Thursday, April 17, 2014

Riva Martin: The Armenian Journey

Unforeseen harvest of a nation
Once firm in holy ground
Weaned out in strategic rows
Trampled upon without sound

No warning or response, just deception
Persecutors ‘twould seem hell bound
Insensitive to pain and sorrows
Heard over unjust battlegrounds

Forced into a violent migration
No explanation—dumbfound
Floods of tears did echo
To those who yet had drowned

Fear and silenced devastation
Mourning the motionless mounds
Lead to invisible gallows
Driven, sun-leather browned

Robbed, ripped of earthly possession
The loss of men profound
Lives destroyed in desert meadows
For months ceased to surround

Children were no exception
Many thousands orphan-crowned
The loss of heritage would grow
Native tongue a foreign sound

Enemies fostered compassion
As did allies, some newfound
Both in times a hero
For new life would abound

Scattered by destruction
Seeds on foreign ground
To history it bestows
A story quite renowned


Riva Martin, our college age category winner, is from New Milford CT and attends Paul Smith's College. She writes "I wanted to thank you for hosting this poetry competition.  I had never even heard of the Armenian Genocide before now. It is a wonder that I was never taught about, or in the least, informed, of such a historical event in world history.  Inspiring it is. "


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