shone with serene joy<br>over against the dark glare</div><div style="margin:10px 0">of evil days. They are, and their presence<br>is quietness ineffable--and the bombings are, were,<br>no doubt will be; that quiet, that huge cacophany</div><div style="margin:10px 0">simultaneous. No promise was being accorded, the blossoms<br>were not doves, there was no rainbow. And when it was claimed<br>the war had ended, it had not ended.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Denise+Levertov">Denise Levertov</a><div class=q> <img src="https://www.citatepedia.ro/g/32share.png" style="float:left" alt="Share"> <script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=367956" data-title="In California During the Gulf War de Denise Levertov" data-description="Among the blight-killed eucalypts, among trees and bushes rusted by Christmas frosts, the yards and hillsides exhausted by five years of drought, certain airy white blossoms punctually reappeared, and dense clusters of pale pink, dark pink-- a de..."></div> </div> </div>

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