Is this one doggerel or topical poetry? You decide. It connects ideas discussed at a couple of other web sites.
Rommy Cortez-Driks asked for poems about wheels:
The "wheel" comes in from the context of Chinese literature. See a previous poem protesting the same abuses this one protests:
My poem came out without the word "wheel" in it, but it does refer to the philosophical image, common in Asian and American thought, of actions and their consequences as a sort of cycle. "What goes around, comes around." Put a huge injustice like the torture of political prisoners on the wheel, give it a spin--that wheel can spin very fast, and what comes back around can be very heavy indeed.
Falun Gong is described as not so much a religion as a system of exercise, like Qi Gong, and meditation developed by a thinker from the generation before ours, a Mr. Li, who was apparently critical of Mao Tsetung. There is no need for the Chinese government to be sensitive about that. Is not the entire world critical of Mao? Would it not be better to acknowledge that the man had faults as great as his gifts, that after their successful revolution his party went down in history as making some disastrous mistakes in government? There are things in every nation's history that foreigners just don't understand, and there are things that are so obvious, even to foreigners, that people might as well acknowledge that massive mistakes were made...Anyway, people say they were drawn to Falun Gong as a way of exercise and breathing that cured chronic pain such as backaches, but they were persecuted for it and clung to it with religious fervor. Why do people feel religious fervor about raising their arms and counting their breaths? Why but because enemies persecute people for doing that?
You can read more at https://fofg.org/what-is-falun-gong/ about why people feel that doing easy exercises and thinking about philosophical ideas (truthfulness, tolerance, and compassion) is a sort of religious opposition to satanic persecution. Warning: some of these people's firsthand stories are real-life horror stories.
If you click around that site you'll find links you may use to enter a poetry contest. You can probably write a poem better than this one if you try. There is no entry fee for sending them a poem. The best poems will be posted on the site. If you keep clicking you'll find some good poems, although the subject matter makes them heavy reading.
There spring from the blood of a martyr
A hundred souls more for each loss,
So never oppose a religion--
Far better to let them be boss!
No harm is done by meditation.
Oppression can bring down a state.
It made mighty Russia a beggar,
Reduced Rome to city from state.
A ruler who fears meditation
That old people do for their health
Destroys the good name of his nation
And keeps all its merchants from wealth.
To the world he announces his weakness.
He might as well break his own knees.
Believers who die in their meekness
Inspire all people, and please.
When "truthfulness, tolerance, compassion"
Are what the rebellious uphold,
Then Heaven has favored the nation
With better than diamonds and gold.
That government's best that least governs.
Against a religion to fight
Proclaims that a government's evil,
Despised in every one's sight.
A leader who would be beloved,
Like Kublai Khan or Britain's Queen,
Bows to the God his people worship,
While tolerance toward others is seen.
And if China would be respected,
None would persecute Falun Gong.
The tortures and murders reported
Teach children to say "China's wrong."
For reading and breathing and chanting
Do government no harm at all,
But torturing believers in prison
Makes the world seek that government's fall.
May there spring from the blood of the martyrs
A hundred souls for every death,
Make the Falun Gong tough as the old Tartars,
Disperse the corrupt with a breath.
A hundred souls? As a martyr I would be disappointed if not 'thousands'. A favorite saying, "What goes around comes around" I relate that a bad act comes around and likely to the perpetrator.
ReplyDelete..
Obviously it's not easy to "hit China in the pocket" hard enough to make a difference. The FoFG believe that it can be done by spreading awareness.
DeleteI wish consequences would more regularly roll out to some, but I don't see much evidence of those coming quickly, if at all.
ReplyDeleteToo true.
DeleteThe view of the British monarchy may be very different in the erstwhile colonies, though!! But to your point, agree that opression should really bring down a state, though it doesn't happen consistently. Interesting to read about these rebel groups, always something new to learn!
ReplyDeleteYes. Well, there are peaceable alternatives...the British Empire was corrupt and oppressive, the British Empire more or less peaceably disassembled itself. That's one thing I liked about the late Queen, who presided over the emancipation of the former colonies. Arguably they might have been started out on their own with more money, but Britain had lost a lot in the war...anyway at least there was no effort to force them to remain colonies. The Empire had learned something from us in the U.S.
DeleteOpressive indeed. With too many lives lost. Too much lost.
DeleteGreat poem and people are strange. It is all about power and control and not about the people. Indeed, meditation is only beneficial. I have done it for a while and my blood pressure went way down. A natural medicine. It is sad that such oppression exists.
ReplyDeleteIt is, indeed.
DeleteChange in thought and action comes very slowly in China. Wonderful poem.
ReplyDeleteThank you! Rapid change has been forced. Rapid forced change is usually bad...except for changes of government administrations.
Delete