By: Douglas J. Lanzo

Sounds from Iwo Jima

Dedicated to the more than 6,800 marines
who gave their lives with valor
for our country in the Battle for Iwo Jima

“Uncommon valor was a common virtue.” Admiral Chester Nimitz
Walking on the beaches
I hear whispers in the air,
soulful cries of struggle,
where mens’ lives did disappear;

Wailing of shearwater
as they circle black sand shore,
where thousands of marines
fought and perished, in the War.
Ascending cinder hills,
I hear mortars whistling sound —
series of explosions,
tearing up volcanic ground.

From open mouths of caves
explode sounds of guns and torch —
firing from mens’ carbines —
cries of “Banzai” by men scorched.

Covering my eardrums,
I hear unrelenting fire —
spitting from machine guns,
mounted beneath razor wire;

Battleship bombardment
booming broadsides from the sea,
buzzing of our fighters
strafing lairs into debris.

Nearing Suribachi
I uncover my rapt ears —
hearing roars from thousands —
who release their heartfelt cheers,
as our flag is planted
on the mountain without fear,
glorifying freedom,
though the price for it was dear.

A Man Led to Act

Dedicated to Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil. God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Commanded not to
speak in public,
cut off while on the air,
banned from Nazi streets
deep in the Führer’s lair;

one man risked it all:
his family, name and life —
to save his Fatherland,
from Holocaust and strife;

preaching love of Jews
at home and while abroad,
exposing Hitler’s lies
as anti-Christian fraud.
His seminary closed,
he traveled to Harlem —
moved by the spirit there —
uplifting all of them;

until he felt called back
to war-torn Germany,
where he would do God’s will:
resist — rather than flee.

Sworn to secrecy,
he joined an Abwehr plot
to take the Führer’s life
by plane bomb on the spot.

Engaged when the plot hatched,
he never saw the day,
when he would stride the aisle,
with love leading the way.
Arrested and confined,
tortured, questioned for years —
he stood strong in his faith,
despite the pain and tears.
Not one month ‘til the day
the Allies won the War,
Bonhoeffer led a service
within his cell block’s doors.
Approached by Nazi guards,
transported to a camp,
he was sentenced to death,
then taken up a ramp…
to a waiting noose,
to be cut like a knife,
where in his words, his end —
would be, “the beginning of life.”

Fierce Mountain Majesty

Golden brown eyes
as fierce as the glaciered mountains
scan steep valleys
descending into storm-tossed seas
piercing through crystals
streamed by hurricane-force winds
released by fisted clouds
obliterating all traces of sunlight.
Driven by meows of hunger
from kittens intensified
by echoes of frozen rock,
she suffers the elements,
her tawny fur silvering in
the blistering mountain storm.
Tracking movement,
her eyes alight upon a young guanaco
struggling to keep pace
with its mother,
as their toe-cleft hooves
negotiate deepening snow drifts.

Lowering her tensed body,
she stealthily tracks toward the pair
on padded feet,
retracting ice-sharp claws.
Deftly bounding over
evergreen shrubs and
tumbled granite rocks
hewn by receded glaciers,
she increases her pace,
eliciting a startled, high-pitched
bleat from the guanaco’s mother.
The race begun,
she hits full stride,
locking in on the agile youth,
hurtling in bounded strides
down bouldered mountainside.
Accelerating, her lithe body pulses
with each lengthened stride,
as she strives her utmost
to close the rugged gap.
At full stride
just meters away,
she angles to its side
and springs to seal its fate.
Leaping onto the guanaco,
she claws into its back
as it bucks furiously —
continuing to stride.
Thrown off its side,
she digs hard into the earth
thrusting herself forward,
regaining momentum.
Zig-zagging with the youth,
she mounts a sidewise leap
with extreme force,
just as it turns that way.

Thrown off balance,
the guanaco tumbles
to the ground, stripping brush
as its body rolls uncontrollably.
Clawing into the guanaco’s back,
her jaws strain to its neck
and make one razored bite,
shattering its trachea —
leaving the guanaco breathless.
Two, snow-pelted hours later,
she returns to a warm den,
with the body of a guanaco
clenched in her jaws,
to the eager meows
of four hungry kittens.