Her introduction will speak to the original dates that brought her to these moving words. How can it be that these two poems are again significant? I hope the readings will move you to ask WHY and WHAT? Why must we continue to bury our children? And, what can I, you, we all, do to stop the senseless violence that snuffs out these precious lives? I hope for many of you these tender, yet haunting words will act as a call to action.
Thank you Teresa.
Dorothy
These two poems are dedicated to the hope that lasting and effective changes to our gun control laws will be passed in 2013. The poems were written earlier, “Gun Violence” at the beginning of the Iraq war and “Those Shining Children” in January 2011, after the assault on Arizona Congresswomen Gabrielle Giffords, which also resulted in the death of 4 people, including 3rd grader Christina Green. They have new titles and have been slightly adapted to reflect our current, and sad reality.
Gun Violence
She rests on my lap
The warm,sweet weight
Of this sleeping child anchors me
Pins me to this earth, this here, this now
Calls me to care and protect
The warm, sweet weight
Of our world’s sleeping children
Calls us all
T. A. Goorian
Those Shining Children
The images are retained in our mind’s eye
As if we had gazed too long at candle flame
We did not know them, those shining children
Who can no longer spread the light
Of their joyous, dancing spirits
Through the lives of their family and friends
But we, as they, will keep them with us
For their images are retained in our mind’s eye
And their spirits laid in trust on our hearts
In memory of Christina-Taylor Green
And The Sandy Hook Twenty
T. A. Goorian
