Breathe in the cacophony
of the quarrelsome talking heads
breathe out the birdsong
of a thousand singing forests.
Breathe in the gazillion dollar contracts
for weapons of war while armloads of terrified babies
and their mothers cry out desperately
for a safe place to live; breathe out a billion
wildflowers on a majestic mountainside
along with food and shelter for all the living.
(May all be well; may all be exceedingly well.)
Breathe in bombs, destruction, refugee camps
filled with displaced civilians; breathe in young soldiers
with eyes made hollow by what they have seen.
Breathe out a prayer of peace that will float
across the world, entering the neocortexes
of the militants, rendering them transformed
from fighters to friends of humanity
who cannot kill again.
Breathe in earthquakes, volcanic eruptions,
flooding, fracking, and melting glaciers at the poles.
Breathe out restoration, balance, healing,
reduced emissions, cooling of land and sea,
survival for sea life and coastal communities.
Breathe out armies of people restoring
and cleaning Mother Earth, planting trees
everywhere, inviting the wild ones home.
Breathe in the toxic rhetoric of today;
breathe out a flock of sandpipers, moving
as one at the edge of the sea - the way
we can move together, if we have
intelligence and will. Breathe out stars
and bioluminescence, silver paths upon the water,
and a moon, serenely smiling upon
a land of gentle dreamers.
Breathe in walls and division; breathe out
harmony and unity: no "us", no "them" -
just people of the earth, Beloved Community,
longing for a brighter tomorrow.
Breathe in war, famine, despair, displacement;
breathe out prayers from morning till night
for a suffering world. Pray for consciousness,
evolution, transformation, social and
environmental justice. Believe, as the earth turns
towards the light and our hearts turn toward
the hope of spring, that we can be
so much better than we are.
(May all be well; may all be exceedingly well.)
For Susan's prompt at What's Going On...Peace, an idea whose time has come.
After the Buddhist practice of breathing in the negative, and transforming its energy by breathing out the positive.
Call2Change image
I like the way you have written this, Sherry! I found myself breathing in and out with your words. The Buddhist practice is definitely a good one!
ReplyDeleteThis is an all embracing poem Sherry. Such a beauty! I would love to take a thousand births only to "breathe out the birdsong / of a thousand singing forests."
ReplyDeleteFrom the first quatrain, I love your poem--each section so complete in itself, I could live a lifetime in it. This hopeful, hopeful active poem, stirs my heart and opens it to try, try again. I want the world to read the acknowledgement, the practice of breath meeting each negative with a positive.
ReplyDeleteLove how this poem walks through the different aspects .. especially this: Breathe in the gazillion dollar contracts / for weapons of war - if only that money was spent on healing the earth and its people instead....
ReplyDelete"Breathe in the gazillion dollar contracts
ReplyDeletefor weapons of war"
This rings so true.
What a waste, all the money spent to wage war. It's hard to be hopeful in this time of war, low ceilings, and long nights. but I do echo and feel your ending here.
ReplyDeleteYour poem says it all and far more poetically than my own attempt at this challenge. I feel the same passion as you. Suzanne - Wayfaring - Wordpress.
ReplyDeleteWonderful, Sherry, I was breathing peace as I read your poem. I especially love the lines:
ReplyDelete‘Breathe in the cacophony
of the quarrelsome talking heads
breathe out the birdsong
of a thousand singing forests’
and
‘Breathe in the toxic rhetoric of today;
breathe out a flock of sandpipers, moving
as one at the edge of the sea…’
Lots to crunch down on. Chewing. Badass.
ReplyDelete