Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE PEACE STATUE SPEAKS, by J. R. DOWNEY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE PEACE STATUE SPEAKS, by                    
First Line: Come, brave warriors, men of valor
Last Line: Comes from worship of the sun god.
Subject(s): Native Americans - Wars


Come, brave warriors, men of valor,
Men who gave, but gave so vainly,
Sit around our city's campfire,
Sit and listen, sit and listen.
Listen while the mighty chieftain
Tells you of an old religion,
Of the worship of the Sun God,
Tells you while he smokes the peace pipe
Of a better kind of valor.
How his tribesmen found the peace-time
Far transcending war-time glories.
As you sit and listen, listen,
Though your ears are deaf forever,
May the message thus ascending,
As the smoke does from your campfire,
Reach the hearts of living people.
Sit and listen, sit and listen,
Listen to his words of wisdom.

Why have you fought, my brothers? Why have you made war
One with another? You are brave, you have courage;
The glory of tribe is your motive. You give for
An ideal, your life. And what a poor privilege
When all that you gain is some bright plumage,
A few feathers with which to color your headdress.
The scalps that you wear on your belt from your carnage
Can only revive in your minds the painful stress
Of the combat.

This, oh my brothers, how gainless
As compared with the feeling of peace that men know
When they can look one straight in the eye and can press
The hand as a neighbor. Then it is that the glow
Of the heart transcends all. You forget your bow
And your arrows, your feathers. Instead a sense born
Of peace overshadows and you feel there is no
Gain from the fighting.

It is then you will be torn
With emotion and you know that you have been shorn
Of your valor. You are vanquished. All is gone,
And all that is left is your spirit. You are lorn
From the loss of the forest, your temple. Alone
With your thoughts, it must ever be yours to go on.
Gone the tepee and the children. And she with whom
You were mated is gone. The great Sun God whose vision,
Inspires you, looks down and regrets that this great doom
Is upon you. The Great Father would end your gloom.
Get out your pipes, oh my brothers. Let your campfire
Be lighted, and in the ascending smoke will loom
Large the meaning of peace.

Why then should you desire
More than your neighbor? What, but greed, is the vampire
That steals away the quiet and sets you aside
From your brother? What have you gained by your empire?
Nothing. It is gone. Your real life ebbs as the tide
And you have life no beacon, no Sun God to guide
You. You are drifting to a rocky unknown shore.
Where there can be no peace, and where you will abide
Alone, fated, forgotten, unloved evermore.

Men of Wisdom, men of vision,
Who have reached a higher status
Than the reason of the heathen,
Heed and harken, heed and harken,
Harken to the simple teaching
Of the Chieftain of the Redmen.
He who ruled our hills and forests,
Ruled our land of lakes and rivers,
Ruled our boasted Minnesota.
Let us pay to him our homage,
Let us profit by his wisdom,
Profit by the picture painted
Of a peaceful coming era
Fraught with saner understanding.
Let us learn then from the Red Man
From his primal seat of knowledge
Where unerring intuition
Comes from worship of the Sun God.





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