The Sacrifice Poem by Paul Brookes
The Sacrifice
they burned books in the square
words winging heaven wards,
angels tears dried in the heat
scalding in the rage from below.
maniacal faces tinged ruddy,
fire to to purify the race
stiff arm salutes raised in fury
as if knowledge was the enemy
boys fling volumes upon the pyre
the works of man become so much ash
and boiled ink as the psalms of David perish
mans thoughts wafting wind born
you can burn books but the thought
the thoughts they transmit
they remain to infect the mind
passing like a disease from brain
to brain. Keeping hope alive
a beacon in the darkness of brutality
to wall against the barbarian hoards
destroyers of imagined worlds.
And in the a square they say, they burned books,
they may yet do it again.
A very well written powerful write Paul. Wonderful lines. You are correct, the 'stiff arm salutes' men also burned a lot of Bibles among a list of other undesirable books. I remember a holocaust survivor commenting on the burning of books. What he said has always stuck with me. He said what scares him the most the burning of books is, those who burn books next start burning people. I have since seen this happen on later political landscapes.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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5/2/2024 10:35:02 AM # 1.0.0.1119
With millions of people contributing towards the welfare of mankind, there are many who want to destroy our legacy earned during the past thousands of years. They can cause physical loss but can't destroy the ideas that have transformed the world or better. Thanks.