She painted peace over the wounded mouths twisted with lies, truths unspoken, love never claimed,
She brushed them with the pink of a newborn baby's lips

She painted peace over the hands that held weapons, fingers that had pulled triggers to **** or maul,
She scraped them green as the new shoots from blades of grass reborn in the Spring

She painted peace in the hearts of those women and men who held broken pieces filled with sadness, scarred with inner rage
She colored them red of the rose in full scent and full bloom

She painted peace on the eyes and bodies of children stripped away from their life force, their source of mother
She traced them the purest blue found in the color of water at dawn's first light

She painted peace in families torn and broken
She swept them with all the colors of the rainbow appearing just after the rain, when the light shines through with hope

She painted peace in the indigenous souls torn from their culture and land
She circled them the color of the green flash-
the flicker of pure green born after the sunsets, existing only for a second

She painted peace in the unborn and the born whose differences bring challenges to them and their families
She skimmed them with lavender fields blooming in the swirling winds, with the sounds of the bees buzzing in joy and abundance

She painted peace over the wounds, the carcasses of animals fallen in a frenzy of human greed and misunderstanding
She whisked them golden as the sun rising in its glory to begin a new day

She painted peace over the ghosts of the forests and their inhabitants
She rolled them the brightest yellow of the night sky--the first star rising-guiding us though the whispers of time steering us in the darkness

She painted peace in the waters, the rivers and oceans who were littered with the makings of man 
She glided them silver to reflect the light that is always around

She painted peace on the earth and women--places torn open and stripped, laying barren, vulnerable.  
She covered them the rich colors of terra cotta- freshly made pottery from hands who love creation

She painted the air, the unfiltered air, clogged, imbalanced
She flowed it clear, the color of innocence - when we look into the eyes of the newborn, and those just about to pass.

She painted it all,

And when the summer sun melted the colors and subjects, she molded the forms, colors, scent, textures and sounds into the shape of love as eternity.
She sang the sweetest birdsongs into the new day bringing in renewal  

She painted peace into all of life.

Whenever you have trials
And trouble leaves so slow
A cloud seems to follow wherever you go
Remember that Jesus,
the friend of your heart
says peace be unto you

Peace be unto you
Peace be unto you
Peace be with you

Whenever you have hardship
You are in such pain
Jesus will sing you this lovely refrain
Remember that Jesus
The friend of your heart
Says peace be unto you

Peace be unto you
Peace be unto you
Peace be with you

He is The Almighty
Yet He is your best friend
He'll be right there with you
Right up to the end!
Remember that Jesus
Your Savior and your Love
Says peace be unto you

Peace be unto you
Peace be unto you

Peace be with you


SoulSurvivor
(C) 9/12/2011

where i come from, people speak of peace as if it was, is and always will be an inanimate object of sorts. something far too great for mankind to reach out and grab, to hold, to touch. we speak of peace as if we do not live each day finding new ways to love ourselves and each other, as if we do not find solace in his arms or serenity along the creases of her palms. we have spent far too long searching for someone instead of somewhere to call home, too many yesterdays ago we spoke of prosperity in a sense that made us question our beliefs, something rooted so deep inside of us we lost sight of the peace we created with our lips, kisses that claimed every part of a heart that was stitched together with broken pieces of itself. hear me when I say that peace was never intangible, we hold it in our hands every day. the love letter you've read halfway through but stop before you get to the final "I love you" because laced within the lies is a good bye that you never agreed to, peace is freeing yourself from the anchors printed on card stock paper sealed by the lips of a girl whose name you may never forget. peace is 5 o'clock shadow sprinkled across his chin like cinnamon bun crumbs after six days of no sleep, spending each night celebrating the sunset and injecting the rainbow into his blood flow. it's the kind of high you'll never find laying along the bottom of the bottle at midnight when the world is challenging you to a mental fist fight, drinking yourself into amnesia or blowing out a cloud full of regret after taking a drag on your first cigarette. we were just freaks searching for peace in all the wrong places, we forgot how to live like each day was our last and started passing the time by wishing that it was. perhaps peace was most prominent in our childhood, like when you were a kid on the fourth of July and held a sparkler for the first time and your parents watched the fire reflecting in your eyes. when we were five peace was popsicles and nap time, we took the world by surprise and explored until our eyes were too heavy to continue. and since then peace has felt less like Popsicles and more like hour glass sand, slipping through our hands as if we never even held it at all. but hear me when I say that peace is a process of breaking down walls, it is composed of small symphonies in our heartbeats and the stories etched onto our feet from places we've been and sights that we've seen. peace is his hands and her hips, together again, love letters and Popsicles and skin upon skin.

teach the children peace
an build dream for tomorrow.
we have are own ideal, in life.
stop the hate stop the fighting.
give peace a try.
peace! i love you my friend.
my brother  my sister of the street.
dear young   men or women,
share the love of peace.
we don't need this fighting
hurting one another.
make stand share love of peace.
give peace a try , to build better tomorrow.
we the people of this world have a voice.
make stand for peace.
share the love peace.
it not hard to say i care
an love people for who they are.
let help one other toward this goal
an have peace on street in this world.
an share the love of peace.
we don't need war.
we need peace love hope joy.
we need to share the love of peace.

peace begins with your soul
know who you are ; be free, open your door
then take it home
Spread the calm and the hope
peace begins with your soul
then start at home
till it moves to people
truly; no one live in peace
Everyone hates; they live just for Their interest, everyone has his own war
there's seven billion people around the world
but with fourteen billion faces an no honest word
try to find peace in your heart
peace begins with your soul
then start at home
till it moves to people
then it comes to the world
world ! there's nothing , not even a simple thing make us think or see there's peace in the universe
wherever you look
wherever you turn
you'll find wars , conflict ; tears , blood
you'll find death
where can we find peace
we must make it
stop crying , stop those tears
be fair ; be honest; be true
stop hating; start loving
be strong ; feel it for long
why we have to learn how to fight
why we have to see kids die
it suppose that the army its for protection so why all these wars ?
it supposed kids grow up in peace
peace will start with me
then will feel it everywhere
peace begins with your soul
then start at home
till it moves to people
then it comes to the world
we are so close to the edge
for better life make peace

Pax.
Pax.
Be with you.

Peace train.
Peace Corps.
Power to the peaceful.

Peace or violence?
The peace of the grave?
Shalom, amani, pagas:

Peace.
To the far off.
In the streets.
Peace child.

Peace.
Strums a guitar.
The sound of the stars.
Your face in my heart.

Blessed are those who make: peace
on earth,
between brothers,
with God.

Peace
of path.
Of mind.
Of sleep.

Peace
I leave with you.
Peace, foreigner

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE:  Planet Peace

Turning the World Right-Side In

By

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this  annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals of each month during the days of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,200 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders, but an Earth that has one land, one sea, one sky, one people. The boundaries that have simplistically divided us for eons are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. The air and water of Earth, even the pandemic, take no notice of national borders, nor should we, the Citizens of Earth. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but by sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, are. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2023 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks2@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others and email me if you wish to join all the other Citizens of Earth around the world in helping to save Earth through LOVE.)

