Sherry Chandler » Eden
Eden
On this Memorial Day, when the Creation Museum opens, it seems appropriate to share with you this “sort of found poem” from Charlie Hughes.
Update: For reasons I cannot fully comprehend, I’ve had all kinds of software problems with this post. Well, actually, I think I can comprehend them — our klunky old modem connection has been particularly unstable this holiday weekend and commands I thought I’d sent don’t get sent and commands I didn’t think I’d send seem to happen spontaneously. For one thing, WordPress keeps thinking I want this to be a “private” posting and hiding it in the back end.
SO — if you thought you’d read this poem, read it again. Parts of it have been lost and are now I hope found.
My apologies to Charlie.
The Fertile Crescent – May 2007
by Charlie G. Hughes
as long as credit is given to the author.
And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. . . . And God said, Let the earth bring forth every living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. And God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
The soil is generally fertile and easily convertible to agricultural activity. Two major soil types predominate – heavy alluvial deposits of the Tigris-Euphrates Plain containing a significant amount of humus and clay, and lighter soils which lack humus and clay but contain wind-deposited nutrients. . . . By Middle-Eastern standards, the land is fairly well-endowed with agricultural resources that include fertile soils and access to two major river systems, the Tigris and the Euphrates, which provide extensive irrigation potential. Among the most abundant crops are wheat, barley, and dates.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.
Camel jockey, Sand nigger, Sand nigglet, Towel head, Raghead, Dune coon, Terrorist, Osama, A-rab, Dot-head, Sand rat, Paki, Sand monkey, Rock-spider, Camel-toe, Muhammad, Sand people.
And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life is also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
TIME Magazine, 1956 – After 700 years in the dark ages, the ancient land where agriculture dawned and civilization first lit the planet is stirring again. Sudden wealth has been thrust upon the Kingdom of Iraq, carved just 35 years ago out of the Ottoman Empire’s holdings in the valley of the Tigris and the Euphrates–the land once known as Mesopotamia. The oil that calked the walls of Babylon and may have fired the furnace through which Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego walked unscathed now bubbles through huge pipelines to the Mediterranean. Its flow is so fabulous that it makes Iraq (pop. 5,000,000) the world’s sixth largest petroleum-producing country. Last February Iraq became the first of the new Arab nations to break away from Middle East isolationism and to cast its lot openly with the West in the Baghdad pact.
And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and He brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field. And whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
The “Clear Skies Initiative” rolls back reforms in the 1970 Clean Air Act so that power plants can emit more noxious gases. The “Healthy Forests Initiative” allows loggers to cut certain old-growth trees under the guise of fire prevention. The “Patriot Act” encroaches on rights guaranteed by the constitution. The “Homeland Securities Act” offers little security, as demonstrated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The “Coalition of the Willing” consists of 45 nations (in 2003) according to the Whitehouse. Many offered “political support” without material support.
but for Adam there was not found any help-mate for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh thereof; And from the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
USA Today – Pleasure marriages were outlawed under Saddam Hussein but have begun to flourish again.The 1,400-year-old practice of muta’a – “ecstasy” in Arabic – is as old as Islam itself. It was permitted by the prophet Mohammed as a way to ensure a respectable means of income for widowed women. Rahim Al-Zaidi, who is married with five children, is awaiting permission for his third “pleasure marriage.” In the days when it could land him in jail, Rahim Al-Zaidi would whisper details of his muta’a only to his closest confidants and the occasional cousin, but never his wife. Al-Zaidi hopes to soon finalize his third “pleasure marriage,” with a green-eyed neighbor. This time, he talks about it openly and with obvious relish. But, he says, he probably still won’t tell his wife.
And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
BarnesAndNoble.com — In her book, Delights from the Garden of Eden, author Nawal Nasrallah explains that Iraqi cuisine has a distinctive character due to the influences of many different cultures in the region’s history. She traces its roots to the ancient Sumerians, Babylonians and Assyrians in the land that was home to Noah and to Abraham. Her reference to the Garden of Eden in the title is no mere evocativeness: She traces it to the Sumerian land “Edin” – She reminds us that “the first documented ‘cookbook’ in human history was written in Akkadian on clay tablets, in the land of Babylon about 3700 years ago.” Centuries later, in the medieval period, Baghdad under the Caliphs became a renowned center of gastronomy, and again under the Ottomans the Iraqis participated in yet another outstanding cuisine.
And walking in the garden in the cool of the day the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And Adam said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. And He said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.
Written just weeks after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, an open letter from Project for a New American Century (PNAC) to President Bush urging Saddam Hussein’s ouster marked the beginning of a concerted effort by neoconservatives to persuade President Bush to take action against Iraq. The letter stated, in part: “. . .even if evidence does not link Iraq directly to the [9/11] attack, any strategy aiming at the eradication of terrorism and its sponsors must include a determined effort to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.” The relentless campaign worked.
