Begin the Revolution

A poem about the middle, about the anti-polarity.

We have danced so far
toward opposite poles
that we’ve become magnetic,

drawing each other closer
as we pull so frantically apart.
Our rhetoric and plans may seem

so utterly opposed, but
tones and tactics grow
so similar.  At times

they’re indistinguishable.
Today’s most radical,
most Revolutionary route

might be–perhaps–to take a step
towards the center, at least
in tone or tactic,

in the face of opposition
and defiance to throw up
a wall of joy, a flag of heart.

 

Prompt for Monday

I’ve been wanting to do a dream poem.  Since tonight is the Full Wolf Moon, I thought I might ask that wolf to send me a meaningful dream and use that for my poem tomorrow.  If I don’t retain a dream in the morning, I’ll make something up.  Heh.  Join me?

 

Gratitude List:

1.  Wolf Moon rising, caught in the branches of the locusts on the ridge
2.  Fiery orange sunset
3.  Sun dogs
4.  Women of the Faire, and roasted garlic, goat cheese, and hot pepper jam
5.  The village who raises our children: Be kind.  Be safe.

Much love.  May we walk in beauty.

Grandma making peanut butter cups:

Gma PB Cups

2 thoughts on “Begin the Revolution

  1. This way. This is so satisfying. I am especially in love with these lines:
    I stretch my arms long, stretch
    my heart wide, exist in the spaces
    between what we can express
    and what we can remember.
    I remember what I can,

    Like

  2. This Way

    “The Middle Way between clinging to memories and taking refuge in hopes lies in living in the here and now, that is, remaining wide awake. But is this not the very end of the way our goal? The end, however, lies in the beginning. For the Middle Way is not a way in the ordinary sense but a way of life. Like the spiritual path, it lies within us. It is us! So let us be what we are.”

    -Mary Anderson

    A cherished childhood friend
    who lives now far away from me
    across the blue ridge mountains
    and the purple mountains majesty
    near the coast of California

    once sent me a card
    with an arrow pointing
    in both directions:

    “This way,”

    and a hand-drawn picture
    of herself with long, long arms
    reaching over the mountains
    and the plains, the interstates
    and the national parks,

    to touch me. I grew my arms
    longer too, I reached out to her
    and held her best I could.

    This way

    we choose is dutiful and less often
    about the path or the design
    than what we do when we do
    what we must or what we think
    we must do in order to get somewhere

    we think we need to get
    or at least to visit. I visit her card
    when I’m not sure what I think about

    this way.

    I stretch my arms long, stretch
    my heart wide, exist in the spaces
    between what we can express
    and what we can remember.
    I remember what I can,

    her hands that summer
    picking basil, peeling garlic,
    making pesto in my kitchen,

    the way

    she was able to be in my kitchen
    with me and my rearranged life
    and to help me arrange it again
    around what still existed
    and the choices I could still make

    in that particular moment,
    her very presence a choice
    I could barely see as I see it now,

    this way.

    Like

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