Wage Peace

I've been a bit anxious for the past 24 hours at work and in the evening, my self-contained bubble burst mostly by North Korea and its nuclear testing, the mounting body count in Iraq, and every new article I read about Darfur and rape while gathering firewood.

I feel a bit as I did in junior high, during the Cold War, where it seemed that crazy men were in charge marching the world toward World War III and some folks somewhere were making a bundle. Everything felt out of control, out of my control at least, and that's distressing.

I found this lovely poem, written on September 12, 2001, and it made me feel much better.

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,
breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists
and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief
as the outbreath of beauty
or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Celebrate today.

wage peace - judyth hill - september 12, 2001

From World Prayer for Peace

I think this is heavily influenced by Tonglen breathing. You might want to read more about it. To order an illustrated version of this poem, click here.