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Ukraine Poem

We welcome to our RNDM Canada blog the poetry of Liz Coffman. Liz is a friend of Sandy’s (RNDM) and a retired university instructor in the department of education; Liz specialized in training new elementary school teachers in the fields of drama and art.

UKRAINE

We all met her:
She crossed our screens
10 seconds
Of her life journey
Through rubble
On a stretcher
Her belly swollen
With a baby ready
To emerge
Into a torn up world.
We held her
For that moment
Woman to woman
Carrying with us perhaps
A small bit of suffering
We shared
As we carried on
In the grocery store
The car wash
The kitchen
Making supper.
We do not know her name
But her death
And the baby
We mourn
For the birth of peace
We could not deliver
In a shattered world
Irrevocably changed
We mourn, we mourn
And cannot look away.

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2 years ago

Thank you for your poetic reflection. In particular, I have been carrying this line with me: “For the birth of peace
We could not deliver …”

Bonnie Dickie
2 years ago

I had the privilege of reading this poem before it appeared on the RNDM site and was struck then by how Elizabeth captured that video image so well and so powerfully. Tragically the woman and child did not survive as much as we all prayed that they had. That image is long gone from our screens but it and this poem are etched in my brain. Thank you for honouring what has become the fate of so many.

Sandra Stewart
2 years ago

Thank you so much, Liz. I recall seeing this scene on our TV screens, so far away and so painfully real. You have honoured this woman and her child…and life over brutality.

Claudia Stecker
2 years ago

I was deeply moved by your reflection, Liz – your long, loving look at “10 seconds” of unbearable anguish. As so many heart-rending snippets flash before our eyes these days, I seek to join you in such profound and attentive reverence.