Rise Up Like Lions

[I found this phenomenal photo by Jose Co Photos, Visione Aerea in the Picasa web albums. It clicked with a recent  quote I came across by Shelley, "Rise Like Lions",  as explained below.]


Rise up like lions on the savannah,
who proclaim their hunger
with a roar that cannot
be silenced
or suppressed.


Rise up,
like the milky blue mountains,
sprinkled with popcorn clouds,
in numbers too great
to ever be 
fully conquered.


Rise up, like the morning sun
that says it is time
for a new day to dawn,
and the old order 
to simply fade away;
or like the midnight moon
who sheds light
on the lonely traveler,
so he may stay his course
through the darkest 
of brooding byways,
to arrive at his destination,
weary and in need of rest,
but safely, and unharmed.


Rise up like blades of grass
in the springtime,
healthy and full of life and hope,
with a clear vision 
for a better tomorrow
and, in the meantime,
do all you can to make today
the best it can be.
Hold your heart full of dreams
as tenderly as a babe,
water it with your tears
and nourish it with
every lesson you have learned
till it grows "as wise as serpents
and harmless as doves*."


Rise up, alone and together,
let your voice be heard,
let your prayers join the million others
seeking succor on this planet;
let your peaceful heart 
fly on the wings of your vision
towards a better life.


Let us all join hands
and roll this oppressive boulder 
of corporate greed
to the edge of the cliff,
and over,
so we can go back 
to living with integrity, 
compassion and honor,
to taking care of needs,
living sustainably,
balancing budgets,
and restoring faith
in the goodness 
of the American dream.


Rise up like lions,
that have been lying
in the glow of
an amber African sunset.
Walk the acres of
whatever land you love,
whatever river, or forest,
or long sandy beach,
and reclaim its beauty
for yourself
as your God-given right.
Then promise it your protection
and let your voice be heard
in the corridors of power.
Tell them you oppose
corporate might,
and the marginalization
and dispossession
of the earth's peoples.
Tell them,
life is not about greed, 
money and power
for the rich
and struggle for
everyone else.


It is about humanity,
quality of life,
and purpose,
and the betterment
of the human spirit.


Rise up like lions,
clear-eyed and strong
in the bright light of morning.
Let's make for our children
and our children's children
the world as it could be,
if we Made Peace
instead of War.


Yesterday a friend forwarded an on-line video to me called Rise Like Lions, a compilation of film footage shot on the ground during the Occupy Wall Street movement. Its preface is a quote by Percy Bysshe Shelley, from his lesser-known poem: The Masque of Anarchy, written on the occasion of the massacre at Manchester:


Rise like lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you
Ye are many - They are few.


I am moved by the film, people earnestly explaining their fed-up-ness with corporate greed and the resulting  increase in the  number of working and non-working poor. I was especially struck by the line "Rise like lions". 


Yesterday I also watched a documentary about the most enlightened town in America: Fairfields, Ohio, where nine thousand serene souls have come together with a vision of a highly enlightened, aware and advanced community. Not only do they live sustainably, with a gentle ecological footprint,  (wind turbines as an energy source, for example.) Inner health and well being is a part of daily life: twice a day people gather in two huge domes to meditate. Meditation and spirituality is a part of the school program, from kindergarten through high school.


Peoples' faces are all radiantly happy. The children are flourishing. And, in a center on-site, six hundred young devotees from India spend everyday in prayer and meditation for world peace.


A better world is possible. The shift is trying so hard to happen. With every ounce of my being, I embrace its transformation. I love this planet and its people. What a place it can be, when war is replaced by looking after its people.


Today I happened across the above photo, and the serpents and doves quote (*Matthew 10:16), and these  events jogged something in my brain. I envision my Muse's long froggy tongue darting out and slurping it up like a fly, as it flitted past her lily-pad.