Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Abandoning Hope, Yet Dreaming Still




We have never felt 
so far from peace,
yet, somewhere up ahead,
perhaps on the other side
of cataclysm, calamity
and immense suffering,
I dream of a new world,
shining and green,
dotted with buffalo, and trees,
and peaceful folk
who have learned how to live
with respect for the land 
and its creatures.

In those times,
whales will no longer starve.
The living waters will 
run clean once more,
and wolves and bears will
once again have forests
in which to live.


It is sad to abandon
my long-held hope
that humanity would awaken
from the nightmare
willingly, and in time.

I resign myself that it seems 
we will only awaken
in response to the direst of events.
We stayed asleep too long.


We are alive in the times
the ancestors spoke of.
I wait for the Shambhala warriors
to stride through the halls of power
with clear eyes, their weapons only
compassion and insight,
to lead us in 
a kinder, better way.


Some day, I dream,
there will be
the thousand years of peace
we have been promised.
Not in my time, and not in yours,
but I hold that vision in my heart, 
to comfort me through these times
when it seems
the whole wide world
has finally gone mad.




For Susan’s prompt at Midweek Motif: Peace. I have written so many poems about peace. This year, with things this bad, resignation has replaced my lifelong hope.  Yet I believe in the prophesies of the First Nations ancestors. It seems, now, given the right-wing, corporate-funded "leadership" in many countries, that we will not make the conscious shift we need in time, but only after passing through terrible times of unthinkable hardship, in response to cataclysmic events. But Mother Earth will heal. One day she will begin again.

18 comments:

  1. Yes indeed we must hold on, and never let go of that hope

    "It is sad to abandon
    my long-held hope
    that humanity would awaken
    from the nightmare
    willingly, and in time."

    Thanks for dropping by my blog today Sherry

    Much🕊💖🕊love

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  2. Such a pensive sad poem, Sherry. I had to sit with it a while. I am happy for the vision of peace even if the catastrophe must come first. That, as you say, is something.

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  3. I too hold on to the visions of peace for generations to come. I do find hope in my journey as I have known moments of great inner peace.

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  4. All my life, I have held onto hope. I was certain the shift on consciousness would happen in time. But given the past two years and the dark forces that are rising all over the world, I think we have hard times to go through before the transformation, and that it will be hard-won. The last two years has managed what a lifetime of struggle didnt - it has replaced hope with resignation. Sigh. Or maybe I just have to set my goals farther along - beyond where I can see - in order to have any hope at all.

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  5. Yes, we must cling to hope and use our words to tell the rest of the world.

    Elizabeth
    https://soulsmusic.wordpress.com

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  6. Sherry,
    we are living in the middle of such scary times,irrespective of our individuallocations, on this shared planet.
    Never have I felt such a nervousness, connected to the daily news and utterances, from many world leaders who are only too excited to drag us towards endlesss war situations, for their own personal satisfaction.
    There's little or no respect left for the planet, man or beast.
    I pray that some sense finds a vocal volume to save our souls!

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    Replies
    1. Wendy, i just listened to young Greta's latest speech on facebook. SHE gives me hope!

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  7. I'll join my faith to yours, Sherry- for that time in the future.

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  8. Visions held in one's heart, and held fervently, have a way of materialising, do they not?

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  9. I think we are all thinking the same as you. All the right wing factions being elected does not give hope for saving the environment.

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  10. We have nothing left, Sherry except dream; our only hope.

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  11. Yes well written I too feel the longing for a new world and the desperation that people keep on sleeping or even worse willingly ignore for the purpose of money We live in dark times

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  12. It's dire isn't it... and seems to be getting worse. I just read that there are so few Sumatran rhinos left in the wild that the species will die out.

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  13. Sadly wars continue as countries have pacts with others to assist them in times of need. So troops are sent to other sides of the world that we have not much contact with to help our allies but this is so trade deals are made or we are protecting future oil or gas supplies rather than thinking of their oppressed population. Trade and greed put us in dangerous alliances. We have become an ugly people.

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  14. We are far from peace Sherry, becsuse the human race is vompletely out of balance with nature - and by and large, way too many refuse to consider it much less accept it - and are certainly doing nothing to resolve it.

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    Replies
    1. You have hit the nail on the head, Rob. Disconnected from nature, each other and he fact everything on earth is interconnected.

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  15. Sherry, am finding myself, struggling to discover a way, which we leave behind the violence and hate, as we embrace love and understanding. Maybe, this is part of the condition of being human.

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  16. We all feel that tension and hopelessness. Just keep hoping that the sleeping wake up.

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