Friday, February 17, 2012

Famine

ethereal thoughts
float away up to the sky,
as my stomach growls

~0~0

a slice of stale bread,
corn grain is manna to eyes,
red-rimmed with ash sands   

~0~0

vulture eyes follow
child too weak to walk, snapshots
torturing mind's peace  






Kevin Carter, is a Pulitzer-prize winning South African photojournalist. His winning photo shows a heart-breaking scene of a starving child collapsed on the ground, struggling to get to a food center during a famine in the Sudan in 1993. In the background, a vulture stalks the emaciated child.
Carter was part of a group of four fearless photojournalists known as the “Bang Bang Club” who traveled throughout South Africa capturing the atrocities committed during apartheid.
Haunted by the horrific images from Sudan, Carter committed suicide in 1994 soon after receiving the award.

First part of my haiku relates to the prompt of Imaginary Garden with Real Toads - Ethereal 
Written for Few Miles Haiku Challenge 2012 for the month of February:   Day 18- Famine
    

22 comments:

  1. Wow he must have truly been haunted and I can see why, should be no reason for it, but greed rules once more.

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  2. Powerful post. It just breaks your heart.

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  3. Love it, Grace! You completed Laurie's prompt beautifully.

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  4. Horrific. I hate to say thank you for the horror, but it is a great raising up of a horrible issue.

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  5. Terrifying image and haiku ... you did write a very strong haiku ... it's a terrible picture, but you have written it wonderful. You really painted with words.

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  6. It's so sad that the scene of devastation affected the photographer so deeply. Thank you for sharing the story. Lovely set of haiku.

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  7. Haunting images,

    vulture eyes follow
    child too weak to walk, snapshots
    torturing mind's peace

    Amazing words!!

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  8. Heart-wrenching... so very sad. You've really captured the essence of the picture. Thanks for the info about the photographer. I'm not surprised it was too much to bear.

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  9. and this horror continues, while we so easily forget. thank-you for sharing and reminding!

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  10. Ugh! Can't tell you how affecting I find this image. It is iconic, but the sad truth is that there are hundreds of thousand African children out there in similar circumstances right at this very moment. Thank you for highlighting an on-going true horror story.

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  11. wow! a gut-wrenching photograph; intense haiku; sad, sad tale of the photographer.

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  12. Yes! picture is torturing mind peace...Ahh!..God save people from this Famine

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  13. Appreciate the way you defined the feeling of hunger in your first Haiku!
    Great set.

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  14. ugh...this is like a punch in the gut actually...i saddens me, sickens my and makes me angry all at once that people esp children go hungry....effective verse....

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  15. This is haunting, as it should be~ Your words fit the image so well...
    Makes me sick, we need to be reminded to be human and do more. No child should have to endure this...
    So sad to hear of Kevin, he was haunted by what he saw...
    Thanks for putting this out here!
    My son n' I have talked about doing volunteer work...I suggested Food Bank or Food kitchen...Thank for the reminder

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  16. Excellent set, Grace ... powerful and haunting photography sears the soul as your last Haiku delivers its message. I do not like the vulture ... this image is almost too much to view on paper much less in person!

    Another powerful line is red-rimmed with ash sands

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  17. Not surprising that these images were too much to bear. Thank you for bringing them to our attention. It is truly horrible that this continues to exist.

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  18. Powerful haiku, heart-stopping photo and thanks for the info about the photojournalist. Poor man with a broken heart. A topic I would not have connected to the word ethereal but you did it so well.

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  19. kevin Carter's eye providing us with what we as Humans are left to do.
    In this he inspired you and you gave us this haiku Grace.

    Gracias

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  20. I've seen that picture before and it always makes me cry! Lovely haiku, Grace. Thank you for sharing.

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