ROULA POLLARD

 

ROULA POLLARD

 

Letter From The War Front

 

Mother,

this war has changed my feelings

my fingers tremble with no answer

twenty days fighting in foreign lands

how many streets and cities will swim in blood?

 

Mother,

who knows,

how many casualties will we count

if twenty five times more surgical bombs

kill a thousand suspicious targets, a big loss

 

Innocent children playing in the streets

people unprotected

victory never counts lives lost

life bereft of love and mercy

life, how can life without wars be?

 

A parched, lost land, I inhabit

the war condemns my enemy and me

I live in blindness, all my life

in blindness I fight, in cities ghosts

without my own free will

 

Do I understand the world’s thirst for blood?

No. Is it the answer for you and me?

We would be different, if say we are ignorant

as each of us exists in our own desert

alone fights one’s own battles

 

Mother,

maybe nothing is meaningful at present,

but I need you, you are the sanity of my anchor

my far away mother of protection

if for a second the world’s war spirit changes

 

to peace, and starts the world from

the beginning, a world without hate.

If we change life’s direction, mother,

if we stop killing enemies unknown

in this lonely desert. If we respect our life more.

© Roula Pollard

 

Looking At A Battlefield

 

I am not at the front

Safe are my daughter and son

But I mourn for you,

Syria, my sister

And for mother Europe,

 

For my cousin USA, godmother UN,

I mourn for this and the other side of Earth.

I mourn for the void, people’s death left within us

I mourn for your pierced heart

I mourn for peace that’s never had a chance

 

I mourn for the sand, blood- stained for years to come,

And the ghost-filled desert bereft of wind, light, sun

But screams in the night

 

I mourn for mothers dressed in black,

And thin expressionless kids leaving in fear their homeland

I mourn for the invisible evil residing within us

 

I mourn for unanswered whys within us

I mourn for reason no longer having ways to negotiate

I mourn for money and pride, being the president hell in black

 

I mourn for eternal wounds on uncountable souls, Children,

Mothers, fathers, sisters and us.

I mourn for no heart has never hurt as much as yours

Missing your beloved,

 

I mourn ‘cause I don’t know where to start

How to start time anew

How and what to say

Tenderness, or silent

Words sound true...

 

I mourn for those cruelly killed for no reason,

Babies, mothers, brothers, sons

And I even mourn for the killer in us.

© Roula Pollard

 

Action For Earth

 

With consideration and care

I surround your body with love,

Knowing that mistreatment

And destruction daily we apply

As our alienation degrades your flesh

Like separation

From yourself

From your epidermis we extract your power

And scientifically replace it with poisonous

Cells, soil, chemicals, pestiferous for you and us

Allegedly to feed the population on earth

Although in real terms we destroy you

Structuring unhealthy poisons and toxins

Causing you illness, exploitation, death.

 

So, why do we, keepers of the planet

Allow our actions to mistreat

Our Mother Earth,

Into a state of being

Half-dead and half alive

Wounded, hospitalized, dragged

abandoned lying on the bed of nowhere?

 

In my despair, I see a vision,

All lands, all seas lie wholesome and healthy

Clean of pollution, all lakes sparkling

Clean  on the planet, all rivers

The sky light, perfectly clean

Your music skywards enlivens the scene.

As healing spreads along the continents

 

Like dawn ripening all crops

Roots, trees to shed out their poisons,

Guiding lakes, rivers, oceans rituals to perform

Emptying pollution far ahead.

As healing influences our actions,

The garden of the planet cured,

 

As all people believe strongly in the present

Positive events are breakthroughs.

Life motivates people in our planet

Life loves us as we keep

Love alive for you

And me.

© Roula Pollard

 

ROULA POLLARD

 

ROULA POLLARD, Greek poet, writer, playwright, translator, literary promoter, social and environmental activist has published three Poetry collections in Greek, and “Century of Love” in English, translated into Telugu by the Indian poet, writer and translator Dr Lanka Siva Rama Prasad. She has promoted one hundred and sixty five poets, writers and artists and is included in more than one hundred and fifty International Poetry anthologies. Roula studied History and Archaeology at Athens University and obtained an M.A. in Classics at Leeds University, lived in England for 25 years and participated in international Poetry festivals. Senior Administrator for “Pentasi B World Friendship Poetry”, CEO for the FB Arts group “Sharing Friends of the Arts Hollywood International” founded by the Senior Senator Pasqual Bettio,  and she is a member of the board of Directors for “Atunis-Galaktika”, Poetry e-journal. Her poems have been translated into ten languages and has received a number of international poetry and Humanitarian  awards.