"The Bard's Breath" is a Winds of Change.NET feature bringing you art, quotes and verse related to our times every Tuesday and Thursday. We all need a bit more than just news to make it through what's coming next: Spirit. Perspective. Faith. Humour. Reminders of humanity, and horror, and the shape of true victory. This one can be found in full at Dean Esmay's site.
Litany for DictatorshipsIt's definitely worth reading in full.
by Stephen Vincent Benet, first published 1935For all those beaten, for the broken heads,
The fosterless, the simple, the oppressed,
The ghosts in the burning city of our time...It continues, deeply eloquent, and ends thusly:
...We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong.
We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
We thought the long train would run to the end of Time.
We thought the light would increase.
Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it.
Now the boar and the asp have power in our time.
Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid.
Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth.Our children know and suffer the armed men
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