the Armenian (human) spirit

"I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia."
--William Saroyan, 1908-'81
first-generation US citizen of Armenian parents

cupful of rain

I've been to sea in a cupful of rain
On a boat that fell out of the blue
Paddled for life with the blade of a knife
In a wind reminiscent of you

Danced in the dark on the head of a pin
With a sackful of bones in my arms
Found nothing more than I knew to begin
God bless you and keep you from harm

The tent has been folded and stowed on the train
The circus rolls off in the night
Only the marks of its passing remain
In the chill of the cold morning light

A drop in the bucket, a coal in the fire
A cupful of rain in the sea
A rose in the mire, a voice in the choir,
What else would you want it to be?

Sing your song with the whole of your heart
Believe what you need to get by
It's only ideas that keep us apart
On these boats that fell out of the sky

--Robert Hunter

for Lance Cpl. Aaron Reed, KIA, and his parents

Sonnet, by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Time does not bring relief; you all have lied
Who told me time would ease me of my pain!
I miss him in the weeping of the rain;
I want him at the shrinking of the tide;
The old snows melt from every mountain-side,
And last year's leaves are smoke in every lane;
But last year's bitter loving must remain
Heaped on my heart, and my old thoughts abide!

There are a hundred places where I fear
To go, – so with his memory they brim!
And entering with relief some quiet place
Where never fell his foot or shone his face
I say, "There is no memory of him here!"
And so stand stricken, so remembering him!

-=-=-=-=-=-=-
May your memories eventually bring you peace.