Senryu - Belief in Spirits - September 6, 2014

For Carpe Diem Haiku Kai - Belief in Spririts:

 mountain wind

the spirit eye sees
traveling far

sunset
illumination of other worlds
clouds

flute notes
in spirit rocks
answers

© Jane Reichhold

The belief in spirits is the theme and though the theme is directed towards a more spiritual or maybe a supernatural idea of spritis my haiku today are dedicated to the spirit of an age;  the brief peace and civil rights movements of the young people in the United States in the 1960s. The song below by Crosby, Stills and Nash talks about another age still ... the soldiers killed during the Civil War. 

It would seem that the leadership of the United States throughout the ages has not been immune to the sirenes of war, imperialism, and intollerance towards those different  from themselves. Our songs, literature and our history confirm this.

flowers in the wind
people being killed on TV
napalm on Vietnam

money's important
a man's worth is his bank book
nothing else matters

 

don't enter - you're black
this restaurant just serves whites
in Alabama

3 died in Kent State
thousands more in Vietnam
but still nothing changed

people believed
in the spirit of freedom
the power of words

make love not war
lay down your weapons friends
everyone is equal

 

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§ù

in twenty-fourteen
the world still fights senseless wars
poverty breeds hate
politicians and preachers
goad the people for profit

gone the illusions

of peaceful flower power
gone ideals of love
the spirit of this age changed
where are the freedom marchers