Recent Book Activity

Making Peace

A voice from the dark called out,
"The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster Peace is not merely
the absence of war."
But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can't be imagined before it is made,
can't be known except
in the words of its making.
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.
A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors.
A line of peace might appear
if we restructure the sentence our lives are speaking:
shift from affirming profit and power,
question our needs, allow long pauses.
A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on a different fulcrum.
Peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act
a word, each word
a vibration of light, facets
of forming crystal.

Denise Levertov


The central thing in prayer is not the garden of the soul, but the altar of dedication.

Brigid E. Herman