USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Hitler Is Not In Hell (Poem)

Not to please me o!

I know that you are in poetry

to please yourself only

On Sunday, 1 November 2015 20:38:02 UTC+1, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:

Mazi,

You have the right to interpret the poem (any poem) the way you choose to and I have the right to write the way I choose to. Unfortunately, you sounded as if I am in poetry to please you.

Ndewo.

 

CAO.

On Sunday, 1 November 2015 16:07:33 UTC+1, Cornelius Hamelberg wrote:

Dearest Chidi:

Whatever happened with

'Beauty is truth, truth beauty,—that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.'

You stand accused of upsetting my Sunday afternoon with the title of your poem.  And the liar wants to justify himself, that "It is a possibility in fiction, especially, poetry" - like fictional paper money (naira) being presented as legal tender or a promissory note.

Your words are clear enough: Hitler you say,

 "is not in hell"

 I hope that I am not deliberately misunderstanding you.

Am I not supposed to be disappointed in you a Biafran exonerating Mr. Hitler, poetically?

You want to spoil our friendship? However, I'm not about to unfriend you here and now – there's hope for you yet – or is it another case of – as Wordsworth opined,

"We Poets in our youth begin in gladness;

 But thereof come in the end despondency and madness"

If you can't create a worse place for that son of a devil then we have to agree that it's a very unpleasant possibility in your wordy poetry that "Hitler is not in hell". The question then arises, Where is he then? Do you want to tell us that he is in heaven? Want us to believe   - the blood of Jesus etc. - that he is in Purgatory?

It's not merely the case of e.g. John Milton saying that "The mind is its own place, and in itself can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven"

Or is it John Dryden talking about one being "Too black for heav'n, and yet too white for hell"?

This reminds me of sitting cross legged on the floor in the Imam Ali Mosque in Stockholm many years ago (1988) in a semi-circle around Sheikh Hassan of Iraq, listening to him holding forth on forgiveness. I could not resist whispering in the ear of Ahmad  who was sitting next to me : "So there is/ was a theoretical possibility that Allah (Subhanahu-Wa-Ta'ala) could forgive Saddam ( since Allah (Subhanahu-Wa-Ta'ala) can forgive anything except shirk ?"– Whereupon Ahmad got up and went and sat alone at the far end of the masjid, until Sheikh Hassan's lecture was over.  After which I approached him to ask why he had separated himself.  He was still visibly very angry when he answered: "If Saddam will not go to hell, then who else in this world could be a candidate for the fire?"Chidi, if only you had been by my side on that occasion you could have told Ahmad, here is Saddam's supplication:

"Daily in my dwelling

I do penance

To cleanse me of uncleanliness.

After remission,

I will hurry to heaven

To dwell with Divinity

And be drenched

With the dewdrops of divine mercy."

Here is another of my favourite poets: Yehuda Amichai

Pray for us.

Cornelius

We Sweden

 

 

On Sunday, 1 November 2015 08:25:08 UTC+1, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:

Mazi,
It is a possibility in fiction, especially, poetry.

CAO.

On Oct 31, 2015 5:13 PM, "Cornelius Hamelberg" <cornelius...@gmail.com> wrote:

Eternity continues with the next line: If the devil is not in hell, do you think that maybe he escaped by just paying a fine?

On Thursday, 29 October 2015 11:08:08 UTC+1, Chidi Anthony Opara wrote:

By Chidi Anthony Opara

 

Humans say

That hell is my home.

"Hitler is in hell", they say,

Hitler is not in hell.

I dwell in the dwelling

Between heaven and hell.

 

I was prodded to pomposity,

My ego swelled

And exploded,

Its contents soiled society.

I took tutorials

From savages who invaded Africa,

From crooked clergies,

From immoral Imams

And from rogue royalties,

I shared unholy sacrament

With those surrogates of Satan.

 

Daily in my dwelling

I do penance

To cleanse me of uncleanliness.

After remission,

I will hurry to heaven

To dwell with Divinity

And be drenched

With the dewdrops of divine mercy.

 

(Poem presented as social service, all rights reserved)

 

--

Chidi Anthony Opara is a

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