2022 Peace postcard poems
1
I’m late to the letterbox
with my 1st batch of peace-
themed poems. 28 stanzas
may be a worthy goal
as we seek to spread peace about.
2
“Peace” said the part time professor
“is not just the absence of war
but the absence of the fear
of war, the threat of war.
We have a long way to go.
3
Implicit in the idea of peace
is the freedom to choose said peace.
You can’t force it on me
because you say it’s good for me, for us.
Peace is like the jab in that respect.
4
The professor used to say
“Peace ain’t gon’ just come this way –
We have to work for peace.”
But the work is not easy
and the pay is minimum wage.
5
Peace is more than just hype –
more than just a social media group –
more than even a month of poems.
Peace is genuine, a superior good,
a quality that grows when shared.
6
But back to freedom.
A peace imposed by tyrants is slavery.
And acquiescence to that imposed peace
is death. Death, the deepest sleep,
we can agree, is the purest peace.
7
Happy birthday Bob Marley!
You sang songs of peace and justice,
of redemption and freedom.
8
Universal, perpetual peace
may be more than we can accomplish.
But a peaceful word of thought
exchanged among friends goes far.
9
Another batch late.
Relevant lines from Dante suffices:
“In His will is our peace” and
“Everywhere in Paradise is Heaven.”
10
We may pray for peace
with our lips – but we ardently
pay taxes for war.
11
WE give lip service
to peace, but maintain the account
for war in the layaway.
12
He promised us a dark winter –
but the sweet scent of peace
already fills our nostrils.
13
Peace is less an objective
and more a condition,
less a goal, more a direction vector,
Less an end state.
14
Peace is a slippery thing –
Elusive in the best situation.
One struggles to define its terms,
One struggles to contain it.
15
We seek cessation of hostilities
But that is only the first stage
Of peace. The ashes must cool,
The houses and buildings rebuilt,
And therapy for the injured.
16
Peace does not un-traumatize
The children, or the fighters
For that matter. All are damaged
From the moment peace recedes.
17
My peace poems are late
And I most humbly apologize –
The rumors then scenes of war
On the TV left me in a serious funk.
18
I get one newspaper per week –
On Thursdays. Letting them pile up
Until the new conflict ceases. Then
I’ll read them all in one day
To compress time’s passage.
19
How can I write poetry about peace
when the idolatry of distant war
surrounds me and invades my every though?
20
It is no consolation that the bombs
explode a world away, that my neighbors
are not harmed.
21
I know the sound of missiles
piercing the ground, the acrid smell of death
it brings – it’s not abstract for me.
22
The gods of war
will never make me
bow down to them.
23
the big bang of war
makes us fear that peace is far –
removed from our dreams.
24
yet peace is gaining critical mass each
moment that passes: its energy is spreading
diametrically, at an accelerating rate,
25
Reasons for war and conflict
are shrinking, like fear and greed,
and the senseless need to dominate
others. Let peace expand and grow.
26
The words we write, the lines,
the notes, the rhymes
are always seeking their destination:
a landing place, a comfort zone,
a peace inside a peace.
27
Sometimes they find their place,
and sprout like seeds,
but sometimes they fall in sandy soil,
on stones, or disappear
into a hollow pit of nothingness.
28
But even then, like seeds, our words
await their chosen moment,
their time most opportune
to germinate and take root.
Everything in its own time,
the old folks used to say.
29
through ordered words
that arise from within
we push back the outer margins
of chaos, of disorder,
and preserve a world –
a separate world we choose –
that reflects our inner peace
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