TOD HOWARD HAWKS

There is a simple solution for World Peace
A way that the whole world must know
When we Overcome our Ignorance and Realize the Truth
Then we will peacefully enjoy the show

Why do we fight with each other?
Why all these battles and wars?
Because we don't realize we are not different from each other
Our life is full of tears and scars

We want to be more powerful and rich
Just as we are driven by our greed
Our mind makes us desire and envelops us in ignorance
Never satisfied, fulfilling our need

But what did we bring to earth?
And what will we take when we go?
When we Realize the Truth that this world is not real
We will blissfully enjoy the show

The solution for World Peace is simple
It is in Realization of the Truth
It is being Enlightened and Overcoming our Ignorance
Till we get to the bottom of the root

Why do we battle with one another?
What is the cause of the fight?
When we investigate what triggers our conflict
Only then will we see the light

The root cause of all wars is the ego
It makes us believe that we are 'I'
Together with the mind, it makes us different from others
And we are ready to make others die

I am an American, you are an Asian
I am better than you
When we compete with one another, there are battles
Isn't this what we do?

Why do we get angry and take revenge?
Why do we get jealous and hate?
Because we don't Realize that we are not different, we are the same
We take swords to each other's gate

The answer lies in the simple fact
We are all the same Divine Soul
We are not the body and the mind that we appear to be
To Realize this is our goal

How will we Realize this Truth?
We are not different, we are one
For till we don't, we will continue to shed blood
Be it with the sword or a gun

This body starts with nothing and ends as dust
And have you ever seen the mind?
When you go on a quest to Realize the Truth
Who we truly are you will find

In essence, we are all Energy
Even science confirms this pact
That every cell of the human body is not matter that we seem to be
We are Divine Energy, in fact

When you burst two balloons full of air
Where does the air in them go?
The air in the balloons merges with the air that is everywhere
This truth for sure, we know

So, at death, when the body dies
And our bones and skin become dust
The Soul inside each of us becomes one
To Realize this truth is a must

When we Realize the Truth, we are the Soul
Then all battles and wars will end
Just like the right leg will not kick the left leg
From war to Peace, we will transcend

The solution lies in knowing the secret
We are not different, we are one
The moment we do this, we will not fight with one another
World Peace will be won

Why is the world today in pieces?
Why is there no Tranquillity and Peace?
Until we Realize the Truth of who we are
Conflicts will never cease

But once there is Realization of the Truth
Then, there is no need to fight
Why **** one another and lose our Peace of Mind
This Realization comes to light

Although we appear different on the outside
The Truth is we are all the same
We are all manifestations of the one Divine
This is His Divine Game

But because this secret we don't understand
We fight and lose our Peace of Mind
But once we Realize we are all the same Divine Soul
We will be loving, compassionate and kind

For this, we must Overcome our Ignorance
And the Ultimate Truth we must know
The Power that makes creatures walk, run and crawl
Is the Power that has created this show

The Creator is everywhere, in everything
The Power that is in you and me
When we Realize that we are all a part of the Lord Divine
Peace in the world there will be

Would we take a sword and **** God?
Would you hate the Lord Divine?
If we knew that every enemy was in fact, the Almighty
All war we would rewind

Then there would be an end to all battles
And all wars in this world would cease
When we Realize the Truth of who we truly are
The world will surely have Peace

But till we don't Realize the Truth
We will hate each other and fight
We will even drop nuclear bombs and destroy cities
Just to prove our might

But once we Realize the Divine Truth
That we are all the one Divine Soul
Our hate, our anger, our jealously and our revenge
Will burn away like coal

We must go beyond nationalities
And religions we must leave behind
We must give up all differences that cause war
Then, Peace we will find

We must learn to accept one another
And not identify each other by the colour of the skin
Then, there will be Peace all over the world
If we Realize the Lord within

Aren't we all just travellers?
We come into this world at birth
But we live with ignorance with stress, worry and anxiety
And lose our Peace on earth

Let us reform the World now
Let us all live with Peace
Let us Overcome our Ignorance and be Enlightened with the Truth
Let all battles and wars cease

merry Christmas world
a Christmas gift we can  give
to our self and the world.
is peace a  true peace,
no hate  no greed, a true
respect for one another.
and  real love for one  other,
i know we all have are pride.
let be  real here,
let grow up!!
lets  build world of peace,
i ask you  as person that live
in this world.
i ask  what can we do as
people of this world.
to help are children of this
world.
let the  children live world
of peace.
sharing the love of peace
stop the hate, stop the
fighting. and let the
children grow up
in world of peace.
an ask yourself an ask
your heart.
what do want in life.
is true love in my  life.
and ask your heart,
i want love i want happiness
for my children and children
of the world
i want peace for the world
i want my  children to be happy.
an peace no hate no greed.
helping one another in life,
and help  the world.
be true in your hearts,
for one another.
lets walk with peace in your life,
it truly not really  hard,
to love people for who they are
yes we can have peace in
the world.
it so simple my friends of the
world is love and respect
share the love of peace.
and  caring  and sharing
the love of peace.  
the best  Christmas gift of all
is peace for one another
on earth.
share the love of  peace
in our hearts.
merry Christmas world.

Peace .... WON'T COME ....  
Without ... EQUALITY ... !!!!  

YES ... You and Me ... !!!  

Peace Comes From BALANCE ...  
Look At Scales And See ... !!!  
  
NOT ... Electric Scales ...  
Don't Be A DUMMY ... !!!!!!!!  
  
Tip Some ... " OLD Scales " ... !!!  
And You Will See ...  
  
Peace Gets ... DESTROYED ...  
When You ... RoCk EQuAlitY ... !!!!!  
  
Peace CAN'T COME ...  
With ... SO MUCH War ... !?!  
  
But ...  
  
A Piece Comes Easy ... !!!  
If She's A ... " ***** " ... !!!  
  
HEED My Words Fellas ...  
KNOW The Score ... !!!!  
  
If You Listen To ... " Dylan " ...  
Shall We Knock On ... " Heavens' Door " ... ???  
  
And See Which Kind of ... VILLAIN ...  
Is There ... Despite of KILLING ... !?!?!
  
So People ...  
Are You WILLING ... ???  
To LOVE In Search of ... " Peace " ... ???  
  
Cos' Love Is What We're ................................. Missing ..........  
  
Hear My ... Poetic Speech ...  
  
Cos' We NOW ... NEED To Reach ... !!!  
For ... MORE THAN Just A Beach ... !!!  
  
Kids ARE NOW ... The VIOLENT ... ?!?  
With Few Now ... Fit To Teach ... !!!  
  
Teach Them of ...  
THE WRONG They Do ...  
  
Keeping Streets From ...................................... Peace ...........  
  
So ...
What's The Cause ...
of Kids ... New Flaws ... ???  
  
Hold Up ... P.E. ... !!!!!  
  
Let's Take A ........................ Pause.  
  
I'm NOT ... James Dean ... !!!  
  
I HAVE A Cause ... !!!  

With Words That Make ...  
Some Give .... APPLAUSE ... !!!  
  
I'm A... LOVER of Rap ...  
HIP HOP In Fact ... !!!!!!!  
Cos' Rappers Now .....  

