Human Rights

Genocide Survivors – Poetry of Hope and Peace

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Genocide Survivors

By Talin Mari

 

On this day of sorrow,

So many lost their lives,

With nothing left for tomorrow,

They unwillingly said their goodbyes.

 

In the light of hope they existed,

One step brightening another,

Hope brought by the unanticipated,

Since a life of racist hate brings sorrow.

 

Waking now to a blank slate,

They walked effortlessly forward,

With love in their hearts and their fate,

They moved to the sunrise and onward.

 

Feeling lights of love in the soul,

Shunning hate to those that are ignorant,

Preaching kindness to heal the heart’s hole,

They embraced each other’s scarred dents.

Censorship – Poetry

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Censorship

by Talin Mari

 

My words will never be censored,

They will echo in everyone’s ears.

My words will tell all the stories,

The ones that no one wants to hear.

 

My words are the truths that I see,

They are hidden among the crowd.

My words paint a colorful picture,

The ones that look clearer at night.

 

Censorship breeds hate in this world,

Acceptance is a word we must know.

Censorship breeds lack of innovation,

Acceptance is the path to our liberty.

 

 

Avant-Garde Writer – Poem

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Avant-Garde Writer

By Talin Mari

 

I write in the dark like the avant-garde,

Moving from café to café without regard.

With my coffee cup always on my side,

I write feverishly throughout the night.

 

My dreams and ambitions floating about,

One word at a time I think is only allowed.

Chaos forms as I think of the past times,

Write, write, write them all in these lines.

 

No longer caring about a given structure,

I am the avant-garde destined to revolt.

The rhymes becomes non-existent here,

As I realize that it is I that am the change.

 

Rise up and create your own destination,

Be your own life’s unconventional rebel.

These are the thoughts that run rampant,

As I write in the dark like an avant-garde.

 

Marching for Sorrow – A Poem for Humanity

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Marching for Sorrow

By Talin Mari

 

Through the depths of desperation, I walk with hope.

Through the hills, lifelessly abandoned, I nod my head.

What is to become of the life that I once loved so dear?

What is to happen to all those that lived without fear?

 

I walk with my head hung low.

I walk as my legs endlessly ache.

I walk because I have no choice.

 

Hope begins to fade as I hear the echoes of my steps.

Hope becomes my enemy as I see many fall behind me.

When will I wake from this day that I feel will be my last?

When will I next hear the precious laugh of my daughter?

 

My heart aches from the emptiness.

My heart aches from the lives lost.

My heart aches because of my pain.

 

Secretly, I remember how I had hidden my precious love.

Secretly, I remember how I told my neighbor where she was.

Would the neighbor save my only love left, my young child?

Would she feel the kindness in her heart, despite her leader?

 

My mind drifts among the hills.

My mind empties among fear.

My mind hurts when it thinks.

 

“Stop!” the man yells with an overpowering mocking holler.

“Stop!” the man approaches us with his sword unleashed.

Am I to see the day of light again among my favorite friends?

Am I to walk among these hills again with my love, my child?

 

Silence surrounds me.

Silence fills these hills.

Silence is within me.

 

Goodbye my love….

 

The End

Armenian Hope – A Poem

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“Armenian Hope”

by Talin Mari

Time changes, history stands still,

We move forward, we remember.

Our souls unite as one entity,

A purpose, a vision, a reality.

Staying strong, never forgetting,

Leaving the weakness behind.

Time changes, history stands still,

We move forward, we remember.

Our history…

A plea for humanity…

Our ancestors…

Enduring the atrocity…

Our seeds…

Creating the future…

Our hope…

Humanity and Tolerance: #Save Kessab Campaign

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This last week, there has been a storm of articles about another massacre that is taking place against the Christian Armenians in the historic town of Kessab in Syria. People on Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, and other social media have cried out against the atrocities committed by the Muslims against the Christian Armenians, while a few are downplaying the actual occurrence as being an uprising that happened to drive the Armenians out of Kessab. Non -Armenians may wonder why this has even made the news. There are many reasons why it is important to stop the atrocities that have occurred and are continuing to occur in Syria and Kessab against the Armenians. The most important reason is that we need to live in a world that is civil and humane. One that is tolerant to the beliefs of everyone.

Several years ago, I had lunch with a Turkish woman who was an elementary school teacher in Turkey. I asked her why Turkey does not recognize and apologize for the 1915 Genocide of the Armenians, just like Germany had for the Jewish Holocaust. Her answer was pretty blunt. She claimed that there was no Genocide and that the Turkish history books had not recorded it as having occurred during the Ottoman Empire. Reasoning with her was impossible. How can history be so easily erased when there are so many Armenians that lived through and recounted the torture and massacre of an entire race? So many countries, such as France, have recognized the Armenian Genocide of 1915, and, yet, this school teacher refused to admit that it had ever existed.

In Kessab, an entire town fled and many Armenians were tortured and killed for being Christian. When will our society become tolerant of all kinds of people, whether it be racial, religious, or those with disabilities? We are all one in the same. No one person is better than another. We all need to live in unison. This world was meant for all to enjoy, not just a segregated few. Many have fought for the equality of people, such Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. As a society, we must take it a step further and strive for the equality of all men and women regardless of their race, religion, disability, or anything. We need to become one as a community and stop any genocide from ever occurring again… anywhere.