Seed Corn shall NOT be ground.

[Bluebear]

SEED CORN SHALL NOT BE GROUND
by Clarissa Pinkola Estés, PhD
Note: Seed corn = The best qualities of each green living thing, kept for seed so the next generation on earth will flower.

I first worked at the VA as an aide
and I saw them come back from hell…
Hell! Hell was still smoking inside them:
Front line men, artillery, tank and tail,
helicopter, hand to hand,
med evac, nurses, chaplains, photographers.

But too often, civvies, media, politicians wanted "war stories," from them,
to somehow share a suck at what they thought of as the heroic tit.
They wanted battle-frayed soldiers to say they were okay,
that the war enchantment cast over them by others
had magically worn off just because someone said 'war’s over, go home,'
that the soldiers had magically returned to their pre-war selves:
just a boy, just a girl, magically looking forward
to settling down with a nice girl or boy somewhere near trees and water.
But the soldiers’ eyes said,
Still at Inchon.
Still at the Ardennes.
Still at the Tet.
Still in Cambodia.
Forever.

Governments tried to erase all images and words about the wars,
but, the real eye-witness reports ran every night on the dream newsreels.
There, in their own beds, the men and women dreamt Honor and Horror
were dressed as innocent children,
who played time and again with the unspent money
of shells and mines so deadly pretty.
And outside the VA, the sexual lustre of war
continued to swell the hearts
of so many who never saw war up close.

At the VA, the soldiers walked the halls
wearing crowns of thorns made of missiles
and unspeakable memories on fire.
And anyone who saw them, helped them,
soothed them,
anyone who had a heart
left hanging by even one hinge
wondered,
Isn’t there such a thing as patriotic anger?
Is it not true that there is such a thing as patriotic sadness and sorrow?
What about patriotic resistance? Can there be patriotic regret?
And, oh by the way, when did patriotic reluctance to kill
change from a holy thing to a hated one?
And what does war shatter besides bone?
And how can secret regret deserve so much public praise?

How can the maiming of human life, life that all say is so precious,
be given so much remembrance, as though to be harmed and die
is hard sought treasure
instead of so unbearably tragic?
How can anything be more valued, more memorialized, than those who still stand
with earned valour shining,
with eyes that say:
Still walking from Bataan.
Still in Saigon.
Still in Seoul.
Still deployed into cold waters
under hundred pound packs
and struggling toward shore.
Forever.

Seed Corn shall not be ground,
else the next generation of miracles, dies.
The visionary demands:
Seed corn shall not be ground!



Dr. Pinkola Estés

[crikkett]

1. kick!

[Raksha]

2. Beautiful...I was thinking about her today,

in connection with something she said about predators, which in this context would be the Masters of War.

[Bluebear]

3. Isn't she amazing? nt

[Bluebear]

4. kick

[Lex]

5. Thank you.

nt

[yellerpup]

6. This is such a gorgeous piece.

Thanks for finding and sharing it with us, Bluebear.

[Bluebear]

9. "when did patriotic reluctance to kill change from a holy thing to a hated one?"

:cry:

[puebloknot]

7. Just too beautiful. Thank you so much for posting this! nt

[SoCalDem]

8. Ahh, truth.. The seeds for the next war are always sown in the current war.

and we never learn.. We keep sending militaristic, narrow-minded people to place of power.. How could we NOT have wars ?

[Tsiyu]

10. She can write so well

Dr. Estes has unique insight.

She is one of my favorites...thanks for posting this, Bluebear