Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Wage Peace By: Mary Oliver

Wage Peace

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 fallen,
and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening:
hearing sirens, pray loud.
Remember your tools:
flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.
Make soup.
Play music. Learn the word for thank you in three languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaoe as dancing raspberries,
Imagine grief as the outreath of beauty,
or the genture of 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.

1 comment:

  1. Dear Michael,
    Hello! My name is Judyth Hill, and I am the author of Wage Peace.
    Wage Peace was shared all over the internet(wonderfully! I am so grateful!) but somewhere along the line, it picked up the wrong attribution (Mary Oliver) and an incorrect last line! If you Google Wage Peace, and especially, if you visit Elephant Journal, you will see the many instances attributing the poem to me, and the many instances correcting wrong attributions to Mary Oliver.
    I am very happy to see Wage Peace here, thank you. I am hoping you would please change the authorship and the last line! Thank you, All Blessings,
    Judyth Hill
    judythhill@gmail.com
    WAGE PEACE

    Wage peace with your breath.

    Breathe in firemen and rubble,
    breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

    Breathe in terrorists
    and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

    Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

    Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

    Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

    Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

    Make soup.

    Play music, memorize the words 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 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.
    Celebrate today.

    Judyth Hill ~ September 11, 2001

    ReplyDelete

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