Download PDF of this full issue: v52n1.pdf (24.3 MB)

Thich Nhat Hahn, RIP (poem)

By Jan Barry

Thich Nhat Hanh died the other day.
I saw an email message about it
Just as I finished a mindfulness
Session online, provided by the VA.

My first lesson in mindfulness
Was 50-some years ago,
when this tiny Vietnamese Buddhist monk
transfixed a regiment-sized cohort
Of Vietnam vets at an anti-war
Encampment on the Mall in Washington, DC.

This poet of people we'd inflicted war on
Stunned us with his quiet eloquence—
His voice conveying anguish from the
Farming villages we'd destroyed.

This man of peace stood amidst
Towering combat-clad warriors
And shamed us to do more
With our war memories—
To tell the terrible truth
Mindfully.

—Jan Barry