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Paths to Peace
-- POETRY
Gestures of Peace
The Japanese send two lions
by special jet
for
Kabul children
for the orphaned children
while enemies unite for the
day
in West Bank groves
to harvest olives.
As thousands tens of
thousands of soldiers
prepare
for attack invasion victory defeat
a
handful half a dozen three or four
mothers fathers
hold signs on street
corners
PEACE, they say,
or NO WAR ...
Safe in your
house
you wash windows
with the vigor
of some grand prayer some
music
you cannot yet hear
as if dipping your hand in water
will make
you think clearly
champion possibilities
bless someone.
-- Jean Colgan Gould
Natick, Mass.
Roses
Soon, I think
there will be a conflict
of terrible
consequence
though today two roses
wave wands of palest pink
in
the awful heat of last days.
I would pack them up
send their
promise
somewhere
if it mattered
if anyone would hear them
if
indeed the roses pray.
-- Jean Colgan Gould
Natick, Mass.
Warning
Prepare for war
How to do that?
Stock up on
food
Say your prayers
Pray for peace
Pray for love
Pray for
harmony
Pray for forgiveness
Pray to not be frightened
Pray to be
safe
Pray for hope
Pray for happiness
Pray to love the Lord, your
God,
with all your
heart, soul, and mind
Pray to love your neighbor
as
yourself.
-- Marguerite Truxaw
Morro Bay, Calif.
Recipe for an Apocalypse
take 1 president
steeped in ambition
cream in 1
congress
and blend
stir into this mixture
chunks of a war
machine
season heavily
with a propaganda mill
pour these
together
into a cauldron
place on a peninsula
over oil
throw in a plump dictator
for flavor
bring to a boil
warm
a planet
that you have prepared ahead
spoon the mixture over
it
flame
serve with the bread of affliction
and the
full-bodied wine of death
-- Anne Heutte
Washington
1991
‘Desert Storm’ Revisited
Scattered churchgoers
dot the cavernous
cathedral
like jimmies on a store-bought cake
for a special service
at
a time of war.
Amidst the bromides,
yet apart --
stolid and
unobserved,
a statue of the Madonna
nestling her child
in perpetual
embrace:
A rigor mortised version
of similar pairs gracing
Baghdad
right now.
At the open markets,
behold shimmering dawns of
oranges
and ordered pyramids of dates and
pomegranates --
all
deliciously close.
Here, do handsome bronze toddlers
squeeze their
mothers and wail
any less convincingly
than ours say at a
supermarket?
By night,
are they any less terrified
of the howling
jet sounds
and occasional incinerations?
And when American pilots
lock
onto authorized targets
from remote heights,
can we be certain
only
the evil ones below
will be entombed?
-- Jay Allain
Hyannis, Mass.
Observation
As in Orwell’s 1984
in which the Ministry
of Peace
wages war,
the president claims
that our troops will be
fighting
to bring peace
and liberate people.
There’s some truth
here.
Iraqis bombed into the bosom
of Allah
will be liberated
from
our campaign of terror,
and no people
are more peaceful
than the
dead.
-- Sr. Patricia Schnapp, RSM
Adrian, Mich.
2003 New Year’s Day
At midnight
the seams of last year gave
and its
heavy freight
spilled over
into this yet empty
January.
And we who
saw it happen
sang “Auld Lang Syne”
and shouted
and drank
toasts.
Huddled together,
we were kids again
outside a haunted
house
swallowing down fear
so we could enter
the darkened space
where I imagined hearing
bombs bursting in air
and the wailing of mothers
with dusky skin.
-- Sr. Patricia Schnapp, RSM
Adrian, Mich.
Poems should be previously unpublished and limited to about 50
lines and preferably typed. Please send poems to NCR POETRY, 115 E.
Armour Blvd., Kansas City MO 64111-1203. Or via e-mail to
poetry@natcath.org or fax (816) 968-2280. Please include your street
address, city, state, zip and daytime telephone number. NCR offers a
small payment for poems we publish, so please include your Social Security
number.
National Catholic Reporter, January 31,
2003
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