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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   29600 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 2, 2023

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It's also served as a source of poetic inspiration and commentary for centuries, with many societies finding references and correspondences to their own in it.

During the Peace Process in Northern Ireland in the 90s there was on both sides, and within the paramilitaries and the civilian population, heated and angry debate about "how can we make peace with and live beside the people who have killed our families? how can we forgive them?"

One response was by the poet Michael Longley who wrote a poem called Ceasefire (poet reading it here ):

Michael Longley wrote this poem, evoking the painful reconciliation of those who must make peace, hoping that he might influence doubters on the IRA army council. He says he believes poetry does make things happen. And he wrote: “When I published my poem Ceasefire in the Irish Times I got a letter from the father of Paul Maxwell, the sixteen-year-old boy who had been blown up with Lord Mountbatten. Those letters matter more to me than any amount of criticism I might receive in literary journals or attention in the public world.”

1
Put in mind of his own father and moved to tears
Achilles took him by the hand and pushed the old king
Gently away, but Priam curled up at his feet and
Wept with him until their sadness filled the building.

2
Taking Hector’s corpse into his own hands Achilles
Made sure it was washed and, for the old king’s sake,
Laid out in uniform, ready for Priam to carry
Wrapped like a present home to Troy at daybreak.

3
When they had eaten together, it pleased them both
To stare at each other’s beauty as lovers might,
Achilles built like a god, Priam good-looking still
And full of conversation, who earlier had sighed:

4
I get down on my knees and do what must be done
And kiss Achilles’ hand, the killer of my son.

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