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Wednesday, September 20, 2017

POEM IN SEARCH OF PEACE




This poem is a search for peace
on a suffering planet.
This poem remembers what we have forgotten:
that we are all one.
This poem has trouble seeking personal peace,
when most of the planet is struggling to survive.

This poem is looking at floods, hurricanes, 
wildfires, earthquakes, wars, genocides,
humans and animals terrified and dying.
This poem feels the pain of Mother Earth, 
of the wild things, of the children, 
of the mothers watching their children die.

This poem can’t bask in the sun 
while its sisters and brothers,
and the blessed creatures, 
both domestic and wild,
are fleeing for their lives in a world askew.
This poem can’t be all about me,
when the “us” of the world is in need.

This poem is a hope and a prayer for a peace
that swells from the grassroots 
and topples the tyrants.
This poem links hands with those on the ground,
trying to save the lives of those around them.
This poem believes that most of us want peace,
and that we have to build it ourselves,
community by community,
for our leaders have gone mad.



I adapted Hannah Gosselin’s Boomerang Metaphor form for this poem. For Susan’s prompt at Midweek Motiff: Peace. It is hard to hope we will turn this mess around, yet now is not the time to give up. A lot could be changed if one person were removed from office. The nuclear threat would lessen, for example. he is a danger to the world.




17 comments:

  1. It is hard to find peace when most of us have never known it. In all our lives, there has been killing, war and other unspeakable things. I wonder?

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  2. Oh my...these lines got me tearing up:

    This poem can’t bask in the sun
    while its sisters and brothers,
    and the blessed creatures,
    both domestic and wild,
    are fleeing for their lives in a world askew.
    This poem can’t be all about me,
    when the “us” of the world is in need.

    Very solemn and sad. Yes we can't enjoy while others are suffering...

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  3. May every heart sings this song of peace.

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  4. This poem is exquisite, Sherry. Thank you for letting it escape from your fingers to take its flight into the world. Maybe one of our "gone mad" leaders will notice its flight, and stop, and wonder. Maybe. One can hope.

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  5. hat swells from the grassroots
    and topples the tyrants.
    Excellent That is absolutely where peace starts at the grassroots. Hope that they are strong and indeed topple the tyrants.
    Love how your poem can't bask in the sun to put forwards all Very humble and a great step to peace to come forward for us.
    Excellent poem

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  6. What a beautiful boomerang of Peace
    "This poem links hands with those on the ground,
    trying to save the lives of those around them."

    much love...

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  7. What a stirring call to 'activism' arms. In a world gone mad, one could write a book simply listing atrocities in need of 'righting'. With all that: you, somehow, managed to express the 'broad strokes' powerfully, in an impactful and compelling and articulate poem. An important piece, Sherry.

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  8. This poem is a parachute to help us land safely .... Thank you.

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  9. This is beautiful, Sherry. A favorite of your recent poems. The boomerang metaphor form really works well to get your point across. THIS POEM is beautiful and also a call to action. We have to begin somewhere!

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  10. What I found remarkable about this is it felt like a step outside. As we should step outside.

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  11. Very well said Sherry, especially on the environmental impact we have. Thanks for sharing your poem with us.

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  12. "This poem is a hope and a prayer for a peace
    that swells from the grassroots
    and topples the tyrants."....May this prayer be granted.

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  13. Loved each line... beautiful!! May the world find peace... harmony and love...

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  14. Totally agree with you.
    May there be world peace.

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  15. Our leaders have gone mad indeed! It's sad that peace is only something we feel inside for brief moments. Peace is something the world has never seen, and now I think it never will. You are so wise, Sherry!

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  16. Wonderful sentiment Sherry and all you can do as a writer right? We can be activists in other ways too but those who leads us do not think they are in the wrong. Quite the opposite. It will require society to fully breakdown I fear for people to wake up to the fact that they hold the real power already.

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  17. A world gone mad. The power lies with us....but robots don't feel or think !

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