Have Gone ....................................................  
                                                                          OFF TRACK ......... ?!!!?  
  
Gun Clap THIS ... !!!  
Gun Clap THAT ... !!!  
  
HATRED of ...  
Their ... " Fellow Black " ... ?!?  
  
Just So They ...  
Can ... Hear It back ... ???  
  
Some Rappers CLEARLY ...  
DO TAKE .... Crack .... !!!!!  
  
TODAY ...  
I Heard This ... On A Track ...  
  
"I Never went to high school !  
I just went to my high school HIGH !"
  
See ... That's The Stuff ...  
That Makes Me ... CRY ... !!!  
  
Some Kids Get ... HIGH ...  
While Parents ... CRY ... !!!!!!!!!  
  
Cos' Their Child Got ... "Caught" ...  
By The ... " Superfly Guy " ... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Who Came With ... DRUGS ...  
FEEDING ... Chemical Highs ... !!!  
  
He Just ............ Supplies ......  
While Children ... DIE ... !!!!!!!  
  
Doesn't That Bring ...  
Tears To ... Your Eyes ... ???  
  
So ...
What About The Downs " ... ?  
On Streets ... These Days ...  
  
Kids Now WEAR FROWNS ... !!!  
  
Next Thing Comes ...  
THOSE ... Gun Type Sounds ... !!!!!  
  
While Rappers KEEP ON ... " Talking " ...  
of The Men That They ... GUN DOWN ... !!!!!!  
  
YES ... Some Rappers ...  
Have .... Tight Flow ....  

But ...
Take The Words In ... " SLOW " ........................................  
  
Then It DAWNS ...  
Like ... Morning Snow ... !!!  
Why  Our Kids Are ....  
  
SO ... Gung' ** ... !!!!!  
  
So ...  
What's The Link ... ???  
  
Well People ... THINK ... !!!  
  
Peace Is Resting ....  
On The ........................ Brink ...  
While Violence ... CLEARLY ...  
NEEDS TO ... "shrink" ... !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  
  
Peace is ... GOOD ...  
War is ... BAD ...  
  
Needless Death ...  
Just Makes Me ... " Sad " ...  
  
Peace With ... " Bombs " ...  
Goes With ... " Sad Songs " ... !!!  
  
But People ... PLEASE ...  
DON'T Get Me ... Wrong ... !!!  
  
Peace and War ...  
Love and Hate ...  
  
Some Say These Things ...  
ALWAYS ...... " Equate " ......... ???  
  
So ... Why Do I Feel ...  
Like It's ... TOO LATE ... ?!?  
  
For Words of ... " Peace " ...  
To ... Change Our Fate ... ?!?  
  
Just ... Look Around You ...  
Do You Feel ... " Cool " ... ???  
With Those Who Stand ...  
Right NEXT TO ... You ... ?!?  
  
Or ...  Are You Feeling ...  
HATRED .... Too .... ?  
  
Respect Is ... EARNED ... !!!  
But It's ... STILL Due ... !!!  
  
Don't Be A FOOL ... !!!  
Just Be ... YOU ...  
  
Let LOVE SHINE Through ... !!!  
So ... Peace and Love ...  
Comes Back To ... YOU ... !!!  
  
In These ... " Scribes " ...  
Are ... POSITIVE Vibes ...  
To Keep This ...  
Human Race ... ALIVE ... !!!  
  
Time Is Moving .................................................................­.  
Do ... What's RIGHT ....  
CHERISH ... " Your Own " ...  
  
AND ... OTHER Lives ... !!!  
  
This May Help Us ...  
ALL ... Survive ...  
These ... MANIC Streets ...  
Where Violence ... "Creeps..."  
  
Things RIGHT NOW ...  
Are Looking ................................................. Bleak ....... !!!!!  
  
But THIS Piece of Poetry's ...  
Just Suggesting ... UNITY ...  
  
So People ... PLEASE ...  
Hear Out My ... Pleas ... !!!  
  
I'm NOT ...  
TRYING To PREACH ... !!!  
  
Or ...  
Trying To ... Teach ...  
  
We ALL NEED ... " Humanity " ...  
  
So We Can See .....  
Our ... One Race Free ...  
To ... LOVE Each Other ...  
and LIVE ... In ...  
  
..... " Peace " .....

Peace
Is not withdrawal
Peace is the surge
The urge
Peace is arising
Swelling
It’s an overflowing
Swing of
Upturning
Turned-up rhythm
Peace is resurgence
Peace is expression
In and of
Common Purpose
Cresting waves
Of purpose
Aligned
Upon a new dynamic line
Peace is
Not withdrawal from life
Peace is not placid
Not flaccid
Peace is active
Busy
Peace is believed
Conceived
Crafted
Peace is for
And not against
Peace just is
See?
And you are its source
And I am its source
And we are its source
Reaching
Reaching from and for and to
Every searching soul
Peace is strength
Of integrity

Peace is yours
Mine
Ours

Peace is ready now

I will hold on to my peace
When everything is falling apart
All my happiness has ceased
And I am hurting in my heart

I will keep my peace strong
At times when alone I am facing trials
When everyone has turned and gone
My peace will be my survival

I will let my peace guide me
In the chaos of a decaying society
Stripped of being truly free
Dictated to by economics bounty

I will hear my peace call
When all around me is war
And in battle men die and fall
On mothers' hearts  battle scars are bore

My peace I will walk with
Looking to God in my heart
My spirit His love will lift
Knowing He’s the master of this art

I will hear my peace call
When anger wells up inside
And I feel like I am in a freefall
Because of all injustice applied

I will let my peace guide me
When life's journey becomes unclear
I question my moral quality
Due to lack it causes fear.

I will keep my peace strong
Standing up for what I believe
When my differences seem wrong
Stay the course and just be me

I will hold on to my peace
This is my heart’s desire
This is how we all should be
Peace makes us so much kinder

yes we can world build a  world of  peace.
we are  people of this world have a  voice  
and have a choice.
to share the love of peace .
as then to build  a world peace for the
children of this world.
and  walk with peace in are heart.
an help the sick an the poor of the world.
it truly not   hard to care for people  an love
people for who they are.
stop the fighting ,stop the hate.
let build a world of  peace for our  children
of this world.
we all brother sister of this world
can we are people of  planet earth live in peace
an help one another.
yes we can build a world  of peace.
let make stand peace .
for children of this world.
people of this  world we  have voice
let make stand for peace in the world.
for our kids
an stop hate stop the fighting an build
a world peace.
for children of this world.
an share the love of peace.

peace is true keys to our happiness
in life
lets end the the hate in this world.
please listen to are hearts  in life.
let build a world peace helping one
another in life.
let give peace a chance in life.
lets build a world of true peace
for everyone in life.
lets share this love of peace to
the world.
walk tall an proud walk with peace
our hearts.
let show are children and ourselves  
we can build a world of peace.
for everyone in this world.
stop fighting stop the hate
respect people for who they are in life
share the love of peace in life.
let stop hurting one another in life.
an show true respect for people in life.
love people with true respect in life.
because peace is true keys to our
happiness  in life .
let start caring about one another
in life.
peace is true keys to the world true
happiness in life.
share poem with everyone  an world
for world peace.

