>From: William Mandel <wmmmandel@earthlink.net> >Reply-To: wmmmandel@earthlink.net >To: Mary Ann Freiberg <" mafnana"@aol.com> >Subject: You asked for my poetry. Here it is >Date: Tue, 02 Sep 2003 21:41:46 -0700 > > > > >Dear Bill, > >Let us decide whether it stands up as poetry or not! You can hardly be >the >judge of that. <grin> >Please pass it on...... > >All the best, >Richard Menec >PS: A cheque is forthcoming for two autographed copies of your book. > >----- Original Message ----- >From: "William Mandel" <wmmmandel@EARTHLINK.NET> >To: <SOCIALIST-REGISTER@YORKU.CA> >Sent: Thursday, August 28, 2003 12:44 PM >Subject: Re: Statement on DuBois > > > > I'll have to think about the poem. While it possesses the qualities > > Larry Pinkney (today a dear personal friend and recent house guest) > > decribes, and my daughter is very fond of it, I don't think it really > > stands up as poetry. That's why I omitted it from my autobiography, > > where you can read a better one, "New Trial in Richmond," with an > > approving postcard from Langston Hughes. > > Bill Mandel > > > > Floro Quibuyen wrote: > > > > > > Thanks to both of you, Bill Mandel and Bill Fletcher, for the stories >and > > > statement--they are beautiful. Would you please share us your poem, >"For >My > > > Children, To Dr. DuBois". > > > Floro > > Those requests were from Canada. Someone in Los Angeles wrote: "I feel >cheated that Mr. Mandel did not include the poems [mentioned in my post >on knowing Dr. Dubois]...in their entirety." > Another in Australia wrote: "Please post your poem, 'For My Children, >to Dr. DuBois,' and at least a few others." > > > FOR MY CHILDREN, TO DR. DUBOIS > (November 1951; DuBois had just been acquitted > of conspiracy for heading the collection of a > million American signatures to a petition > against another use of the nuclear bomb) > >I, a white man, speak these lines for my children >too young to write, but old enough to know of jails and war. >Bobby is seven and Davey is five. >My little boys want to stay alive. >Bobby, he asked me the other day: >"Daddy, will I have to go away >and fight and kill when I grow up?" >Davey looked up from his breakfast cup >and said, "I want to know that too. >"Answer me,Daddy.' I answered them true. > >"Wars," I said, "don't have to be. >"People can live like you and me, >"loving each other and sharing our bread. >"But men there are who'd see us dead >"to make them richer. They are few >"but tell the government what to do. >"They own the papers that tell the lies >"to make us blame the other guys. >"Across the seas they stretch their hands >"to take things made in other lands. >"They whip and kill and burn and maim >"with bombers and with jellied flame >"to make the people far away >"do the things our rich men say." > >"To fight and die in grim despair, >"their children will not have to bear. >"They'll sit at desks and hand out orders >"to the boys at war beyond our borders." >"It's you they want," I told my sons, >"to sleep in mud and face the guns, >"to murder people you've never seen >"and spill red blood upon the green >"of field and valley, hill and park." > >"They want to make our country dark >"and dumb and deaf and stony blind >"so none can stand and speak his mind >"for peace, for life, for milk and bread >"and say, 'I don't want my children dead.' > >"That's why I travel about this land >"warning the people wherever I can." > >My daughter is twelve and knows the score. >She sees the greed of the men of war. >She knows they are hard and cruel and grim. >She's seen the light of freedom grow dim. >Herself, she's brave, and her pride is great >that we stand with those who bar the gate >to death and hunger and cold and fear >and hold back the war from year to year. > >But child she is and much afraid >of the FBI and a midnight raid. >"Daddy," she said, "they'll put you in jail. >"They'll hold you and keep you without any bail." > >"That may yet be," was my reply, >"but they've tried and failed with others than I. >"DuBois, a man of eighty-four >"they dragged to court, and locked the door. >"His wrists they bound in iron bands >"because they feared the mighty hands >"that wrote in verse and prose and law >"for all to read: 'We'll fight no war >"'while those whose skins are dark like mine >"'must eat their bread and drink their wine >"'apart; must die for want of precious care; >"'must gasp for lack of precious air >"'in holes where rats, not men, should live. >"'We'll fight no war. No blood we'll give >"'abroad, when Cicero is here' >"'Martinsville, too, is here; >"'when war is waged by the very police >"'whose oath it is to keep the peace, >"'and bullets take a deadly toll >"'of Negroes who would use the poll >"'to sample this democracy >"'and get a taste of being free.'" > >"His voice they thought forever to still. >"A year in jail would surely kill >"this patriarch. But they forgot >"that a people once bound to slavery's rack >"will not go back, will not betray >"the faith of those who showed the way. >"Their voices resounded from shore to shore >"and mounted to a single roar >"of mighty protest. And with them joined >"the voice of people white of skin. >"DuBois is free! And that, my children, >"means