Showing posts with label history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label history. Show all posts

Saturday, October 24, 2015

Soviet Bus Stops

"Soviet Bus Stops" by Christopher Herwig (Fuel Publishing)

Altai Mountains, Kazakhstan
Altai Mountains, Kazakhstan 


"...made me realize that the Soviet Union can be remembered for more than the cliches we grew up with in the West."
-- Christopher Herwig 




Image credit: Christopher Herwig/Fuel Publishing

See 14 more photos here.


Live for the Love of it,
Happy

Monday, December 17, 2012

"Echoes of Beslan" (poem)



It’s been eight years.  Eight years since the massacre of hundreds of hostages, mostly children, trapped in a school building in the town of Beslan. 
Eight years ago the whole world knew that name.  Does the world still remember Beslan?  Will the world remember Newtown eight years from now? 


ECHOES OF BESLAN 

The Earth is shaken,
Images of horror,
The senseless carnage
Dominate the screen,
Death casts a shadow
On the Holy Season,
Mankind is one,
One heart,
One soul,
One pain,
That time will never dull…
But time is singing
Its ancient lullaby, 
And we forget.

How eagerly selective,
How blissfully short-lived
Our memory is.
Succumbing to the steady hum of years,
We let the past lie dormant,
Till pure evil
Attacks once more,
And its distorted features
Surprise us
With a sense of recognition,
And angels weep again,
And we recall.




Live for the Love of it,
The Happy Amateur

I've posted this poem at  http://dversepoets.com/2012/12/18/open-link-night-week-74/

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

“Just take everything and divide it up…” (a quote from “Heart of a Dog” by M. Bulgakov)






There's nothing new under the Sun.  Bulgakov wrote a brilliant, hilarious and poignant, short novel "Heart of a Dog" in 1925.  If you get a chance, read it.  I recommend Mirra Ginsburg's English translation which you can get from  Amazon.  (There's also a great movie “Heart of a Dog” based on the novel.  Again, Amazon has it with English subtitles.)
It's astonishing how true it rings.  Improbable as it may seem, I bet you'll find quite a few similarities between the early 20th century Russia and today’s America.  Sad that we refuse to learn from history.  

Live for the Love of it,
The Happy Amateur