Be at peace angels from heaven
Be at peace mother
Be at peace my friends
Be at peace my reverend
Be at peace my God
Be at piece my saints
Be at peace birds
Be at peace Mother Nature
Be at peace sea
Be at peace farmers
Be at peace little baby
Be at peace fisherman
Be at peace moon when you shine at night
Stars be at peace also when you shine at night
Birds be at peace when you fly in the sky during the day

Liturgy in Time of War

I will go to the altar of God
To God who gives joy to my youth

ENTRANCE ANTIPHON

The dawn (evening) is coming, another hot, filthy, wet dawn (evening).  Let us arise, soaked in sweat, exhausted, to speak with sour, saliva-caked mouths, to meet the deaths of this day (night).

GREETING

In the name of Peace in Our Time,
For the Hearts and Minds of The People,
For the Land of the Big PX
For round eye and white (black) (brown) thigh,
I greet you, brothers.

PENITENTIAL RITE

All:

I confess to almighty God
And to you my brothers
That I have sinned through my fault
In my thoughts and in my words
In what I have done
And in what I have failed to do,
And I ask Blessed Mary…

But how can I ask Her anything now?

My brothers,
Pray for me to…

But how?
Priest: (But there is no priest)

KYRIE

Lord, have mercy
Christ, have mercy
Lord, Lord, have mercy on us now

Have mercy, Lord, on a generation
That sits smugly in college lecture halls
And protests endlessly in coffee shops
The war they hear, see, on T.V., for free
Justice and peace by the semester hour
Like, y’know, peace, love, Amerika sux
Play the guitar, ****, apply to law school

Have mercy on us
Who crouch behind sand bags
And clean our weapons
And protest nothing
And **** in the heat
And die in the hear
And throw ham and lima beans away

GLORIA

Glory to God in the highest
how many bodies yesterday?
And peace to His people on earth
Vietnamese? Or us?
Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father
ham and lima beans?
We worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory
Doc, I can’t go home to my wife with this clap
Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father
cigarette, canteen cup of instant coffee
Lord God, Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world
******* magazine
Have mercy on us
relief behind the sand bags
You are seated at the right hand of the Father
i rot
Receive our prayer
i want to be clean and dry
For You alone are the Holy One
clean and dry.  just once.
You alone are the Lord
why do they chew that?
You alone are the most high
you mean the betel nut?
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father
incoming!
Amen


PRAYER

A

Father, you make this day holy.
Let us be thankful for
The many little joys of
This day, for life, for
The chance to worship
You.  In the end, bring
Us to you, so that we
May be cleansed of mud
And sweat and filth and
Guilt, and live with you
In peace forever.

B

Father, just get me through
Another day of this mess.

LITURGY OF THE WORD –

FIRST READING

From the Intensive Care Unit, NSA DaNang

A twilight world
Of neither peace nor battle
And of both

A man world
Embracing life and the grim death
Both

Peering into infected wounds
Night building shiver
Down from the black sky flares float

Broken bodies from the war somewhere
Eyes of a shattered nineteen-year-old Marine
Staring at the door to Yokosuka

PSALM

A Song of Descents

I cast down my eyes
Into the mud
Into the blood
It seems cleaner than death and drugs and casual ***
Drink Coca-Cola

I turned my eyes away from you, O Lord
And made this
Build this
Came to this
Samantha and Darren on Bewitched

Have mercy on…but how can we ask?  How dare we ask?

SECOND READING

Old Man, Viet Nam

Old man, a dog is barking at your heels
Old man, with the tired, weathered face
Are you afraid to turn around and deal
This dog a kick, to put him in his place?

Or is it, old man, that you’re just too tired?
Just too tired to turn and show anger
Just too tired to have your temper fired
Beaten by years of contempt and danger

Where are you going, trudging so slowly?
What are you thinking, behind those tired eyes?

Probably not about ham and lima beans

GOSPEL

In the Cold White Mist

After an all-night run on the river
Our boats arrive in the village at dawn
Dawn is never cold along that rive
Along that steaming, green, hell-hot river
But the mist is cold, the grey-green dawn mist
And after the engines are cut – stillness
Foul brown water laps at the mudding bank
Sloshing softly with fertile, smelly death

In the cold white mist

The boats are secured, and watches posted
We step off the boats and onto wet land
And follow the track into the deep mist
It becomes the street of a little town
A dairy lane along which cows slopped home
And where dogs and chickens and children
      played
Bounded by carefully swept little yards
And little wooden houses with tin roofs

In the cold white mist

But some of the houses are burnt.  The smoke
Still hangs heavily in the whitening mist
The lane is littered with debris.  A lump
Resolves itself into a torn, dead child
Across a smaller lump, a smaller child
Their pup has been flung against the fence, its
Guts early morning breakfast for the morning
      flies
We smoke cigarettes against the death-smells

In the cold white mist

Beneath a farm tractor rots a dead man.
When they – they – had come at sunset
He had hidden there.  And they shot him there
A man with bare feet and work-calloused
      hands
His hair is black; his teeth need cleaning
They shot him beneath the village tractor
His blackening blood clots into the mud
And our lungs choke in the white mist of death

In the cold white mist

White mist.  The path disappears into it
Smoky skeletons of little houses
In which there will be no tea this morning
No breakfasts of hot tea and steaming rice
No old widows to smile in betel-nut
No children to mock-march alongside us
Pointing at our ******* boots, and laughing
At us, for wearing shoes in the summer

In the cold white mist

They are dead and rotting in the white mist
On the edge of the jungle on the edge
Of the world, here along the Vam Co Tay
And the people pour out of their houses
To greet us on the fine summer morning
A corpse across a doorway, another
******-doubled across a window sill
Still another strewn down the garden path

In the cold white mist

The other patrol doubles back to us
And they tell us that the Ruff-Puff outpost
Must have been overrun the night before
He had heard their radioed pleas, and had
Run the river at night to get to them
And the ARVNs had fled through the village
And the VC had stormed in behind them
And it was knife-and-gun-club night in town

In the cold white mist

A little girl is the lone survivor
She looks may six.  Cute, except for the
Bubbling, *******, bayoneted chest wound
We patch her, and tube her, and use suction
Sort of like fixing a bicycle tire
And in the wet, gasping heat take her back
With us downriver, where a charity
Hospital leaves her on the steps to die

In the cold white mist

It will be our turn again tomorrow
Not a one of us died today.  Today.
But a village is gone, burnt and rotting,
Soon to disappear into the jungle
Along the green Cambodian border
Up some obscure river.  Up there.  Somewhere.
A few hundred people.  Their ancestors’ graves
Will fade with them untended, forgotten

In the cold white mist

Radio Hanoi might blame it on us.
But maybe not.  We made our report and
Nobody really noticed; no one cared
The talk is of the VC battalion
And where it has gone, and where it might go –
Maybe into death under an air strike
“And you guys better get in some sack time,”
Says the C.O. as he turns to his maps.

