Hear Our Silence

Threnody of the Nations

We have hated and fought,

We have murdered and fled,

But the peace that we sought

Is alone with the dead.

We have offered ourselves

On the altar of greed;

We have poisoned our sons

With our venomous creed.

We have bombed and destroyed;

We have raped and diseased,

Till the earth has grown dark

With our war-obsequies.

We have sung our wild song

In the ghouls’ jubilee,

And, O Love, once again

We have crucified Thee.

Leon Adams
Lennoxville, Quebec, May 16, 1940.

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