Today

Today of this year, this time

of dissent and division and darkness,

we seek the Peace of democracy,

a Constitution that binds us

not just to these United States,

but to each other and to humanity,

the global community once but a dream.

Poetry Revealed

“Maybe when the world seems to be ending, it needs poets.”

 -Mohammad Hanif’-

 

Poetry reveals what lies

deep in our souls, our spirits,

who we are, our selves laid bare,

and perhaps the fear of discovery,

the anxiety, the despair of knowing, 

blocks our own understanding

of the words on the page,

the rhymes and the rhythms,

the metaphors we fail to see,

the poetry that is us. 

The Children's Dreams

Overseas, a child dies,

her blue bear stuffed and cast asunder,

collateral damage in a useless war

of words and weapons;

and here, too, a child dies,

more slowly over time, collaterally,

while the fat get fatter, the rich, richer,

her dreams abandoned, lost in poverty and ignorance -

the children dream perhaps of hope,

of love, perhaps of peace.

Spring Crept In

The chickadee and nuthatch, the finch

and sparrow have survived the winter months’

cold and snow and gusty winds buffeting them

flittering between branch and feeder, a quick seed

and returning, or leisurely dining on the railing

outside my window on a warm winter day,

surviving as did we, trapped as we were inside ourselves,

wrapped in the garb of winter cold and darkness

clutched tight about us, hats pulled low, and scarved;

but today, spring crept in, the lion of winter settling down

awaiting the lamb, his roar but a purr amidst the melting

snow and ice of rising degrees, raising, too, our hopes

for change, rebirth and renewal, daffodils and irises sprouting,

the transient birds stopping by, and the birds of summer

returning, old friends gone south, migrating, coming home.