hammering home the nail
hand-picked or bequeathed
which picture to hang?
to set aside, let go?

and of those books
well thumbed and worn
which takes its place
in straitened space?

at the changing of the guard
what fails to make the cut?
cherished yet not enough
treasured but relinquished

galaxies whirling passed infinitude
visions of history, stars birthing or long dead

a mere four and a half billion years
orbiting some star nondescript

tectonic interplay shapes by increment
mountain and valley, atmosphere and ocean

while locked in rocks of geological time
fearsome jaws, bone-crushing teeth

yet predating dinosaurs most ancient
a cockroach scuttles across the floor

as hurricane's waltz, El Niño's pavane
wrap energy in wind and weather

the whole panoply of life, blue whale to virus
develops, adapts, evolves till new

so journeys **** sapiens two million years
stone tools to annihilation's potential

what is humankind that you are mindful of them
human beings that for them you care?

when humanity has carved its epitaph
what next for the cockroach planet?

predator watching, waiting
yet statuary stillness
belies instant readiness
the moment to strike
action, a blue-orange flash
with beauty, death's killer splash
'ere serenity resting

celebrations in the street
the possibility of one small step
in the vague direction
well not of peace
but of ending the hot war
of the active shooting
the bombs, the missiles
the utter destruction
and holding of hostages
a ceasefire

....... maybe

maybe if what's been agreed holds
maybe if the killing stops
if the hostages are released
if the soldiers pull out
if the obliteration ends
if there is security from attack
if there is land justice
if rebuilding can begin
if there is hope for a different future
if ........

but so much has been destroyed
so many lives lost
so much land stolen
in over one hundred years of conflict
seventy-five years of war
ebbing and flowing through the decades
so many still dreaming of ethnic cleansing
politicking and fighting to make it happen

....... maybe a ceasefire
but peace? don't hold your breath

"blessed are the peacemakers"
said a wandering teacher
not merely the peace-hopers
peace-wishers or peace-dreamers
"love your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you"
was more of his teaching too

a much diff'rent train of thought
from that of the Colt salesman
"precision, accuracy
balanced and reliable
it's 'the gun that won the west'"
Peacemaker, alternate kind
your choice, your consequences

'I am whom I will be'
the account God gave of himself
or so it was reported

we tried to follow the example

'I farm therefore I am'
though often the crops failed

'I build therefore I am'
but not long and edifices crumbled

'I conquor therefore I am'
yet kingdoms tumbled, empires fell

'I trade therefore I am'
until the next crash and bankruptcy

'I do religion therefore I am'
still God refuses to fit the boxes I make

'I think therefore I am'
but my best thoughts are inadequate

'I study science therefore I am'
though creation remains beyond my fathoming

'I make music therefore I am'
searching still for that eternal lost chord

'I do politics therefore I am'
yet the people won't accept what's good for them

'I create art therefore I am'
reaching always for something beyond

'I do war therefore I am'
but wars to end all wars never have

'I have acted boldly therefore I am'
never entirely certain what I was aiming for

'I shop therefore I  am'
to take my mind of what I can't achieve

'I surf the internet therefore I am'
though it's only as good as what's uploaded

'I travel therefore I am'
meeting folk who no more know themselves than I

'I take selfies therefore I am'
while I may not accomplish anything
I've a great picture of me doing it

'I am whom I will be'
to become, dare I risk encounter the 'I am'?

horizon cuts the sinking sun
colour slow drains from winter sky
by ones and twos, tens and twenties
low over fields, curving round trees
swirling gather, twisting, climbing
as thousands, more, tens of thousands
in intricate aerial ballet
starlings sculpt transient beauty
a function of proximity
speed and distance in soaring flight
form shifts with shapes fantastical
ever changing, unrepeated
until in the twilight gloaming
the murmeration drifts to roost
chattering till in darkness lost

...... pencil stubs left nestling in a box
a record of the stories written
poems crafted
plays conversed
drawings sketched
equations wrestled
reports drafted
ideas mapped out
procrastination doodled
blockages surmounted
graft sweated
the flow
of thought, imagination and paper
taking shape, to fly ......

inspiration's deluge floods the canvas
rivulets, eddies, broad flowing streams
swirling in and around form and detail
lazily drifting here, urgently hastening there
colours intricate, complex and intriguing
capture light of place, moment or people
through paint and brush stroke flowing
a creative passion worked and re-worked
searching, striving for imagination's whole
done: persistently the river meanders on
illuminates responsive minds and spirits all

keeping the tally
those lives cut short, expunged
broken beyond any mending
the minds, bodies, spirits
buried beneath collapsed concrete
never to be found
on all the sides
of all the conflicts
of all the wars
of all the exploitations
of all the degradations
of all the depredations
humanity's self-evisceration
extincting species
decimating nature

who's counting

the tally
those lives made possible, birthed
createded and nurtured
restored beyond brokenness
the minds, bodies, spirits
breaking through the weight of concrete
finding the light, the air, the rain
co-operatively seeking
respite from the wars
reconciling the conflicts
releasing from exploitation
rising above the degradation
repairing the depredations
a renewing of humanity
one among the species
balanced in nature

who's counting
doing the eternal calculus
determining what's to be inscribed
as humanity's epitaph
of my contribution to it