Philip Goddard: Poem: For Ukraine — A New Painting On My Wall, In Which...
Channel: Philip Goddard - Composer
Date: 2022-04-17

A poem of love, empathy and inspiration for the currently suffering people of Ukraine, at this time of hideous war against them all for the sake of the egotistical and paranoid delusions of one deranged man — arch war criminal, mass murderer and threat to continued human existence on Earth — Vladimir Putin. — Why the hell do people let him get away with it???!!!

This is a reading by the Author in a peaceful and relatively wild spot — in Fernworthy Forest, on Dartmoor, southern England's little wilderness, on 23 March 2022, in a fairly mature stand of Sitka spruce trees, and the photos in this video are looking in various directions from around the very spot where the recording was made.

The spot was chosen for its peacefully invigorating ambience, with a very gentle breeze in the treetops and some distant spring birdsong. The 'prologue' and 'epilogue' natural sounds were added in afterwards.

For fuller notes about the poem, complete with a properly formatted version of it to read on-screen, please see:
 https://www.philipgoddard.com/for_ukraine.htm .
Those notes include a bit about the Author's highly individual poetic style, which stands outside convention and tradition and blazes its own trail.

Here's the poem text, though without full styling:
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"I love through pain", as they say, under the shadow of the refugee train…

In sullen darkness wend their tomb-like trails; among the blocks they search in vain and search too far again after their daughter's sudden end…

I’m going to take my inner fire, which knows no limits, and place it there, where it’s still dark, smouldering, and very, very cold for those with no power and only dirt to eat.

A trusty dog stands to attention below the stars, shivering and wondering why, and wondering where.

— A dog that one grows to love…

Seeing that resplendent fire in the dog’s eyes, they named him Ukraine, after their weeping land, and with them he shares his fierce yet gentle fire.

Such is Ukraine.

I’m going to find the river of tears down there in the shivering rubble-strewn dark, armed with my inner fire,

And redirect that river’s flow so nothing’s wasted — so it'll grow new crops, new grains in the fields to feed those now cold and starving to the bone.

Determinedly, knowingly, dog Ukraine now nuzzles up against passing old man as a long-time friend.

AMAZING, baffling to behold! — This man’s somehow walking on just one leg, with no stick, labouring

— Struggling to carry the other, blown-off, leg in case sometime he might find out how to fix or glue it on again…

— Still on his way regardless, to play his part on a battlefield, in case he can make it in time to benefit somebody, somehow, on this troubled land.

Dog Ukraine gives him new fire, new inspiration — body strength sadly now fast to wane, but not his will, his inner fire…

Such is Ukraine.

In yet another dark rubble-strewn corner suffering a new and grievous pain,

Inconsolably weeps a Russian soldier, heartbroken at what he’d been made to do

— Being comforted by Ukrainian woman with blown-off arm — the husband insistently whispering in his ear “You’re a good, good, guy, made of the real human stuff! — This is not- your- fault, no matter where you fell!  You’re our friend till all waters come to an end!”.

Such is Ukraine.

I'm going to go out to their country's troublesome neighbour, grab that regime there in my hand like a bunch of nettles, hold it up for the world to see—

— and deliberately DROP it, so it SHATTERS into delicately flurrying clouds of spring blossom petals plus mysterious invisible 'something' they call 'peace', and another even more mysterious that the really smart call 'freedom'!

I’m going to go there soon some day, to meet and greet that fire-eyed free-wandering dog Ukraine, and all those who shared-around his precious fire-of-the-heart in the field for us all!

Then, effusively embracing, we’ll rejoice once more in the new and gentle spring dew, sun and rain, and wave our greetings to make much of the incoming joyful tourist train!

Yes, such is Ukraine…
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