Poems for peace and justice

I participated in a 'Poets for Peace' event tonight, held as part of the annual National Peace Workshops, a range of poems and music, touching on World War 1, 19th century wars, modern wars, and the long, ongoing struggle for peace and justice - because peace is not the absence of war - it is justice and life with dignity for all.

I'll save my newest poem that I read to the group for later, but I will share the one I penned 11 years ago - because it's about time it came out into the open. Also a poem from someone probably not known to you as a poet til now.

23rd March 2004 (after the killing of Hamas spiritual leader Shaikh Ahmed Yassin by the Israeli military) 

Dawn.
Helicopter gunships
propel rockets
into a wheelchair,
killing a man.

Dusk.
Grey cloud, tinged with red
reaches for
a sliver of new moon.
Darkness creeps.
There is no star next to the crescent. 

Inside,
the white flame
of our peace lily
is mottled brown
and wilts.  

The second poem I felt compelled to share with the group, to provide a voice they wouldn't expect to hear - former US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, whose truely spoken words were turned into a book of 'found poetry' Pieces of Intelligence: The Existential Poetry of Donald H. Rumsfeld (2003) by Hart Seely of Slate magazine. Below is an aptly titled one for a World War One commemoration:

The Unknown

As we know,
There are known knowns.
There are things we know we know.
We also know
There are known unknowns.
That is to say
We know there are some things
We do not know.
But there are also unknown unknowns,
The ones we don't know
We don't know. 

—Feb. 12, 2002, Department of Defense news briefing