q

Where love reigns, there is no will to power and where the will to
power is paramount love is lacking.

Carl Jung

p

There were many poems that I thought might serve to mark this occasion
appropriately, but in the end it seemed most suitable to share the
words of Langston Hughes. His poems are often full of anger and
sometimes great bitterness. But this particular poem expresses, I
think, much of the emotion felt by so many on this day.

Give Us Our Peace

Give us a peace equal to the war

Or else our souls will be unsatisfied,

And we will wonder what we have fought for

And why the many died.

Give us a peace accepting every challenge—

The challenge of the poor, the black, of all denied,

The challenge of the vast colonial world

That long has had so little justice by its side.

Give us a peace that dares us to be wise.

Give us a peace that dares us to be strong.

Give us a peace that dares us to still uphold

Throughout the peace our battle against wrong.

Give us a peace that is not cheaply used,

A peace that is no clever scheme,

A people's peace for which men can enthuse,

A peace that brings reality to our dream.

Give us a peace that will produce great schools—

As the war produced great armament,

A peace that will wipe out our slums—

As war wiped out our foes on evil bent.

Give us a peace that will enlist

A mighty army serving human kind,

Not just an army geared to kill,

But trained to help the living mind

An army trained to shape our common good

And bring about a world of brotherhood.

Langton Hughes

q

What an exhilarating time!  And what a serendipitous confluence to have Martin Luther King Jr. day celebrated the day before Barak Obama's inauguration.  There has never been such excitement about an inaugatration day - at least in my lifetime.  But then the only other inaugaration day that I remember at all was JFK's - the image of Robert Frost, his hair blowing in the wind, trying to hold down his papers, is engraved on my mind.  such hope we felt that day too.  But this is far beyond that.  Not least because we have endured dark times these last few years.  We still have far to go,, but we feel that there are possibilities that did not heretofore exist.  The promise of Barak Obama is that we will work together to do what we must. That is worth celebrating.  So, for today, a quote from Dr. King.

We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.

- Martin Luther King Jr., "Remaining Awake Through A Great Revolution", 3.31.68 

q

The poet William Stafford was a conscientious objector during WWII - a time when to refuse to serve in the military meant being vilified, and even threatened, by others.  He spent the war doing public service in "work camps".  It was here that he began writing poetry.  This is one of his early poems, written in January 1944

Speech from a Play

 

The reason you cannot say anything is you were not there.

No one knows. No one was there...

 

I heard his voice while they were taking him away.

And after he was gone, I could remember it.

The people around me now will never hear it.

There is nothing anyone can do against the voice.

It is the person with you in a room.  All with you.

No one knows how much.

Arrest me-- I hear it now...

 

William Stafford

q

War will exist until that distant day when the conscientious objector enjoys the same reputation and prestige that the warrior does today. John F. Kennedy, 35th US president (1917-1963)

 

p

Beannacht
("Blessing")

On the day when
the weight deadens
on your shoulders
and you stumble,
may the clay dance
to balance you.

And when your eyes
freeze behind
the grey window
and the ghost of loss
gets in to you,
may a flock of colours,
indigo, red, green,
and azure blue
come to awaken in you
a meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
in the currach of thought
and a stain of ocean
blackens beneath you,
may there come across the waters
a path of yellow moonlight
to bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
wind work these words
of love around you,
an invisible cloak
to mind your life.

~ John O'Donohue ~

Happy New Year!

Here is to old friends and new beginnings.

After many mishaps, the details of which I will spare you, I am ready to begin sending out the ps and qs again. As always, I look forward to your comments, suggestions, poems that you have written and wish to share, and feedback of any sort.  I was consistent for 4 1/2 years in getting out these bits of inspiration, and I hope to be able to continue even longer than that.  I certainly have more than enough quotes to keep going for much longer than that.

I thought that I would begin with a quote that seems particularly appropriate at the moment.

Life is constantly providing us with new funds, new resources, even when we are reduced to immobility.  In life's ledger there is no such thing as frozen assets.

~Henry Miller~

Stephen Wilder

sotan@optonline.net