Michael E. Stone: April 2015 in Yerevan

It was a mixed grill of

Genocide centennial,

manuscripts, friends,

my glad thanks to those

lovers of the treasures

that are hand-written

painted manuscripts, 

who welcomed

me from the first day 

for I share that love.

Those treasures of beauty,

of language, art, and craft

enfold within the power 

for a mighty transmutation

of victims into the bearers,

witnesses and lovers

of that history and beauty,

those songs and tales,

that the singers of this time

and the next will turn 

from unbearable pain 

into the imperative of life, 

of living, of breathing,

The pain of the past,

demands life, 

new birth.