I participated as a reader in a SICA monthly program, a series called ‘Poems for Peace’. I read two of my poems: Letting Loose & Peace for the Ukraine.
My condolences to the survivors of the Russian attack on the Ukraine.
Letting Loose
wind lets loose a fury
lashes up heavy cloud froth
so thick the sun can’t pry through
chimes belt on ear drums
jangles dingle and twang
clangs press in on all sides
by afternoon, a slit in the sky opens
stratus puffs race east
cumulous mountains wallow west
trees roar their discontent
the wind blows, ceaseless
branches snap and crash
in a clash of hot and cold fronts
Russia invades the Ukraine, shooting
winds scour the globe
(2-22-22)
(Forthcoming in Verse-Virtual. May 1, 2022)
***
Peace for the Ukraine
In a shelter at Kyiv & Kherson, Subud brothers and sisters in shelters
hold Latihan around the clock, their prayers for peace ripple to the universe.
Peace prayers flow, the life force streams alongside sniper bullets
that spill blood in the street, three women killed on the way to a refugee camp.
May the grace of a violinist playing music in a shelter
outlast the bombing of a nuclear electric plant at Enerhodar.
May the comfort of ten different songbirds welcoming spring equinox together
persist long after the shelling of a maternity hospital, bombed apartments, the grief.
May peace prayers shake open Putin and his soldiers, as well as blossoms—
drifts of snowdrops, aconites and daffodils bring sunshine in thick holly shade.
We cry for a mother and baby dead from dehydration in a shelter.
We pray for peace with you, people of the Ukraine, in this desperate springtime.
(3-17-22)
Date Published: March 17, 2022