freedom for me. > >"The hounds of terror are not at rest, >"but North, and South, and East, and West, >"the People speak; the People, Yes! >"and those who dealt the strongest blow >"to free us all are those who know >"that they have freedom least of all." > >My children said: "They keep us free. >"We must say thanks." I answered: "Fighters be >"That the Negro people have liberty." >-------------------------------------- > > The following year I traveled by Greyhound bus from New York to >Chicago to speak to unions and other labor groups. On the bus was a >young Greek ship's officer. At this time a Pinochet-type military >dictatorship had taken over that country. There were occasional rest >stops in the countryside. > > TRAVEL COMPANION >We stood in silence, > fingers playing with grass-stems, > nostrils dilating to the pungent spring, > ears attuned to the rushing waters, > eyes hungrily tracing each eddy, > memory fixing the glint of sun on wavelet over rock. > > His open face spoke sadness > "Not so in my land. > "We are water poor." > > I grieved with him > for the glory that is Greece > and for Greeks such as he, > young, strong, creative, > ship's engineer at twenty-one, > lover of flowers > and hater of the best of his people. > > Makronissos, > rock where the sons of Prometheus > bleed from liver and from loin > at the hands of his fellows, >to him is a place of justice. > >Home, to him, a mansion with green-house > where he stole away to sleep mid the blossoms' fragrance. > >Thus, a man is half a man, or less than man at all, > whose sorrow is for hillsides waterless, > and not for those whose labor and whose pain > will bring flowers to those hills again. > >Yet am I troubled > for his is not a self-willed hate > but misdirected love > perverted by the will of others, > his countrymen and mine. > >Seeing him, > I know the youth of my own land > and those whom Hitler spoiled, > >And I vow vengeance > on those who make half-men > of the future of the world. >--------------------------------------------- > >1953 was the worst year. The Rosenbergs were executed, and the leaders >of the American Communist Party went to long terms in prison for being >the leaders of the Communist Party. > > FOR CERTAIN WIVES > >Some women marry joy, find gall, > and wither in bitterness. >You married strength, forged happiness, > and bloom in the hurricane. > >Some dream of quiet islands, > lay calm lawns beyond their walls, >and thus concealed, rage, maddened, within. > >Some choose a man, stand two against the world, > and find the world between them. >You love those who love all, share your loves with us, > and we wrap our love about you. > >Some have their husbands always, > need only turn to see their faces, > and doubt what love there ever was. >Your husbands stand beyond reach, > but memory renews your love, > and loyalty preserves it. > >Some teach children to live for themselves alone, > find they have taught too well, > and are themselves abandoned. >Your children see the world a circle > of people holding hands, > and you are closest. > >Some see the future hopeless, > those who seek it - foolish, > and peace but in the grave. >We see a world unshackled, > by children's laughter brightened, > and homage to you, the brave. > >======================================================== > > The title of my autobiography, SAYING NO TO POWER (Introduction by > Howard Zinn), is based on my demolition of Sen. Joe McCarthy and later > of HUAC in hearings of 1953 and 1960. It is a history of how the > American people fought to defend and expand its rights since the 1920s > (I'm 86) employing the form of the life of a 30s AND 60s activist, one > who was involved in most serious movements: student, labor, 45 years of > efforts to prevent war with the USSR and Cuba, civil rights South and > North, women's liberation [my late wife appears on 50 pages], 37 years > on Pacifica Radio [where I reinvented talk radio, of whose previous > existence I had been unaware], civil liberties, and opposition to > anti-Semitism and to Zionism. You may hear/see a little of my testimony > before before HUAC on my website, http://www.billmandel.net I am the > author of five books in my academic field, have taught at UC Berkeley, > and earlier held a postdoctoral fellowship, by invitation, at >Stanford's > Hoover Institution. > The book may be ordered through all normal sources. For an autographed > copy, send me $24 at 4466 View Pl.,#106, Oakland, CA. 94611 > _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8: Get 6 months for $9.95/month. http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ---------------------~--> Buy Ink Cartridges or Refill Kits for Your HP, Epson, Canon or Lexmark Printer at Myinks.com. Free s/h on orders $50 or more to the US & Canada. http://www.c1tracking.com/l.asp?cid=5511 http://us.click.yahoo.com/l.m7sD/LIdGAA/qnsNAA/xYTolB/TM ---------------------------------------------------------------------~-> New Pacifica Working Group http://www.egroups.com/group/NewPacifica 'Save Our Stations!' To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: NewPacifica-unsubscribe@egroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/