Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble,
Breathe out whole buildings
And flocks of redwing blackbirds.
Breathe in terrorists and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fall and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothespins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word 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 a 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.
Don’t wait another minute.
-Mary Oliver, Wage Peace
6 comments:
I love that so much! All of those things are a remedy for what ails the world. If folks would just mind their own business and take care of growing themselves the world would be a much better place.
Beautiful
Beautiful.
Beautiful poem! Thanks for sharing.
Such a perfect poem, Bridget.
Thank you.
XO
"Breathe out whole buildings" made me gasp.
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