burned and shattered
started by Russia
February 2022
We Lived Happily during the War
And when they bombed other people’s houses, we
protested
but not enough, we opposed them but not
enough. I was
in my bed, around my bed America
was falling: invisible house by invisible house by invisible house —
I took a chair outside and watched the sun.
In the sixth month
of a disastrous reign in the house of money
in the street of money in the city of money in the country of money,
our great country of money, we (forgive us)
lived happily during the war.
~ Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic. 2019 ~
I first heard Kaminsky’s poem in June 2021, read by Padraig O’Tuama in his Poetry Unbound podcast. Written in 2009, its powerful prescience grabbed me then, before hell was unleashed in Ukraine when Russia invaded in February 2022. And it hasn’t let go. Its grip now tighter as the American Republican administration, thinking it is the “great country of money,” backed by men in their “houses of money,” threatens my country, its people, and our livelihoods. Already killing the land, people and livelihoods of Ukraine, Gaza, and beyond.
I am not happy. In all honesty, I feel the rage that comes with such betrayal; fear; sadness; and, in moments, an unsettling hatred towards these men intent on destroying our world. Their acts are evil, committed without empathy and in full consciousness of the consequences of irreparable suffering and death.
Below is my post, written shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, in which I first included Kaminsky’s poem and the wise words from Canadian elder, Stephan Jenkinson, suggesting “it is no accident that we were born at a time when the culture that gave us life is now failing.“
No one lives happily during war. It is madness to think otherwise, despite the lies and bravado to the contrary. Thankfully, our world is too connected, and blessedly our hearts, to ignore the assaults and violence being perpetrated. Admittedly, it does not make for easy living.
Much love and kindest regards, dear friends. May you keep well. You are needed. We need each other.
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A Wabi Sabi Life 
I am with you, my Canadian friend, in grief, horror, fear, anger. And deep shame that my beloved country has fallen into these hands. Writers will save us, if anything can.
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Thank you, dear Gretchen. We save each other.
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Wow, Katharine! Your comments have landed deeply in my soul this morning here in Arizona visiting Christina’s brother, preparing her to attend the Tucson Book Festival. Your words cut through the vista of saguaro cactus and desert mountains like a flash of lightening on a blue sky day. Right on in your rage! I join you there as I find myself an American protesting, calling my congress people daily, and incredulous that this level of devastation is being leveled at civilization—once again by white supremacist men on behalf of their own greed. Our country has been through this before and survived. But these are different times—times that as you write below I was born for. Thank you, thank you, Ann > > the wise words from Canadian elder, Stephan Jenkinson, suggesting “it is no accident that we were born at a time when the culture that gave us life is now failing.” >
>
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Oh…to be witnessing such a landscape with you and supporting Christina at the festival. You paint a vivid picture that helps me feel our kinship despite the distance. Much love.
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Thank you for the power of this! And to say among legions of others, I am not living happily… I am working every day to figure out how to speak/write/act effectively…and sit in the seat of elder voicing–as you do, dear Katharine! In this chair we not only tend ourselves, but those who look to us for guidance. In your writing I see the steel threads of your integrity, the heat with which your fingers blister the keyboard, and then are cooled by your tears. I wrote that we are all pieces in a jigsaw too big for us to perceive: we are also all cogs in a huge machine… and it takes many little cogs to stop the mechanism. I pray we figure it out in time, and we do not know what happens next. All the big “C” words are in play: chaos, change, complexity, complicity, compassion, conflagration, conflict, circle, cycle…etc. And what I pray remains is this “L” word: love. Write on.
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I’ve sat with your words and thank you profoundy. YES to every word you write, and to all those C words and especially L – love. Which I send to you.
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Wabi sabi: the perfection of imperfection. A Japanese idea that I have always appreciated and lived since I was in Japan as a kid. Thank you for this post and your photos too! 🤩
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Thank you.
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