Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Poets United Midweek Motif ~ Peace


Antonio Balestra, Justice and Peace Embracing, ca. 1700.jpg
Antonio Balestra, Justice and Peace Embracing, ca. 1700

Mercy and truth meet together: righteousness and peace kiss each other.
Psalm 85:10

If you look at human society, it is very easy, of course, to compare our warfare and territoriality with the chimpanzee. But that's only one side of what we do. We also trade, we intermarry, we allow each other to travel through our territory. There's an enormous amount of cooperation. Indeed, among hunter-gatherers, peace is common 90 percent of the time, and war takes place only a small part of the time. . . .
Jane Goodall

Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes.
Jawaharlal Nehru

File:Colorful origami Peace Day poster.jpg

source


If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.

She wanted so to be tranquil, to be someone who took walks in the late-afternoon sun, listening to the birds and crickets and feeling the whole world breathe. Instead, she lived in her head like a madwoman locked in a tower, hearing the wind howling through her hair and waiting for someone to come and rescue her from feeling things so deeply that her bones burned.



Peaceable Kingdom by Edward Hicks (1834)



Midweek Motif ~ Peace


Yearning for peace, I ask:

Where do we have peace in our lives?  How can we ~ as humans, as poets ~ help peace spread?  To whom would we give a peace prize?

Your Challenge:  Make peace the mood and motif of your new poem. Here is more food for thought:





John Lennon peace mural wall, Praha.(1993)


        
by Rabindranath Tagore, 
(Recipient of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature)

          (translated by Sumana Roy)

Grief there is, and Death; Partings char.
Yet Peace and Bliss and the Infinite stir.
Flows life ceaselessly, beam the sun, moon and stars
In striking tints and hues Spring shows up in bowers.
Waves ebb waves rise.
Wilt flowers and bloom buds.
Decays not, ends not, never ever depletes,
Unto that wholeness the mind begs a retreat.


        (The Song is Here sung by Lopamudra Mitra)



"Possibilities" by Maria Wisława Anna Szymborska
(Recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Literature.)


(Recipient of the 1945 Nobel Prize in Literature.)
Let us go now into the forest.
Trees will pass by your face,
and I will stop and offer you to them,
but they cannot bend down.
The night watches over its creatures,
except for the pine trees that never change:
the old wounded springs that spring
blessed gum, eternal afternoons.
If they could, the trees would lift you
and carry you from valley to valley,
and you would pass from arm to arm,
a child running
from father to father.


For You

The peace of great doors be for you.
Wait at the knobs, at the panel oblongs.
Wait for the great hinges.
The peace of great churches be for you,
Where the players of loft pipe organs
Practice old lovely fragments, alone.
The peace of great books be for you,
Stains of pressed clover leaves on pages,
Bleach of the light of years held in leather.
The peace of great prairies be for you.
Listen among windplayers in cornfields,
The wind learning over its oldest music.
The peace of great seas be for you.
Wait on a hook of land, a rock footing
For you, wait in the salt wash.
The peace of great mountains be for you,
The sleep and the eyesight of eagles,
Sheet mist shadows and the long look across.
The peace of great hearts be for you,
Valves of the blood of the sun,
Pumps of the strongest wants we cry.
The peace of great silhouettes be for you,
Shadow dancers alive in your blood now,
Alive and crying, “Let us out, let us out.”
The peace of great changes be for you.
Whisper, Oh beginners in the hills.
Tumble, Oh cubs—tomorrow belongs to you.
The peace of great loves be for you.
Rain, soak these roots; wind, shatter the dry rot.
Bars of sunlight, grips of the earth, hug these.
The peace of great ghosts be for you,
Phantoms of night-gray eyes, ready to go
To the fog-star dumps, to the fire-white doors.
Yes, the peace of great phantoms be for you,
Phantom iron men, mothers of bronze,
Keepers of the lean clean breeds.

Please share your new poem using Mr. Linky below and 

visit others in the spirit of the community—
Next week Sumana's Midweek Motif will be "Rising Above."

17 comments:

  1. So many poems can be written about peace. I look forward to reading more peace poems today. Happy midweek, everyone!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Looking forward to reading the contributions to this prompt. Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Can you believe that I forgot it was Wednesday? Too much excitement what with hurricanes and earthquakes and DT's debut at the UN. And I'll be driving 5 hours north today to help out my family while a cherished sister-in-law is ill. Peace, peace. Calm might actually help us all get through the challenges ahead. If I don't read your poetry during the day, I will delight in it tonight! Have a great day.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. May all go well today, with your family.

      Delete
    2. Thank you. I'm having a rest stop and reading this blog on a kindle fire.

      Delete
  4. What a beautifully prepared prompt, Susan! So dense with wonderful poetry and information on Nobel Peace Prize winners and Nobel Peace Prize awarded organizations. I am just now beginning to try to compose a poem on this theme.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Really lovely midweek prompt. Have a very creative day everyone

    much love...

    ReplyDelete
  6. It is a beautiful peaceful morning here on the coast. I plan a beach walk with a borrowed doggy friend..........will be back with a poem when one arrives. Smiles.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi All. I too love the prompt and have just submitted after a lovely day of drumming with teens. I'll do my reading rounds tonight and tomorrow.

    ReplyDelete
  8. A wonderful prompt and thing...peace. I'll give it some thought and be back with a poem. I could use some peace. Sometimes I feel like Carrie Fisher even when I'm out riding my bike in full nature. I think it comes from always being alone. I've become very lonely and from that a dissatisfaction about my life is blooming. My writing is suffering in that I'm not joining in as much and I've been down. I'm not giving up yet! I hope everyone has a good ending to the week. I'll be around to read.
    Group hug!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hang in there, Bekkie! I am much alone too, but I find when I walk into the village and just see other people, going about their business, say the odd hi or two, it reminds me that life is going on all around me.......onlinehelps a great deal, too, as the connections we form online are a support network all its own.

      Delete
    2. Thank you, Sherry! You are such a kind, wonderful person! Love you very much!

      Delete
  9. A wonderful job on this prompt, Susan ~ inspirational ~ Peace Be With You.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Thank you, Susan. Wonderful reads.

    ReplyDelete
  11. May peace reign. may all be happy.
    May we all celebrate Happy International Day of Peace everyday.

    ReplyDelete

This community is not meant to be used in a negative manner. We ask that you be respectful of all the people on this site as each individual writer is entitled to their own opinion, style, and path to creativity.

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Blog Archive

Followers