The Sound of Faint Applause (CTG)

[ChrisGeorge]

The Sound of Faint Applause

The sound of one hand clapping -- ah, yes,
an forgivable cliché -- there's no doubt
I should be dragged into the Writer's Plaza
and horsewhipped for such a transgression!

Still, I hear the sound of faint applause,
for my mother and father, so unprepared
for parenthood; but neither was I prepared
to be a child. Hands tied behind our backs

in post World War II Liverpool,
rationing still in place, the city blitzed
by Hitler's Luftwaffe, gaptoothed streets,
minds decimated or distorted forever.

No licenses given out to qualify anyone
to become a parent, no classes on how to raise
a family, how to be a wife, husband, child.
No wonder we're all in such a mess today,

psyches cramped by rules, intentions
misunderstood since unexpressed,
passports unstamped to enter
a cold and uncaring world.

Christopher T. George



Liverpool Blitz Memorial by Tom Murphy, St. Nicholas's Churchyard, Liverpool

Recent book on the 1941 Blitz in Liverpool based on the secret diary of a local reporter.

[dazza]

Great sentiment Chris,

The Liverpool Blitz Memorial photo looks in the direction of "Prison Weint", the small alleyway that led to the Tower of Liverpool, in Water Street. If you listen very carefully you may hear the distant sound of the French prisoners who where held there in the years up to 1793. There must be lots of sounds now unheard in the city?

"The sound of one hand clapping". I never did work that one out - and I think that is deliberate on the part of all zen koans.