On index cards I wrote the lecture I
had been asked to give. The title was
to be "Man and Death". Only an hour was
given to me with half an hour, at most
for questions from the audience.
I was running into a problem,though.
My index cards (the big five by eight's)
were filling up faster and faster as I
discussed the personal side of death
from the Stone age to the Bronze.
How the taming of the horse, camel and
elephant affected war, oh darn, we mustn't
forget the effect of the taming of the dog.
Next comes the Iron age, were death can be
made from a distance. Starting with mangols
and ending with cannons and guns. The index
cards keep piling up. I've had to open a new
pack. Oh! I mustn't forget the ship board
cannons that can wreak greater death at land
and sea.
I really must discuss the Industrial age and
it's contribution for the ability of man to
mass produce weapons of death, nor can I just
gloss over the Atomic Age, with it's ability
of mass death. Warheads with a ridiculous
ability to kill the dead. It's ability
to strike with death from a thousand miles
away.
What am I to do? No matter how fast I talk,
I can never condense this into an hour. Even
going back thorough and slashing with my red
pen, I still have too many index cards.
It seems to me a universal constant since the
dawn of man. Man kills for religion, territory,
food, jealousy, material wealth, land and politics.
This is done with ever more sophisticated weaponry
that can remove the personal horror of death.
Historians, on the other hand, jealously guard
each nugget of fact as if it were gold, knowing
that mankind surely would change it's course if
it knew the facts. A man can kill you but, a
Historian can talk you to death, regardless dead
is dead.
Author notes
Mytitle was red ink pen and my word was index card.
Written June 18th, 2006
In a list
What did you think
Comments
1 - 6 of 6
-
Wow, really? That is insane. In a good way. Merry meet. Thank you for the advice. I hope you do well in the contest.
-
Merry meet Faithful Dreamer,
Thanks for reading my poem. I looked at it again and you are right. The line breaks are ragged and unapplealing and do not serve the poem. I've made some changes. Check and see what you think.
Thanks
Amythest -
Merry meet xdaxangstaxganstax,
Thank you very much for the applause and for your sweet comments. History isn't really just a bunch of dusty old dates about dusty dead dudes. It came really come to life and have a lot of meanings. It up to to the reader or the teacher to make history come alive. I'm a History Major and I don't really know my dates very well (collective gasps from my Profs.) Find an era of history that appeals to you and start there, before you know it, you just might enjoy it.
Thanks again.
Amythest -
merry meet-
you annoy me. you really annoy me. and to think i helped with this and i didnt botch it!
oh, your line breaks need a lil work, theyre a lil rough...
anyway, mother of mine that annoys me, very nice job!
may your fangs stay sharp-
Bella <--- daughter that will live forever to annoy you as vengence...
-
oh man. This was a very original poem. While sometimes the paragragph forms don't go over very well with me, I really liked it in this poem. It had a very story-like feel to it that help the poem become interesting in more ways then one.
-
amazing!
Oh, wow. This was a delight for me to read. If my history class put it into a poem, I woud be more interested in it. This was such a educational poem! I actually learned something about history...I am not a big fan. This was so awesome!!
Adding your comment:
1 - 6 of 6
2 old applause
