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Friday, October 27, 2023

When All Else Fails

 


Rainbow over First Street Dock
by Marla Williams

When all else fails, I go to the shore,
step onto the sand as if it is a new country,
different every time I visit,
 yet always the same.
The sussuration of the waves
lulls my spirit, lisping:
all will be well
all will be well
all will be exceedingly well.

When all else fails,
I go to the harbour,
watch the play of clouds and mist 
over Wah-nah-juss,
perhaps admire a rainbow
arching across the sky,
as if painted by a Master Artist,
the answer to our "why?"

When all else fails,
I remember that this world
has seen it all before,
yet learned so little:
bombs and suffering,
displaced human and non-human refugees,
devastation that can never 
be considered "winning."

When all else fails,
my words fail me, too.
So many poems about peace,
the climate crisis,
injustice, war,
and here we are,
doing it all again.

When all else fails,
only the earth itself, and dogs,
with their true hearts,
can comfort me.

Inspired by the title of "When All Else Fails" by Lana Hechtman Ayers.


3 comments:

  1. I hear you, Sherry. There is so little that can give comfort in times like this. You are so lucky you live in a beautiful place that can sustain you and lull your spirit. There is just to much to handle, and neither of us are in the thick of anything...but the future is looking so very bleak.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So many poems about peace,
    the climate crisis,
    injustice, war,
    and here we are,
    doing it all again - there...you said it! An endless cycle of horror.

    ReplyDelete
  3. How do we separate concerns about the Earth from a political doctrine that, for many, is dead...and present Green choices as liberating and empowering to the individuals who make them?

    ReplyDelete

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