For Warmth
Poem by Thich Nhat Hanh
I hold my face in my two hands.
No, I am not crying.
I hold my face in my two hands
to keep the loneliness warm—
two hands protecting,
two hands nourishing,
two hands preventing
my soul from leaving me
in anger.
Written during the Vietnam war, after the bombing of the village Ben Tre, after an American officer made the comment "We had to destroy the town in order to save it"
