Walt Trizna's Blog, page 119

February 24, 2011

PUBLISHED POEM

For some reason I have always had a fascination with Easter Island.

I've read about the island and became caught up with the struggles of two distinct populations and their undying need to build monuments. They decimated their forests to transport these magnificent structures.

I find it haunting that all this effort was going on while they had no idea that anyone else, outside their society, would see or appreciate this magnificent effort. Did they have the concept that there was more of the world?

I wrote a poem about these feeling which was published in 1975. The poem was published in the anthology, Best Poets of the 20th Century (another magnificent title and an awesome stretch), by Winston – Paramount Books, edited by B. Winston – Paramount.

EASTER ISLAND

Constructing sightless eyes no

one will see

They toil;

Probing rock with human fingers

They grope;

One – minded their effort approaches

uniqueness,

Years past witness human fingers to

dust,

Monuments remain to visit their labor;

Solemn stone faces looking out,

Pumice minds knowing an age of men

Possessing greatness long gone –

Deaf ears formed with stone axes,

Blood and sweat transformed

To monumental greatness;

Waiting on Easter Island.