Old Words: New Stories
Old Words: New Stories
This is a piece written for the Converge Creative Writing Inspirations. Not too long ago, I came across the words Dark Tourism. I had no idea what it was. And then I did.
Old Words: New Stories.
There are different ways of knowing.
Photographers share the horrors
Of the crimes committed against humanity.
The Camps.
The Killing Fields.
Many now, simply tourist attractions.
How can that be?
Storytellers and novelists
Keep history alive
As they interview the survivors.
Their words entwined with those of the dead.
Artists draw the pictures.
The gifted sing the songs of oppression.
Of pain and suffering.
The agony.
Tell the people there is hope.
When there is none.
And who are we to invade their horror?
Who are we to find peace in a place where peace failed to gain strength.
I can’t unread what I have read.
And I have read much.
So many stories
That haunt me now, as they did then.
They torment my very soul.
I didn’t live through it.
For some God exists.
For others….
Dark Tourism
A term coined over 30 years ago.
To depict the travel to dark places
Where evil infiltrated every nook.
Every crevice.
Every cranny.
It seemed shameful.
But, I too engage in Dark Tourism.
I walk around the graveyards,
Searching out names.
Lives I will never know.
Stories told; I will never hear.
I find peace in the unthinkable.
The World War 1 trenches.
Places of the fallen.
Military graveyards. All neat and tidy.
Not so, for those who went to war.
Who am I to find peace in a world of torment?
Who am I?
We never learn do we.
We continue to rage war.
To fight to the death.
Rape.
Murder
Cause mayhem.
Untold misery.
Old words. New stories.
We never learn.
Do we?
We never learn?
Let the words of peace,
Not war,
Galvanise the world.
Stir the pity.
Blow the horn
For all humankind to hear.
Image from Pixabay.
