NATURE OFFERS ME SOLACE

 

Our world today was been co-opted by hooligans, billionaires and tricksters.  There is chaos in our government, our towns, cities, Congress and all manner of once reasonable and legal infrastructure protected by the United States Constitution.

 I wonder how long it will take before People say, No More! and impeach this false president and his ultra-rich toadies.  

How many ordinary folk will die from loss of work, health care and institutions set up as the "safety net".  How many people will be illegally deported or imprisoned...

Donald Trump has been President for a mere two and a half weeks and he has already created a cabinet of his choosing -- those who have vowed to dismember what they now head.  Environmental protection. Department of Justice.  Federal Bureau of Investigation.  Soon to be:  Education, Health and Human Services...

We are watching our democracy being dismantled.  The lawsuits are flying in, but it's almost impossible to match the time frame.  He and his minions need to be removed NOW!  

 But his Republican Party is so enmeshed in the turmoil, they vote to support his tyranny.

I write.  I speak out.  I sign petitions and call my legislators.  I march.  I stand up to bullies when faced with them.  I will not bend my knee to this takeover.

Yet, I feel as if I'm fighting mist.  Spitting into the wind.  

So to salvage my soul and principles, I go back to "my" basics.  That's the natural world, kindness and compassion, and the lifestyle that embraces nonviolence and peace. 

PEACE WITH JUSTICE

PEACE WITH EQUITY

PEACE WITH INCLUSION

PEACE WITH DIVERSITY

PEACE DEDICATED TO ALL LIVING CREATURES

PEACE WITH OUR PERCEIVED ENEMIES

 And I wonder if our world can survive this attack and the cruelty unleashed.  I would hope.

NOVEMBER

 

 In November

 

Sunlight travels far,

horizontal through the wood.

Warms lichens, felled trees,

the stone wall where I now sit

welcoming my neighbor.

 

 

 

FROM THE BATTLEFIELDS - OLD. NEW. NOW.

Combat Nurses Tribute at the Vietnam War Memorial

 

       

From the Battlefields

 

 She carries water to the battle ground,
        with willow bark and comfrey leaves.
        Calls the stretcher bearers and their kin,
            “One’s alive!  Bring him in.”

        She holds their hands, hears their prayers,
        writes letters to their distant homes.  All
        begin:  “Hello, Mother.  Hello, Dad.
             Don’t be sad.  I’ll be back by Spring.”

        At night she stitches socks and shrouds,
        rolls long white cotton strips.  Checks
        her stores for whiskey drams and laudanum
            to ease what pain she can.

        She too dreams of going home to quiet
        and to green.  To fields and trees untouched
        by war, where brooks run clear and clean.
            She writes her letters with faint hope:
             “I’ll see you in the Spring.”

  ~

 

I hope to add my voice to those who chronicle and challenge us to consider what war truly means — now and into the future. I hope my readers sense the timelessness, universal sorrow and regret that shapes our human experience through the intimacy of one unknown woman’s day.  

 

Her day could be anywhere and anytime, any place throughout the ages:  The trenches of France in 1917.  American Civil War battle grounds like Gettysburg or a country lane in Maryland.  Ireland.  India 1947.  Any country fighting off colonial powers.

In reality, our world history is one of continual, constant war.