In the cold white mist

HOMILY

I’m scared, and I want to go home.  I don’t care any more about justice or fighting Communism or winning the hearts and minds of the people.  I can’t think about all that right now, because I’m scared, and I want to go home.
I don’t care about truth or loyalty or bravery or honor.  If Miss March were here she wouldn’t get cold, but she sure would get sunburnt.  And in a few days her skin would start rotting.  Then nobody would want to see her in the **** anymore.  
I’m scared, and I want to go home.
Up the Vam Co Tay, everyone is scared, everyone is tired, everyone is sick, everyone could die: sailor, soldier, officer, priest, farmer, fisherman.  Everyone rots in the wet heat.  The skin bubbles and flakes and peels, and is pink again, to bubble and flake and peel again.  
I’m scared, and I want to go home.
I’m Doc.  I’m a scared, stupid kid with an aid bag and a few months’ training.  But I’m Doc.  I’ve got to fake it.  I’ve got to be cool and calm because this other kid with his guts hanging out will probably make it if I don’t ***** up and if the dust-off from Saigon can get out here now.
I have an old dog at home, and my folks write and tell me she sleeps outside my window at night, waiting for me to come home.  Someday we’re going to run and play in the woods and fields again.  She’ll bark and run wide circles, and dare me to catch her.  I will laugh under the autumn leaves.  But now my nights are glaring darkness, fits of sweat-soaked half-sleep, then sirens and falling glares and falling mortars, and then the Godawful racket of all our engines of destruction.  There isn’t any use in all this.
I’m scared, and I want to go home.

And I don’t want any ham and lima beans.

CREED

We believe in the Land of the Big PX
In presidents in suits, and generals,
In makers of economic strategies
We believe in flak jackets and .45s and peace

We believe in swing ships and dust-offs, yes
In the dark, green omnipresent Huey
Eternally begotten of technology
Blades to rotor, windscreen to machine guns
Made, not begotten, one in being with us
Through it all things are transported to us
For us men and our hunger and our hope
It comes down from the skies
By the high power of technology
It was born of the long assembly line

For whose sake are we crucified today?
Who suffers, and who dies and is baggied?
And on the third will arrive back home
To be neatly packaged in stainless steel

But not in ham and lima beans

LITURGY OF THE EUCHARIST

Preparation of the Gifts

Celebrant:

Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation.
Through your goodness we have this cheap Algerian wine to offer,
Fruit of the vine and work of human hands.
It will become anaesthesia for our souls.

People:

Blessed be…we just don’t know

Celebrant:

Pray, brothers, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father, to somebody.  Maybe.

People:

May the Lord, or the baggies, accept the sacrifice we offer with
our own burnt hands
For the praise and glory of…of what?
For our good, and the good of all His Church.

PRAYER OVER THE GITS

Little green cans, and I don’t care
Little green cans, and I don’t care
Little green cans, and I don’t care
Air cover’s gone away.

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

Preface for the Monsoon Season:

Father, all-powerful
And ever-living God,
We do well always and everywhere
To give You thanks
Through Jesus God our Lord
Even with diarrhea
thanks
When the mail doesn’t come
thanks
When we rot
thanks
When the heat ***** at our brains
thanks
When the mud ***** at our boots
thanks
When the horror ***** at our souls
thanks
We’re alive
thanks

SANCTUS

Holy, holy, holy, Lord, God of power and might
The bunkers are full of blood and death.
Hosanna in the mud.  Blessed is he who comes with the mail.  Hosanna in the mud.

EUCHARISTIC PRAYER

The Kien Tuong Province Canon:

A sailor is silhouetted against the dawn
Along a steamy river
Mostly helmet and flak jacket
Above dark plastic gunwales

The sailor has lost his New Testament
But there’s a ******* around somewhere
Naked, willing women –
Miss March wants to be an actress

He also carries an old plastic Rosary
To touch occasionally
While whispering a hurried Hail Mary
He hopes She understands

Those who in bell-bottoms and head-bands
Fight Fascism
In Sociology 201
Will never forgive him

A sailor is silhouetted against the dawn
This day he is to be elevated
His body broken and his blood shed
For you and for all men

OUR FATHER

Our Father, who art in Heaven
this ain’t it
Hallowed be thy name
Thy kingdom come
this ain’t it
On earth as it is in Heaven.
Give us this day…
not ham and lima beans
And forgive us our trespasses
as we shoot them that trespass against us
And lead us not into ambush
But deliver us from evil

SIGN OF PEACE

Peace on you.

AGNUS DEI

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: have mercy on us.

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: have mercy….

Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world: grant us peace.

Priest:

(But there is no priest)

People:  

Lord, I am not worthy to receive you,
But only say the word and I shall be killed.

COMMUNION ANTIPHON

They ate, and were not satisfied
They killed, and were not without fear.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION

Lord,
If we do not get out of this
Make some sense of it to those who remain
May we go home.  Home.  Or if not,
Take us unto you, in mercy.
Home.  Where you reign, for you are Lord
Forever and ever.  Amen

BLESSING

May you walk on grass that does not explode
May you sleep without rot
Without fear
May you never see or smell ham and lima beans again.
May you live
May you play with puppies
May you find forgetfulness
May you find peace
In the Name of Him who took your death for you

DISMISSAL

This is to certify that____is Honorably Discharged from the____on theday of____.  This certificate is awarded as a testimonial of Honest and Faithful Service.

CLOSING HYMN

Old men, smoking in the sunshine
Exiled outside the doors of life
Old uniforms, old pajamas
The chrome of wheelchairs, shiny, bright

Inside, polished wooden handrails
Line the hot, polished passages
Something to cling to on the way
To the lab, to x-ray, to death

And more old men, shuffling along
In a querulous route-step march
From Normandy, from The Cho-sen,
From the Vam Co Tay, from the deserts,
Past the A.I.D.S. ward and the union signs
On waxed floors to eternity

Portions previous published:

“Closing Hymn” is from “Outpatient Surgery – Veterans’ Hospital,” Juried Award, Houston Poetry Fest 1993

“In the Cold White Mist” is a Juried Award, Houston Poetry Fest 1991

“Old Man, Viet-Nam,” was published in Pulse, Lamar University, 1982

PEACE ON EARTH THROUGH LOVE:  Planet Peace


Turning the World Right-Side In

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE:  All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth," usually on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this  annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths:  millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Then, when I got curious, I used my computer to find out that, according to many scholars, only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.  

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY:  There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. John Donne was prescient. Earth is as impoverished as its poorest Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. All species will be accorded the same concern and care as Citizens. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.  

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH:  If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic;  therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons--from handguns to hydrogen bombs--will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE:  The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time.  Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH:  In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY:  To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.
  
FIRST VOTE:  The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. All Citizens will have access to  Internet voting, as well as access to cell phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will have to be 18 or older to vote. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will vote on these proposals of each month during the days of the following month. Citizens of Earth will be Earth’s government. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT:  If the multinational corporations that now rule Earth do not abide by the outcome of a majority vote in favor of CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH, Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement, a one-at-a-time mancott, womancott, girlcott, boycott--hence, Allcott--against each multinational corporation unwilling to relinquish control of its global business and give it, and all its assets, to Citizens of Earth. Citizens will continue the Allcott Movement until all multinational corporations have done the same. All personal and smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally to all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. No violence of any kind will occur during the transfer of these resources. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,200 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometimes seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders, but an Earth that has one land, one sea, one sky, one people. The boundaries that have simplistically divided us for eons are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. The air and water of Earth, even the pandemic, take no notice of national borders, nor should we, the Citizens of Earth. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but by sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH:  Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, are. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more wars, no more dictators, no more corruption. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Copyright 2023 Tod Howard Hawks

A graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and a human-rights advocate his entire adult life.

todhawks2@gmail.com

(Please share this commentary with others and email me if you wish to join all the other Citizens of Earth around the world in helping to save Earth through LOVE.)

