Mystery
Life is a mystery and a
blessing
and people a large
part
:- Doug.
The body gives
the launching spark
of Spirit
the what for, sometimes too
a spyglass into mystery
we
are the edge
upon which we stand
body and spirit
:- Doug.
Archive for August, 2006
the edge
Peace is more necessary
To my good friends–
The poems that follow stemmed from my conversations yesterday.
I spoke at noon time with a man who was a counter-protester to the peace pickets on Sunday. He was sure, “guaranteed” me, that hatred and war were preached every Friday from every mosque in the world. He was set on the idea that the people on the Muslim side of things wanted only war and killing of all the infidels.
In the evening I spoke with one of the peace people. He was a little more open, but thought there was little he could do as an individual. He said he had written and spoken to the Congressman and to the Senators and the President, but that anything that was questioning Israel or was not Republican was seen as a threat and as unpatriotic. He told me that the first man (whom I had not named, but he did) had accused an 11 year old girl of carrying a bomb!
I thought later that my approach could be improved. I asked to find out more about the situation, which of course is a broad question, but it also directs it to a cerebral place rather than the concrete. It might work better to ask specifics: How does this affect you? Why are you personally involved? What have you seen or heard or been involved in that led you to carry a sign? Personal, specific, microcosm. This is where peace comes from. Not from leaders talking concepts and ephemeral ideas. We need to get talking. We need to get heard.
So the poems are about the work that peace is. The second man said it was difficult to get people to listen. Getting our living comes from the sweat of our brow, and yet we do that every day. The poems are about each person needing to own peace. Both men talked as if they had no hope of having an effect upon the process.
The poems are about the personal nature of meeting life, the particulars in which we find macrocosm. The need is to hear the individual story, to find out what is real and on the ground, and in the feet and hands of real people. What is not being heard? What do you need to say?
It is frightening, death-meeting labor to go to war. It requires a vilifying of the “enemy.” It is even more frightening but life-meeting to go to peace. It requires that we allow the “other” to be like us, to give them the opportunity to change us, to take the chance of giving up our centuries-old grudges.
If it is true as some hold that war is at times necessary, it is also true that peace is more necessary.
Is war necessary? War is nation against nation. Nation, in the modern era, is mere fiction. People can and do become citizens of different nations, and the nations are even more fickle, naming this one an enemy this year and friend the next. War is a choice which we as people have most often abdicated to our “leaders.” As if they knew some larger truth. Fact is, they are out most often to obtain power or money or sex or something else. Peace is our job. Every day. As is every form of wholeness.
:- Doug.
never again easy
Love God with all
your heart, mind, strength
we hear
yet we cannot love
if we have no relation
giving up our personality
total dependence
is not relation
for one of us then
does not exist
stand up with God
then is love real
never again easy
:- Doug.
Necessities
The necessities of human life are food, clothing, shelter, transportation, and conversation. The greatest of these is conversation.
:- Doug.
When light narrows
When light narrows
through the eye
is when we see
When out of focus
light is larger
the world and all in it
:- Doug.
What story is not being told?
What story is
not being told?
In what do you
most need to be heard?
Can we hear the world
the whole of it?
:- Doug.
Particularities
We are most nearly alike
in our particularities
your divorce, my parents’ deaths
your child is trying to get into medical school,
my grandchild is learning to walk
your grandson is being held
incommunicado without charges
guarded by mine.
If we are to meet
it is here
:- Doug.
Footprints in the Wind sm # 689
Footprints in the Windsm # 689
The road to peace
the road to war
is through people.
You.
Tell me your story
your pain
ear is the heart
of heart.
This listening
this people
is the road to peace.
You.
Please pass it on.
© c 2006, Learning Works, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Easy reprint permissions: 574/291-0022, or by e-mail to mailto:Doug AT FootprintsInTheWind.com. Back issues available at http://www.FootprintsintheWind.com
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Ask not the issues
Ask not the issues, ask How does it affect you, your family? Tell me your story.
:- Doug.
What conversation would it be?
If a conversation could change your world, what conversation would it be?
:- Doug.
Feel the sound
Can you feel the sound coming out of your mouth, your nose perhaps? In the echo chamber in your sinuses? Can you follow it all the way back to your throat? Your voice box? Down to your lungs your diaphragm? To the thought behind the words? To the spark behind that? Think about the wind and answer me this: Which is inside, breath or us? Conversation or poetry? Where does body leave off and spirit begin?
:- Doug.
There is poetry if you listen
Conversing we figure out together this thing called life. Beyond what loses our analytic minds in complexity there is a playground where all is reunited as if it were ever separate. Person fits with person, two with three, three with five, though each is infinite and woven. Conversing there is a poetry if you listen: rhythm metaphor blood.
Poetry:Conversation :: Metaphor:Rhythm
:- Doug.
