Thanks to everyone who had something to say in response to this one.
Multiple reply so as not to clog the list.

Bob
Poems, like press photographs and news-footage, become a focus of (more than
the individuals) feelings - don't they? I believe they do.
> I believe they can too - like the poems you mentioned. But I fear that for
the most part they are merely "peaching to the converted". I think the
lyrics to the Internationale are / is a powerfully moving poem that has
positively motivated people all over the world, but you wouldn't get General
Franco (or Stalin for that matter) agreeing with me!

Ryfkah - Shalom
Have you read the Psalms lately; poetry transforms spirit and mind.
I  admire your poem and believe it has a strong caring message.
> Thankyou. I haven't read the psalms since being forced to as a school kid.
The only effect they had on me was negative, in that I grew up to be
anti-religion. But that doesn't mean I don't respect other peolple's
religious sensibilities. Kol tuv to you too.

Christina
it has a clear, important message, written simply and directly.  I suspect
that you could trim it back a little to give it more clout (don't think you
need the final line of the first stanza).
>Thankyou. If I was going to trim it the third stanza would go, it's just
there to add to the landscape. the line you mention though is crucial. To
end on - It could be paradise - is leaving it open to the idea that it could
be. But it's definitely not!

John
...if such a piece isn't really commanding it can come across as tokenism.
> I'm totally with you on this one. I was concerned that it was exactly
that. But what can you do? Better to make a token gesture than none at all.
(Angry from Liverpool - ha!)

Thanks everyone
Mick

----- Original Message -----

Nauru
A tiny speck of land
in the vast pacific ocean
no industry
no agriculture
it could be paradise
but it's not

there used to be phosphates
until the multinationals came
and left
taking the top four feet of everywhere
with them

leaving a bizarre landscape
of rocks stripped naked
like embarrassed outcasts
on a prison island

pacific rain storms
washed away
what soil was left
and now the place is just a maze
of twisting empty trenches

inhabitants who haven't
already left
are queuing up to do so
their villages
and ages old island culture
long destroyed

a perfect place to send
three hundred and fifty
men women and children
trying to escape
persecution
and intolerance



_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp