{"id":2435,"date":"2012-05-05T12:00:14","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T12:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ink.verticalplus.co.uk\/archive\/?p=2435"},"modified":"2012-05-05T07:37:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T07:37:24","slug":"thomas-orszag-land","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/thomas-orszag-land\/","title":{"rendered":"Thomas Orsz\u00e1g-Land"},"content":{"rendered":"

War Correspondent<\/strong><\/p>\n

For James Fenton<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Floating among the ice, these peaceful<\/p>\n

soft, curly shapes reflect the sky.<\/p>\n

The river rocks them lightly, gently,<\/p>\n

their pace appearing slow and graceful<\/p>\n

beneath the evening\u2019s silver mantle.<\/p>\n

We cannot see the fish below, but<\/p>\n

discern from here a place of worship<\/p>\n

that dominates this wounded landscape.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The fish cannot disturb the dead.<\/p>\n

Indifferent, the murdered lie<\/p>\n

swelling our rivers of history.<\/p>\n

A friendly warlord has purged a delicate<\/p>\n

threatening issue of principles<\/p>\n

(which we regret). You must have heard:<\/p>\n

a war afar stirs passions once<\/p>\n

it has occurred on television.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They\u2019ve left behind a tidy village<\/p>\n

of great importance — once, to them,<\/p>\n

the toil of ruined generations,<\/p>\n

a scent of sweat, the stench of fear,<\/p>\n

spent cartridges trampled into the snow<\/p>\n

and children recoiled from adult ways,<\/p>\n

potential witnesses still in hiding<\/p>\n

in crumpled bedrooms (which we regret).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Others I know marched calmly at gunpoint<\/p>\n

and left their clothes and shoes on the shore.<\/p>\n

They were received by the surging waves<\/p>\n

tied in pairs to prevent survival,<\/p>\n

to float forever towards the sea<\/p>\n

— rejected by oblivion.<\/p>\n

We have erected a monument<\/p>\n

to urge humanity: Never Again!<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

…A monument secured by our stubborn<\/p>\n

pillars of fear that make us insane and<\/p>\n

succumb to the lure of the tranquil river.<\/p>\n

The icy current coils beyond<\/p>\n

our will and wailing. Hear this dirge<\/p>\n

composed for you and me, undated.<\/p>\n

It mourns the living. We calculate<\/p>\n

our fate in sums of overkill.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Thomas Orsz\u00e1g-Land<\/span><\/strong> a poet and award-winning foreign correspondent. His books include eight collections of verse in many editions. His next major work will be The Survivors: Holocaust Poetry for Our Time, to be published by Smokestack\/England.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

War Correspondent For James Fenton   Floating among the ice, these peaceful soft, curly shapes reflect the sky. The river rocks them lightly, gently, their pace appearing slow and graceful beneath the evening\u2019s silver mantle. We cannot see the fish below, but discern from here a place of worship that dominates this wounded landscape.   […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2435","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2435"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2440,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2435\/revisions\/2440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2435"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2435"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2435"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}