A storm is coming,
Its coming in the form of a man,
He comes to disrupt,
Whatever peace I have left.

But I will fight this man,
Only because,
This peace I have,
I worked to attain.

But this storm of a man,
Comes in beauty,
He comes with delightful looks,
And he plans to rip away the peace in my heart.

This man,
This strong man,
When he smiles at me,
I melt away in his arms.

But the storm is strong,
And it covers me,
And I am lost again,
The peace I have slowly disappears.

But I scream NO!
I will not lose the peace,
A peace which I have come to love,
Which I have become accustomed to.

This man shakes my love,
This storm shakes my beliefs,
This man has his arm around me,
And I am at peace again.

But what do I tell the peace I already have?
Do I leave it?

This storm in the form of a man,
Has caused me to question my peace.

The sophisticated and beautiful storm.

I am at a crossroads.

On my left is the storm that will take me into new realms,
And in that storm, an unknown man stands,
His hands outreached to receive me,
Behind him is the unknown.

On my right is peace and love,
Amongst all that peace and love is warmth,
A man stands there as well, but a man with a familiar face,
He smiles and ushers me come to him.

So I stand at the crossroad,
Thinking,
Pondering,
Wondering,
Screaming.

The pain is terrible,
The feeling is disgraceful.

But I know I have to choose.
But what will I choose?

So I choose the road ahead of me,
Neither left nor right,
I stumble onto a new road,
And I look on at it,
And I am happy with what I have chosen,
I will create peace and love there,
Wherever this road leads me,
I will begin a storm for myself.

And the two men are no more.

I Dreamed of Peace  


                                 I dreamed of peace
                                 where games cannot touch my saddened heart;
                                 where the winters spray of discontent cannot
                                 make my blood cold, cannot make my marrow
                                 ache and my inner force limp wounded to the gray
                                 and weeping bank.

                                 I dreamed of peace
                                 where fire words shot to take me down
                                 miss their target and fall harmlessly in joyous fields
                                 of ripened corn, standing strong, smiling, repelling
                                 all the pointed barbs; whose yellow husks cannot be pierced
                                 but in reflecting provide a  nourishment so replete
                                 the archers arm is wearied by the load.

                                 I dreamed of peace
                                 where no longer do I wake at night
                                 seeking reassurance from apparitions that their calling
                                 means no harm;
                                 where the raven sitting on the drooping branch
                                 is not waiting for my soul’s ascent;
                                 where the soot covered face peering from the bracken
                                 is not the axe man arrived to take me home.

                                 I dreamed of peace
                                 where the fire in my brain is quelled
                                 by knowledge, accomplished thoughts of reason and
                                 not prone to dissatisfaction;
                                 where thirst is quenched in rivers so deep
                                 my dive can never touch or scrape the sides and
                                 in whose fear I need not fear;
                                 where my essence is left untouched , my spirit not assaulted
                                 by ego and forced appraisal.
                
                                 I dreamed of peace
                                 where false disinterest lies split and gaping
                                 and hypocrisy oozes its puerile bile across cracked and
                                 concrete stagnant floors;
                                 where beggars no longer assault my passing
                                 with arms outstretched and hope etched into canyon
                                 city faces;
                                 where the malcontent is driven to the slackened shallows
                                 and forced to face their own reflection.

                                 I dreamed of peace
                                 where lightening skipped and danced across the waves
                                 and thunder played the most delicate of notes;
                                 where wind swirled not in anger but caressed
                                 the sparse sand dune grass and the stilt legged
                                 petrel bobbed in anticipation;
                                 where the fuss of self induced stress is placed inside the trench
                                 and covered by the dirt of self awareness.

                                 I dreamed of peace
                                 where only peace may step and no intrusion
                                 may be entered;
                                 where neither the able nor the vacuous may encroach;
                                 where neither the sun drenched and rich may acquire that which
                                 others have stooped to learn;
                                 where the essence of time is encased and made bare
                                 and does not beat to a false clock;
                                 where all I have been and all I am to be is in the one,
                                 and there is no need to climb a further set of stairs.

                                 I dreamed of peace.

THE PEACE of great doors be for you.
Wait at the knobs, at the panel oblongs.
Wait for the great hinges.
  
The peace of great churches be for you,
Where the players of loft pipe organs
Practice old lovely fragments, alone.
  
The peace of great books be for you,
Stains of pressed clover leaves on pages,
Bleach of the light of years held in leather.
  
The peace of great prairies be for you.
Listen among windplayers in cornfields,
The wind learning over its oldest music
  
The peace of great seas be for you.
Wait on a hook of land, a rock footing
For you, wait in the salt wash.
  
The peace of great mountains be for you,
The sleep and the eyesight of eagles,
Sheet mist shadows and the long look across.
  
The peace of great hearts be for you,
Valves of the blood of the sun,
Pumps of the strongest wants we cry.
  
The peace of great silhouettes be for you,
Shadow dancers alive in your blood now,
Alive and crying, "Let us out, let us out."
  
The peace of great changes be for you.
Whisper, Oh beginners in the hills.
Tumble, Oh cubs-to-morrow belongs to you.
  
The peace of great loves be for you.
Rain, soak these roots; wind, shatter the dry rot.
Bars of sunlight, grips of the earth, hug these.
  
The peace of great ghosts be for you,
Phantoms of night-gray eyes, ready to go
To the fog-star dumps, to the fire-white doors.
  
Yes, the peace of great phantoms be for you,
Phantom iron men, mothers of bronze,
Keepers of the lean clean breeds.

O'HEAVENLY FATHER
O'LORD
i pray for the lost soul in life
an pray for people of this
world.
for give them of there sins  in
life.
for give them once  again
O'LORD
let  bring peace to this world
an share the love of peace
to this world.
an the people of this world
O'LORD
touch people hearts in life
let people of the world  know
an understand.
O'LORD
peace is true key in life for one
happiness in life
O'LORD
in your  words there  is true peace  in life O'LORD
O'LORD
bring endless peace to the world  O'LORD
forgive the people of  this world of there sin in life
O'LORD
come in people life O'LORD
O'LORD
touch people hearts of this world
O'LORD
teach people of this  world
how to love again.
O'LORD
help them understand
O' FATHER
sharing  the love of peace to
the world  is true key  of everyone
happiness in life.
O'LORD
tears come to my eyes  
O'LORD
forgive them  O'HEAVENLY FATHER
of there sin in life once again
please  i love them O'LORD
i know they need to respect one another
in life .
sharing the love of peace  in life
helping one another  in life.
an ending the hate in there hearts
i know this  O'HEAVENLY FATHER
i write many word to share the love of
peace in life .
please for give sins  them once again
O'LORD
as then tell them to build a world
peace for children of  this  world
O'LORD
touch there hearts  O' HEAVENLY  FATHER
let them know
sharing the love  peace in life
bring true happiness  to a child life.
it the true keys to everyone
true happiness   in life.
thank you
O'HEAVENLY FATHER
bless this world O'LORD
forgive this world an it's people of this
world  of sins i n life
O'LORD

