Sunday, May 13, 2007

Mother's Day - Part II

The foundation that Mother's Day has been built on just keeps rising to the surface:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtzAwo1HU2w

Peace

Human and Divine

So, I'm browsing through my poetry files, looking for poems I'm going to submit and those I'm going to revise. I've got a lot of writing files and although they're labeled clearly, I'm beginning to get overwhelmed by different versions of poems, trying to remember what's been published and where, and some of the people and things I'd forgotten about. In one of the files, I scroll past the following quote and it calls me to return to it:

“No revolution in outer things is possible without prior revolution in one’s inner way of being. Whatever change you aspire to in your affairs must be preceded by a change in heart, an active deepening and strengthening of your resolve to meet every event with equanimity, detachment, and innocent goodwill. When this spiritual poise is achieved within, magnificent things are possible without.”

Hexagram 49 – KO—The I Ching or Book of Changes: A guide to Life’s Turning Points by Brian Browne Walker

This is what life is like. As I live from one day to the next, I shake my head, am outraged, get to the point of being through with certain situations, and alternately am able to smile and find peace within. The poems often lead me to peace. By writing and reading my poems and reading and listening to the words of others, I'm reminded that we are human and we are divine; a precious duality.

Mother's Day

I am an extended family member. I am the godmother of a fine young man. I am the mother of hundreds of poems. It is mother's day. I just read a post by Britt Bravo on BlogHer, that shares the historical significance of mother's day being established as a protest against the Civil War. It's not surprising that mothers were and still are standing up for peace. I don't know anyone who would willingly sacrifice his or her son or daughter to war. Perhaps I am naive. The 1870 proclamation by Julia Ward Howe can be found on the Code Pink Website:

http://www.codepink4peace.org/article.php?id=217

Back to my poems, many of which have come of age. It's time for them to leave the nest.

Peace

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

Poetry

I'm keeping my promise to myself to include some of the poems that I'm working on.
Here's the beginning of something:

Untitled

Act like you don’t see me,
know me, want me,
want to be me,
want to be all over me.

Act like you’re too cute to speak.
Act busy.
Act cocky, like you’re the cat’s meow,
or maybe the pajamas I didn’t know cats wore.

Act like you don’t know who I am.
Act like you don’t know my name.
Act like you don’t know your own name.

Turn your head every which way,
except in my direction.