UNITED FOR PEACE OF PIERCE COUNTY

"We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy."

TRIBUTE TO JAMES WRIGHT FOLEY

August 21, 2014

In the face of the all-too-human horror of the journalist James Wright Foley's death this week at the hands of an Islamic State executioner, we are at a loss for words.  Yet something must be said.  We find that something in the words of one of the most original poets of her time, Marianne Moore (1887-1972).

                                         WHAT ARE YEARS?
                                         By Marianne Moore


                                              What is our innocence,
                                         what is our guilt? All are
                                              naked, none is safe. And whence
                                         is courage:  the unanswered question,
                                         the resolute doubt —
                                         dumbly calling, deafly listening — that
                                         in misfortune, even death,
                                                   encourages others
                                                   and in its defeat, stirs

                                              the soul to be strong? He
                                         sees deep and is glad, who
                                              accedes to mortality
                                         and in his imprisonment rises
                                         upon himself as
                                         the sea in a chasm, struggling to be
                                         free and unable to be,
                                                   in its surrendering
                                                   finds its continuing.

                                              So he who strongly feels,
                                         behaves. The very bird,
                                              grown taller as he sings, steels
                                         his form straight up.  Though he is captive,
                                         his mighty singing
                                         says, satisfaction is a lowly
                                         thing, how pure a thing is joy.
                                                   This is mortality,
                                                   this is eternity.

UNITED FOR PEACE OF PIERCE COUNTY

"We nonviolently oppose the reliance on unilateral military actions rather than cooperative diplomacy."