Wednesday, August 7, 2019

Safety


The news is distressing.
Wildlife is dying,
the poles are melting,
bears are being shot as they flee,
refugees find no welcome
at their last resort,
mass shootings are reported as
"the latest one",
and there is no safety
anywhere.

The safest place I ever knew
was my grandma's little cottage
on Christleton Avenue,
where peace was so profound
I could hear the clock
on the kitchen windowsill
ticking and tocking
in every corner of the house.

I learned peace
at my grandmother's knee
and created it for myself
and my children
in every home I ever lived in.

I feel it now
when I walk down
the apartment hallway
and turn the key in the lock:
my small rooms, my sanctuary,
place of peace and safety
in this mad, mad world.


for Susan's prompt at Midweek Motif: Safety




14 comments:

  1. To have a sanctuary is vital. To remember how to make one from childhood experience is lovely! Fine poem.

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  2. Our own sanctuary is important. My home is mine as well. Sherry, the is lovely, yet poignant. I have an old French clock I have to wind every week with a key, and sometimes I sit near it, listening to nothing but the sound of it ticking.

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  3. hold the right energy to heal the world!

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  4. You sound like the perfect momma.

    I love this piece — especially the last two stanzas.

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  5. Oh beautiful and so descriptive that I feel the peace in grandma's cottage and your place A true sanctuary

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  6. The tick tock of time. How the movement of time can indicate peacefulness, while the progression of time brings unrest. I know the key in the lock is for a door, but I almost saw it as the key winding a clock, hoping to find that time again.

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  7. Hi Sherry. It is so good to have a port in the storm. I like how you shifted from the craziness to remembering the safe port of your past and recognizing it and carrying it wherever you've gone. Good, good stuff.

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  8. How lucky were we to have our grandmothers. Peace and sanctuary is so precious.

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  9. Love this safety poem Sherry. Learning peace and to create it is the best way one can live. A beautiful life.

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  10. Sadly greed and hate has overcome all normal human needs and we are lucky if we have escaped to a life where mankind's cruelty is far away. It is certainly good to feel safe.

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  11. I read the despair in the opening stanza, wondered with you whether there is no safety anywhere and came to the same conclusion that the only safe place is in our fondest memories. I feel for all those people with no sanctuary.

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  12. "the latest one" this phrase is do poignant yo today's situation. So very heartbreaking

    Happy you dropped by my blog to read mine Sherry

    Much❤🕊❤love

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  13. It's so important to have a safe place in this world - I am glad you have peaceful rooms to be in

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  14. A peaceful place in which to reside and feel safe is everything these days.

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