Peace and Poetry

Mon, 09/21/2009 - 12:41pm by Maxine

Today, Oct. 21, is the International Day of Peace as proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations. It was conceived "as a day of global ceasefire and nonviolence, an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities..." Check out the link above to watch a streaming video of events that are happening to commemorate the day.

Poetry has always been an effective vehicle for communicating emotions and thoughts. Following is a poem by Wendell Berry that speaks to the power of nature in helping us find peace:

The peace of wild things

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the middle of the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.