And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise her heel. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children . . .
BlackPressUSA.com – According to U.S. military records, 33 female soldiers – three in Afghanistan and 30 in Iraq – have been killed since operations started in Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003. In addition, 240 women have sustained combat-related wounds in Iraq and Afghanistan. Left with permanent injuries that have sometimes required amputation, most of these women – like those killed – were struck by bombs that hit transport units or camps with no warning. Iraq has been labeled among the top five “failed states” and “the most dangerous place on earth” by the United Nations. The United States has paid a high price (though not nearly as high as the Iraqis) for the catastrophic policy decisions of the Bush administration. Well over three thousand American soldiers have been killed, ten times that many wounded . . . President Bush contends that the American people have indeed sacrificed. He has said that all of us sacrifice ‘‘peace of mind” from the daily images of carnage on TV.
And unto Adam He said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
22 May 2007 (AP) – The U.S. military reported Sunday that six U.S. soldiers on patrol in Baghdad were killed in a roadside bombing along with their interpreter on Saturday. A seventh soldier died in a blast Saturday in Diwaniya, a mostly Shiite city 80 miles south of the capital, where radical Shiite militias operate. Those deaths brought the number of American troops killed in Iraq since Friday to at least 15 – eight of them in Baghdad. So far, at least 71 U.S. troops have died in Iraq this month.
And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever, I will send him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.
International Herald-Tribune — Everyone knows, of course, that after death martyrs go straight to the Garden of Eden, where they recline on couches, savor meats and fruits and enjoy the company of dark-eyed “houris” while listening to the sound of flowing rivers. But what happens to the vast majority of Muslims, those who do not die as martyrs? According to Islamic doctrine, between the moment of death and the burial ceremony, the spirit of a deceased Muslim takes a quick journey to Heaven and Hell, where it beholds visions of the bliss and torture awaiting humanity at the end of days. By the time corpse handlers are ready to wash the body, the spirit returns to Earth to observe the preparations for burial and to accompany the procession toward the cemetery. But then, before earth is piled upon the freshly dug grave, an unusual reunion takes place: The spirit returns to dwell within the body. In the grave, the deceased Muslim – this composite of spirit and corpse – encounters two terrifying angels, Munkar and Nakir, recognized by their bluish faces, their huge teeth and their wild hair. These angels carry out a trial to probe the soundness of a Muslim’s faith. If the dead Muslim answers their questions convincingly, and if he has no sin on record, then the grave is transformed into a luxurious space that makes bearable the long wait until the final judgment. But if a Muslim’s faith is imperfect or if he has sinned during life by, for example, failing repeatedly to undertake purity rituals before prayer, then the grave is transformed into an oppressive, constricting space. The earth begins to weigh down heavily upon the sentient corpse, until the rib cage collapses; worms begin to nibble away at the flesh, causing horrible pain.
And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD. And she again bare his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground. And in process of time it came to pass, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the LORD. And Abel, he also brought of the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof. And the LORD had respect unto Abel and to his offering:
Navy Times, May 2007 – American soldiers with the Bravo Company, Second Battalion, 10th Mountain Division, and their Iraqi counterparts have spent days trudging through rough terrain – muddy canal banks lined with tall reeds, parched farmland and fields of sweet-smelling wildflowers, searching for their missing comrades. The Iraqis took the lead in single-file lines Saturday, often halting to inspect piles of rubble and the ruins of houses strewn with children’s clothes and sandals, the remnants of Shiite Muslim homes bombed by Sunni extremists in the largely Sunni area west of Latifiyah, about 20 miles south of Baghdad. Capt. Aaron Bright’s troops were debating how long they should rest in the two-story farm house, where they took refuge after three hours of searching, when they got the call that a soldier had been shot through the forehead by a sniper.
But unto Cain and to his offering He had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
22 May 2007 (Reuters) – One British soldier was killed when gunmen attacked a military fuel truck on Monday in Basra, 550 km (340 miles) south of Baghdad, the British military said. Following are the latest figures for military deaths in Iraq since the US-led invasion in March 2003:
US-LED COALITION FORCES:
United States – 3,419
Britain – 149
Other nations – 127IRAQIS:
Military – Between 4,900 and 6,375
Civilians – Between 64,061 and 70,169Johns Hopkins — As many as 654,965 more Iraqis may have died since hostilities began in Iraq in March 2003 than would have been expected under pre-war conditions, according to a survey conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Al Mustansiriya University in Baghdad.
And the LORD said unto Cain, Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am I my brother’s keeper? And He said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto me from the ground.
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