True Peace

Study War No More

True Peace

“True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.”

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Making Peace

A voice from the dark called out,
“The poets must give us
imagination of peace, to oust the intense, familiar
imagination of disaster. Peace, not only
the absence of war.”

But peace, like a poem,
is not there ahead of itself,
can’t be imagined before it is made,
can’t be known except
in the words of its making,
grammar of justice,
syntax of mutual aid.

A feeling towards it,
dimly sensing a rhythm, is all we have
until we begin to utter its metaphors,
learning them as we speak.

A line of peace might appear
if we restructured the sentence our lives are making,
revoked its reaffirmation of profit and power,
questioned our needs, allowed
long pauses. . . .

A cadence of peace might balance its weight
on that different fulcrum; peace, a presence,
an energy field more intense than war,
might pulse then,
stanza by stanza into the world,
each act of living
one of its words, each word
a vibration of light—facets
of the forming crystal.

Denise Levertov

Let Us Beat Our Swords Into Plowshares

In days to come
the mountain of the Lord’s house
shall be established as the highest of the mountains
and shall be raised above the hills;
all the nations shall stream to it.

Many peoples shall come and say,
“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob,
that he may teach us his ways
and that we may walk in his paths.”

For out of Zion shall go forth instruction
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation;
neither shall they learn war any more.

O house of Jacob, come, let us walk
in the light of the Lord!

Isaiah 2:2-5

A Blessing for Your Week

Child of God,

May You find your way to the House of the Lord,
Though the road is windy and dim,
May vibrations of peace light your path
May her sentences call to you with warmth and longing
May her metaphors flower in your heart and soul,
Showing you the way
May her syntax rewrite the world around you
Replacing rules of war with grammars of justice
Until the world around you is entirely transformed
By the pulsing energy shield of peace
May tools of war become tools of harvest time abundance
And may true peace be known
In your heart
And in our world.

Amen.