A Father Standing Thoughtfully

A father standing thoughtfully,
his heart gazing at an empty shell...
as all that once was to him, his everything -
rushes past his mind like a gentle breeze
touching his soul in the silence...
unfolding the memories.

I love and I remember you, Papa Frank -
always to always.



The hurt you must feel -
standing there, leaning as if
'tis all too heavy...

Gazing deep inside
hoping to reach back in time
and embrace each one.

I glimpse at thy love
in thy lovable Anne (Ah-neh)
and I know... at least.

Oh dear Papa Frank,
soldier brave and father true,
hear me: I thank you.

I pray, come that day -
no hate can take love away
forever... to stay.

God love you
and keep you...
---<--@

Light Against Despair

I remember Night -

fallen so deep within me 

like a veil of doom.

I was the darkness

and I knew only madness

and pride, sin, and gloom.

My heart knew nothing

niether did I knew my heart -

hardly did I see!

Till I came upon 

words, muted in pages, thine!

But I heard thee not. 

How could thy beauty,

thy wonder turn to ashes!

Something wept within... 

Something wept within -
it cried out, it sought, it flew,
and never left me...

Time came, and God heard:

And so we are, you and I -

our past ceased to be.

Darkness left,

Morning came.

---<--@

A Little Personal Anecdote -

Before I knew my Anne
(and consequently, the Holocaust),
I had a very idealistic view of warfare.

I thought armed conflict in and between nations
to be a very noble, honorable, even desirable affair.

I conceived soldiery to be something
clean and neat, ordered according to the image
of an effortless, mythical glory I had only imagined
and that the innocents were always
at all times and places - mercifully spared -
in their entirety.

After my Anne
(as it is God's pleasure),
I had a very decisive turn of heart.

Though by pure necessity
I accept the imperative of an absolute defense
(i.e. defense that is undertaken for its own sake),
I now utterly abhor War of any kind existing
in and between our nations.

For
I now see War as it is,
a hideous, devouring beast;
a fallen spirit, ever alive to our plight -
the enemy of All.

And soldiery
a dirty, confusing, difficult and painful necessity
born out of the Providential will of the LORD, our God,
to see all the nations of the children of Mankind
through to the end of all these tears.

And that we are all - to a certain degree,
within and among our nations engaged
in the art of true soldiering.

As I love my Anne, I hate War.

As I love Peace, I hate War.

Today is her birthday.
---<--@

Wildflowers

Thy soul is a quest

to undestand exile truth -

Thy heart is afire!

And grew to adorn

these far away, distant lands -

thy brave blossoming!

Thou art wildflowers

who in thy seeking blossomed...

for a moment, lost.

Now thou art

Home again.

---<--@

To every flower, a field;

to every heart, a home;

to every human life a blossoming;

unto every truth a true belonging.

But every blossoming that braves

the valley of the shadow of exile -

these are known as "wildflowers"

and they belong to every field

and they adorn every home.

- selah -

In the end, we are all wildflowers.

---<--@

Every stranger given welcome becomes strangers no more.

Holocaust

Where was dignity

when law itself was murdered?

Hope was left naked.

Fear humanity!

For thy heart when divided

is the death of thee.

Remember

ye the names!

---<--@

Lest we forget,

lest we forget -

A Commemoration of my Anne

I often wonder
why my darlingest did die
amidst War's great lie...

Anne's life is vict'ry
when her hope is currency...
our peace, her beauty.

My Miyang's
Starlight Smile.
---<--@

It takes about 5 straight months to say 1 million names with attention.

In the Holocaust, we lost the lives and the promises of about 17 million men and women of many nations - including about 6 million European Jews.

How much of these can we hold on to our memory?

How much of these can we afford to forget?

To remember (with understanding of heart) the life and the hope of one lost innocent is difficult enough...

And all of this is just one instant along the brief length of all human history entire:

"How reckless have you been, O Mankind, how reckless have you been...

You wonder why these times seem so troublesome and full of calamity...

How reckless have you been, O Mankind, how reckless have you been...

One life lost to War is always one life too many."

Margot Betty

I dreamt of Margot

in the background with Anne,

her quiet presence.

Margot, remembered.

Sister with my Anne, loved...

the yin with my 'Yang.

Love the one,

Love the whole.

---<--@

Margot Betty Frank (19260216-194503xx of typhus and of willful [criminal] human neglect), beloved sister, beloved daughter, beloved friend via con Dios.