the missing link in our life
is peace an love and showing
respect one another in life.
i write an speak to the
whole world.
the missing links in the
world is peace an love
in our life.
sharing the love of peace
in life.
respecting people for who
they are in life.
helping one another in life.
an loving people for who they
are in life
these are the missing links
in life.
missing links in this world
is peace an love.
can we as people of this world
stop hate stop the fighting.
and love one another in life.
sharing the love of peace
as then  live for peace helping
people in life.
as then help the children of this
world .building rainbows of peace
for our children of this world.
share the love of peace in life.
is the true keys to our happiness
in life.
so let build them rainbows of peace
in life.
sharing the love of peace to the world
loving  one another  in life.
helping one another in life.
so let fix them links in life
an bring joy in are hearts again.
loving one another in life.

EVERY DAY YOU ARE ON MY MIND
SOME DAYS I FEE THIS IS A NIGHTMARE
WHY DID YOU DISAPPEAR?

SO MANY DAYS AND YEARS I SEARCHED FOR YOU
I'M LOOKING FOR ANSWERS
I WISH YOU WERE HERE

I NEED TO FIND PEACE OF MIND
I NEED TO FIND PEACE OF MIND
I CAN'T TURN BACK THE CLOCK OF YESTERDAY
I FORGIVE FOR TODAY

FINDING PEACE
FINDING PEACE
TODAY IS A NEW DAY
I CAN FORGIVE FOR TODAY

I NEED TO FIND PEACE OF MIND
I NEED TO FIND PEACE OF MIND
I CAN'T TURN BACK THE  CLOCK
I FORGIVE FOR TODAY

EACH DAY WHEN I AWAKE
I'M LOOKING FOR PEACE OF MIND
WHY DID YOU DISAPPEAR?

I CAN FORGIVE FOR TODAY
TODAY IS A NEW DAY
I NEED TO FIND A PEACE OF MIND
I NEED TO FIND A PEACE OF MIND

I NEED TO FIND PEACE OF MIND
WHY DID YOU DISAPPEAR?
FINDING PEACE

A beautiful flower of peace shone bright
Along with the morning  sun rise full of light
But a naughty bee came to sting the flower
As jealousy crept in its eyes
couldn't withstand the sight of glowing flower
And a heavy wind blew away all the petals of peace.

Next morning again sun rose to its peak
Spreading the rays of warmth and delight
The flower of Peace once again woke up
On seeing the rays of powerful light.

How can a flower of peace die,
When every sun rays cheers it from all the sides.
Flower of peace is the reflecting diamond,
It will pass on the reflection of light everywhere,
which it receives from the sun.

Flower of peace cannot wither away,
As there is always someone to water and nurture it well.
Please keep on passing this flower of peace one to one
Keep on passing as long as humanity sustains.
Let it spread the message of peace and love.

Let not the Flower Of Peace wither away!

Geetha Jayakumar

©ALL RIGHTS RESERVED BY GEETHA JAYAKUMAR 2014
© 2014 Geetha Jayakumar

Only when I close my eyes to sleep
Do I find a bit of peace.
A slice of peace
A smidgen of peace
A hint of peace
A piece of peace.

No, who am I kidding?
I find no peace in sleep.
I find my peace in a chemical solution
A narcotic dilution
That I bang into my veins
That I slam into my brain.
No, I find no peace in sleep.
I find no peace in sleep.
I find,
No,
Peace,
In,
Sleep.

I truly hated watching news on TV,
the other night.
I seen the endless fear in a child eyes .
as then child cried out loud as tears pour
down the child face, where
is  my mommy & daddy
i hear the cried of children in my endless
sleep.
what is wrong with us people!!!''
do we as a people of this world hate life an hate our children.
do we truly love our  children
it truly wrong to to put endless fear in a child heart.
i 'am speaking an writing to the whole world.
we all have children in this world .
we as growing up think of self  not a child feeling
not even his or her fear.
we fight for human right in the world ,
what about human right of children in this world.
a child should never live in fear.
because the  people in  his or  her  country want to **** them self
setting off bomb  in there  street where they live.
we as people of this world have too build a world of
peace for our children.
we as people got to stop this hate stop hurting one another
in life.
stop this  fighting  in this world for the  children
of this world.
that if we as people love our  children.
do we as people of this world,want are children growing up
hating   people in life.
we as people of this world need peace sharing love of peace
in life.
lets give peace a chance  for the children of this world.
an walk with peace in are daily life.
yes we can build a world peace for are children
in this world.
lets live for peace for the children of this world
lets stop the hate an live for peace in life.
loving  people for who they are in life,
share the love of peace in life.

share this with every one
in this world

Dear Mrs. Scott:

I am Tod Howard Hawks. I am a human-rights activist and a poet. I am a graduate of Phillips Andover Academy and Columbia College, Columbia University.

This is entirely a humanitarian undertaking, albeit of monumental proportions:  I, and no one else either, will be making a single penny for collectively helping to save Earth and all living creations upon it. We all are volunteers. I am emailing you to ask for your help.  

I believe it is utterly possible to achieve Peace on Earth forever, the explicit goal of my commentary (see below). If we fail in our collective efforts to do so, Earth, our only home, will be no more. Thus, I am asking you to play an integral role in this absolutely most important endeavor.   


EARTH LOVE:  PEACE ON EARTH FOREVER

by

Tod Howard Hawks


PREAMBLE: All we have is our little planet, Earth. For the vast majority of my life, I have thought, “What would it be like to have Peace on Earth?” But for only two, maybe three, weeks every year, usually around Christmas, I would see the phrase “Peace on Earth,” mostly on Christmas cards. But after Christmas, I would not hear or see that sanguine notion for 11 more months. The longer I lived, the more this annual ritual bothered me. At Andover, I had studied European history. At Columbia, I had majored in American history. Over time, I increasingly came to the realization that in both prep school and college, I had essentially been studying about wars on top of wars and their aftermaths: millions and millions and millions of human beings being killed. Most scholars believed only a little over 200, out of roughly 3,400 years of recorded history, were deemed “peaceful.” Humanity, I concluded, had a horrible track record when it came to effectuating “Peace on Earth.” And during my lifetime things have not gotten any better.

SPIRITUAL ECOLOGY: There is one land, one sky, one sea, one people. The boundaries that divide us are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. Earth is as poor as its most destitute Citizen, as healthy as her sickest, as educated as her most ignorant. If we pollute the upper waters of the Mississippi, then ineluctably we shall pollute the Indian Ocean. If we continue to pollute our air, the current 7,500,000,000 Citizens on Earth will die. The water and air of the world care nothing about national borders, nor does the pandemic. The imminent threats of nuclear holocaust and catastrophic climate change we need urgently to prevent. This is the truth of Spiritual Ecology.

CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH: If we can wage war, why should we not wage peace? Nations are anachronistic. Therefore, there will be none. There will only be Earth and Citizens of Earth. Each Citizen will devote a sizable number of years of her/his life to the betterment of humankind and Earth. All military weapons — from handguns to hydrogen bombs — will be destroyed, and any future weapons will be prohibited. All jails and prisons will be closed, replaced by Love Centers (see below). Automation and other technological advances will enhance the opportunity for all Citizens exponentially to realize their potential, personally and spiritually. There will be no money. All precious resources and assets of Earth will be distributed equally among all Citizens. The only things Citizens will own are the right to be treated well and the responsibility to treat Earth and all its Citizens well. All Citizens will be free to travel anywhere, at any time, on Earth. All Citizens will be free to choose their own personal and professional goals, but will do no harm to Earth or other Citizens. All Citizens will be afforded the same resources to live a full, safe, and satisfying life, including the best education, health care, housing, food, and other necessities throughout Earth.

LOVE: The only way to change anything for the good, for good, is through love. Love is what every living creation on Earth needs. Love Centers are for those Citizens who were not loved enough, or at all, especially at their earliest of ages. Concomitantly, they act out their pain hurtfully, sometimes lethally, often against other Citizens. Citizens who are emotionally ill will be separated from those who are not. Jails and prisons only abet this deleterious situation. Some Citizens in pain may need to be constrained in Love Centers humanely while they recover, through being loved, so they do not hurt themselves or others. In some extreme cases, Citizens may be in so much pain that they remain violent for a long time. Thus, they may need to be constrained for the rest of their lives, but always loved, never punished. In time, Citizens, when loved enough, will only have love to give, and the need for Love Centers will commensurately decline.

EARTH: In 1948, Eleanor Roosevelt chaired the commission that wrote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. UDHR, with some updates and revisions, will serve as the moral and legal guidepost for Earth.

GENERAL ASSEMBLY: To honor and remember the former nations on Earth, one member will be elected by Citizens from each of these former nations to serve a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly. In succeeding elections, Citizens currently residing at that time in areas that were formerly nations, will again, in perpetuity, vote for one Citizen also residing in that area, for a one five-year term as a member of the General Assembly.

FIRST VOTE: The first vote of all Citizens will be to establish CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Majority rules. Citizens will have to be 18 years old or older to vote. All Citizens will have access to Internet voting, as well as access to smart phones and other types of computers. Citizens will have her/his own secured ID codes. Citizens will be encouraged to bring before the General Assembly all ideas and recommendations, as well as any concerns or complaints, which will be considered and responded to promptly. Citizens’ ideas and recommendations will be formed into proposals drafted by members of the General Assembly. Citizens will have the first two weeks of each month, every month, to vote on these proposals of the previous month. Members of the General Assembly will be facilitators who will work with millions of volunteers. Citizens of Earth will be the Earth’s government. There will be no president of Earth.

ALLCOTT MOVEMENT: Citizens of Earth will instigate the Allcott Movement-not boy-, not girl-, not woman-, not man-. but the nonviolent Allcott Movement-against each multinational corporation and every mega-rich individual unwilling to abide by the democratically held, worldwide vote in favor of the CAMPAIGN FOR EARTH. Citizens will continue to use the nonviolent boycott against recalcitrant multinational corporations, and, in a similar nonviolent manner, will continue to use viable pressures against the recalcitrant mega-rich of the world. All smaller-business wealth will be converted into resources to be distributed equally among all Citizens. All proceeds in excess of what’s needed reasonably by each Citizen will be saved for future generations. Consequently, Earth, which for millennia has been turned inside-out will be turned right-side in. Citizens will take these steps because they are the moral, the right, steps to take to save all of us, all other living creations on Earth, and Earth itself.

CELEBRATE AND SHARE: If you were to take a photograph of humanity and gaze at it, you would see a beautiful mosaic of mankind of different, beautiful colors. If you could step into the photograph, you would hear a melody of languages and dialects. You could have a worldwide picnic with all your sisters and brothers and experience different customs and taste different, delicious foods. And in moments of silence, all of you could pray in your different religions, separate but together at the same time. You would also share the same human laughter and joys and feel the same sorrows and cry the same tears, all in Peace on Earth eternal. All of you would come to delight in these differences, not dread them. You would look forward to celebrating and sharing with your family, not killing them. The spiritual whole would be larger than the sum of its sacred parts.

A QUANTUM LEAP:  The world, over millennia, keeps evolving. Over 3,200 years of recorded history, powers, nations keep shifting, sometime seismically. Now is the time for not only the grandest seismic shift ever, but also the one that will save Earth and all living creations upon it. It is time for Earth to become Earth--not a scattering of over 200 nations with artificial borders, but an Earth that has one land, one sea, one sky, one people. The boundaries that have simplistically divided us for eons are not on maps, but in our minds and hearts. The air and water of Earth, even the pandemic, take no notice of national borders, nor should we, the Citizens of Earth. Technology, with its innumerable advances, has made us into a world when all can become one. We are free to be our real selves, to spend our variegated lives not aggrandizing, but by sharing and giving. Rather than dreading our superficial differences--our different skin colors, our different cultures, our different religions, our different languages--we can explore and enjoy them. Let us finally be what we truly have been forever, one big, worldwide family of humanity. No more wars, no more weapons, no more killing. No more hunger, no more homelessness, no more hopelessness. No more ignorance, no more illnesses, no more social classes. This is the quantum leap of which I speak.

PEACE ON EARTH: Wealth is not worth. The mansuetude of loving, and being loved, is. When love is your currency, all else is counterfeit. Citizens will be able to go about creating their own happiness that is built on love-based personal relationships and professional activities. No longer will human beings be able to profit from another’s pain. With love at the center of being and living, there will be no more corruption, no more dictators, no more wars. Finally, there will only be Peace on Earth forever.

Mrs Scott, please email or call me (see below for address and number) so I might elaborate on and elucidate the aforementioned.

I am impecunious, but I believe my heart is as big as yours.

Blessings,

Tod Howard Hawks

18 June 2021

email address:  todh21376@gmail.com
phone:  303-939-0561

listen world listen people of this world.
listen  to child  hearts of the world.
hear the tears of child  pray for peace.
because they live in fear in there
daily life.
no child should have to walk with
fear in his or her hearts .
because his parents  or country are  
fighting a senseless war over drugs or
money  or his or her neighborhood
running wild with street gangs.
should the children of this world
grow up  hating one another in life.
an living in fear in there daily life
where are his or her  dreams for
tomorrow.
let build rainbows of peace in life
for the people of this world.
an children of this world helping
one another  in life.
listen people of the world lets  walk
with peace in are hearts.
as people of this world we can end
this hate that plague or life.
an the street gangs that take over
neighborhood blocks.
and the wars that plague this world.
let build rainbows  of peace in this 
world  for one another in life.
an share the love of  peace in  life.
as we travel these roads in life.
helping one another in life.
share this poem with  everyone
in the world.
the true key to are happiness
in are  life is  love an  peace.
helping one another in life,
respecting one another in life
sharing the love of peace
too the world.
an building rainbows of
peace to help everyone in
the world .
to walk with peace in are daily
life.