Poetry for Troubled Times

Prof. Alan Whitehorn, Kingston ON, 2026

April 8, 2026

Sins of Our Times

Old autocratic men seeking to prevail,
maintaining, and even strengthening, old patterns of patriarchy.
Clearly, committing acts of violence against women and children,
and extended families,
all constituting Crimes against Humanity.
Even threatening far worse.
Meanwhile,
the vast indifference of too many others.
Why did we not do more to save the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto?
Why do we not act to save the besieged and beleaguered Palestinians in Gaza?
Are we guilty of the grave sin of indifference?
It seems so.
Shame on us all.
Shame.
We need to do far more.
And ever so urgently.

March 17, 2026

What about Sudan?

Some genocides are written extensively about,
while others are largely ignored.
All other genocides combined
have less written about them
than the Holocaust.
Why?
The reasons are complex,
but important.
And so,
somewhere in Africa
an emaciated child cries out in grief.
Does anyone hear?
Is there someone who cares?
I do,
but I am too busy.
My article on the Holocaust is overdue.

May 17, 2026

Barbarian Invasions

It was probably never simple times.
Local villagers were often terrified of invaders from afar.
But they rebuilt their flocks and families
and tilled the land once more.
The barbarians eventually became neighbours…
and perhaps even learned to farm too.

May 21, 2026

The Garden

It is spring
and time to tend to the garden.
There is an abundance of dandelions.
Too many, it seems.
Certainly, there are more than in the past.
They rival the daffodils.
Both are bright yellow,
but one is seen as invasive and undesirable,
the other pleasant to view and propagate.
Why is one preferred over the other?
Are they not both valued by the bees?
But the gardener decides to weed
to ensure the vista is pristine.
And so an unrelenting effort to remake the landscape.
The goal to rid it of supposed weeds.
Are you more of a daffodil or dandelion?
Is the gardener your friend or foe?
Who appointed this person to oversee Nature?
In any case, it is spring.
It is time to grow and enjoy the view.

May 21, 2026

A World Adrift

I try not to think of a normless world,
where anything goes.
It is incumbent on us to create universal norms,
if none currently exist.
And so,
we endeavour to create order amidst the apparent chaos.
It may be hard to agree upon first principles,
but surely there are some.

It is better to love than hate.
It is preferable to live than die.
It is more honourable to give than take.
It is more life-affirming to create than destroy.
It is more pleasant to share joy than live isolated, bitter and alone.

Good-night dear comrade.
Tomorrow is another day.

March 25, 2026

Confronting Injustice

Against all odds,
we do what we can,
though we know it is not nearly enough.
We hope that
one day we will be in sufficient numbers
to make a difference.
Till then,
courage dear friend.
Tomorrow is another day.

*****

Alan Whitehorn is an emeritus professor at the Royal Military College of Canada and was the first holder of the JS Woodsworth Chair in Humanities at Simon Fraser University in 1994-1996. As an academic, he writes on the topics of genocide, human rights, political parties and elections. As an award-winning poet, he explores the issue of genocide and its impact on Armenian-Canadian identity. Amongst his published books: Poems from the Diaspora: An Armenian Odyssey/Poesie dalla Diaspora: un’odissea armena; The Armenian Genocide: The Essential Reference Guide; Return to Armenia/Veradardz depi Hayastan; Just Poems: Reflections on the Armenian Genocide; Ancestral Voices: Identity, Ethnic Roots and a Genocide Remembered; The Armenian Genocide: Resisting the Inertia of Indifference (co-author with Lorne Shirinian).