Dying Back, and: Out of Ashes, Peace Will Rise

Poems by Marilou Awiakta Dying Back On the mountain the standing people are dying backhemlock , spruce and pine turn brown in the head. The hardwood shrivels in new leaf. Unnatural death from acid greed that takes the form of rain and fog and cloud. In the valley the walking people are blank-eyed. Elders mouth vacant thought. Youth grow spindly, wan from sap too drugged to rise. Pushers drain it offsap is gold to them. The Walking people are dying back as all species do that kill their own seed. Out of Ashes, Peace Will Rise Our courage is our memoryDachau Hiroshima Fire to Fire Out of ashes, peace will rise if the people are resolute. If we are not resolute, we will vanish . . . and out of ashes, peace will rise.* *Commissioned by the Memphis Peace and Justice Center for the Hiroshima Memorial Hibakusha (Survivors) Tour, 1985, this poem was the only American one featured in a ceremony sponsored by French poets in 1986 at Le Havre, France: "S.O.S. for the Survival of the World." 21 ...