Just How Many Butterflies, a Reading

Lest We Not Forget …

Just How Many Butterflies

Please visit the link below to read and hear the poem

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7USxCj5eEHU

Author's Note

Lest we not forget …
Rather let us remember
The key to ending war
To ending the killing
The suffering
Lies within us ALL
Time after time
Yesterday's enemy
Has become today's ally
What changed ...
Our minds

Reviews

[John Alexander McFadyen]

The sad fact is that the wormongers care not for the butterflies or any other living creature. Look at Syria and Iraq, the wars in Afghanistan and the gulf, the Falklands, ther first and second world wars. We just became smarter at war. Nice sentiment though Pryde.

[Pryde Foltz]

It used to be that war and strife was spread all over the world. That was the way nations solved problems … so called great men rose and conquered lands and then were lauded for it. Things have changed. A study was done recently and it proved that people were less likely to die a violent death than ever before that include from warfare. Yes … there are individuals who rely on aggression to make profit and as such encourage it but their field of endeavour is shrinking. Don't let the sensationalism of the evening news tell you different. This is not just a sentiment … humans can wake to their finer selves and leave the aggression behind. But more aggression is not going to do this for us ...

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you John:) :) :)

[John Alexander McFadyen]

We have to find ways of killing one another as we erradicate disease and over populate the planet. Have you read 'Inferno' by Dan Brown?

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Ha so you forgot to kiss my cheek, I forgive you lol!

[Pryde Foltz]

We don't have to kill each other to control the population … on the contrary if we want to improve the world we need to share resources with one another not fight over them … war interrupts things like education and is in itself a ecological disaster … Using war as a population control is putting out fire with gasoline. And whose sons are going to be sacrificed … whose daughters raped … whose babies collateral damage. No … that is not acceptable. Education is a far more effective way to control the human population … women who spend longer in school and then have career options after school put off their reproductive years and this improves the standard of living for all … even in cases where they go on to have the same number of children as they would have had otherwise … standards of living are better for the delay … case in point Ireland and Mexico for a very long time had the same birth rate … however Irish women had the children later. War is a world level manifestation of the aggression we needed to hunt and secure mates … I am living proof that aggression can be transcended and I have a pretty good idea you are too.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Pryde you and I are both passionate about these issues but I was born and raised in Glasgow where poverty was allowed to fuel inequality and population growth and it is still happening in our civilised cities!

[Pryde Foltz]

So I do not understand your stance … my approach would have poverty diminished and not have the impoverished fight for the wealthy. We need to push for better education and be vocal in our opposition to war … when we give into despair and the idea that war is inevitable we play into the hands of those who would have us fight. It is a paradigm shift, John, but it is possible.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

I see what you believe but how do we really control over population?

[Pryde Foltz]

I told you … by improving education and career opportunities for women all over the world (And mens as well:)) … we have a myriad of birth control options … no one needs to fall in war … war kills not just humans but everything in its path … and it keeps people in poverty and that tends to increase birth rates in the long run … in the long-term war is not an effective population control method … population eradication perhaps (I am talking about genocide here) … The solution is a very workable one … all it takes is the changing of minds not more blood. And it is a change that could be worked in a generation and is working now.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

So consider India and China and the lack of birth control. Add to that the other remote and uninformed parts of the world like the middle East.

[Pryde Foltz]

Think about the extrapolation on this one … if a part of world is ill-informed about birth control and women's rights … Is the solution is to go to war with them to control population … I don't think you really feel that way … not really … that idea has all the makings of a genocide … not to mention caught up in war they continue to be ill-informed about birth control and women's rights and no problem is solved, but the wallets of the military-complex get fatter. Moreover we are not at war with China and India … who have the large populations … but the middle east who have the oil. Given the ecological, economical and humanitarian costs and risks of modern warfare … it needs to be done away with … it is the solution to nothing.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

Pryde read Dan Brown's 'Inferno'

[Pryde Foltz]

If he defends war as a population control mechanism … I really don't have the time.

[John Alexander McFadyen]

No he does not.

[Pryde Foltz]

That is good to hear:) I do like his fiction:)

[John Alexander McFadyen]

I found 'Inferno' his most enjoyable so far. The concept and thje ending are amazing.

[Alfred Kukitz]

I worked on tanks in Vietnam. The guys would drain the oil out, blow the engine, get out of the fighting because our war meant nothing. They called us Rear Echelon Mother F..........because we repaired them. No way!
The military industrial complex has forever wars now with the jihadists. They found their butterflies! We will not find ours. Thank you Pryde!

[Pryde Foltz]

Give it time, Alfred. The problem is we are afraid of the personal dark the metamorphism takes but we'll get there. Be well:)

[Alfred Kukitz]

So Confident! I like that in you. I wish optimism was a habit of mine.

[Pryde Foltz]

It is a choice … I suppose.

[Laura Lynn]

Wow, this is an amazing comparison. Specific and peace driven. I don't know how you do it! You must be an alto!

[Pryde Foltz]

LOL … a mezzo soprano actually but very close. Thank you, Laura.

[C. Rose]

The first and last lines made me smile most. I imagine a horde of beautiful peaceful butterflies coming together and lifting a tank and flying it away to where it can do no harm.

[Pryde Foltz]

That would be a lovely site, indeed:)

[Coyote Poetry]

Amazing verbal poetry dear friend.
Coyote

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Coyote.

[Richard]

this is really good .... so what is it that sells a book or sells poetry? is it less words that makes it more approachable? ha

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Richard. Marketing sells books.

[Thomas Fitzgerald]

A telling piece that seeks to portray the uselessness of war and all his facets, well done, good read.

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Thomas.

[Lydia Shutter]

Thinking of the song from the 70's..."War, what is it good for? Absolutely nothing!" Intense poetry, Pryde. Well said to get your point across.

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Lydia.

[jennifer little]

wow great poem i loved it keep up the good work and nice job

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, jen.

[jennifer little]

your welcome ....

[Avinash]

The futility of war comes to fore in your spoken words quite strongly. The graphics which you used for the video quite matched the theme of your poem. Thanks for your invite.

[Pryde Foltz]

Thank you, Avinash.