Holy Ground

This is Holy Ground,

You have desecrated

our Holy shrines.

Words said throughout the ages

 to excuse Mankind’s warring

and destructive ways.

But what is Holy Ground?

Where battles were fought,

or won or lost?

What is a holy shrine?

Where a person was born,

or lived, or died?

Is Holy Ground a man made thing?

Or is it forests, mountains

and teeming seas?

Look at the universe far and wide.

Where else can mankind live?

Nowhere we have found.

Our precious blue planet,

humanity’s only Holy Ground,

is all we have.

How much more death, war,

and destruction has to come

before we learn?

Will we reach out to one another,

to rescue, to preserve this,

our solitary refuge?

Or will we persist in slaughtering

people, animals, plants,

and lose the true Holy Ground?

We can preserve this rare and shining orb.

Or piece by piece destroy,

 our blue and living Earth.

Time grows shorter every hour.

Leaving us with less and less.

What will you do?

Today

Fields of purple blue
spreading to horizon far
my heart longs for you

photo credit unknown

Wanted:

A brother who won’t lead

his little brother astray

Into the path of destruction

Even if he has to die alone.

Also wanted:

A father who teaches his sons to obey

Not the tenets of violent rebellion

But the laws of love thy neighbor

The second would have been the key

To make the first unnecessary.

Here’s a link for a little Buddhist meditation on compassion and ignoring media hype.  Or at least not letting it in so deeply that it takes over the spirit. http://www.wildmind.org/blogs/on-practice/not-watching-the-news-as-a-spiritual-practice

Today’s prompt … challenges us to write a poem that begins and ends with the same word.

If only

we could find

the wished for

Balm of Gilead

the source of healing

flowing from the heart

of giving love

some say it’s church

the pope or cross

and fluttering white dove

others say go

look within

just breathe away

thoughts of yesterday

or tomorrow

but looking

at the world today

it seems that

Gilead has fled

to some far flung

stellar shore

and left us with

if only

Early on in the month, I asked you to write a valediction — a poem of farewell. Today, let’s try the opposite, and write poems of greeting. There’s lots of things you could greet. The spring? Your new stapler? A favorite classmate? An addition to the menu at your local cafe? The subject’s up to you — now get out there and say “hello!”

 HELLO OR NOT

Hello, I’m supposed to say

To something new that came my way

To greet a person, place or thing

With a welcome sunny ring

New any time or just today?

If it’s recent, I can’t greet

Anything with Hey! That’s neat

Latest new in this old life

ankle that hurts like a knife

Limping now for weeks.

Then there is this blasted cold

Sneezing, coughing do take hold

Laryngitis cuts off voice

Temperature is not a choice

Happy hellos? I’m not sold.

Well this was weird.  First I tried a Celtic poem, but I found I had no idea how to pronounce the words. Or maybe that was the point.  This one is Latvian.  Remember it’s just the sounds, not an actual translation.  Although I did get drink involved.  Like I said. Weird.

1. original poem, 2 my transliteration “take” on it., 3. actual translation

NaPoWriMo – Day 16 to write a “translation” of a poem in a language you don’t actually know. Go to the Poetry International Language List, pick a language, and then follow it to a poet and a poem. Generally the Poetry International website will present a poem in its original language on the left, and any translation on the right. Cut and paste the original into the text-editing program of your choice (and try not to peek too much at the translation). Now, use the sound and shape of the words and lines to guide you, without worrying too much about whether your translation makes sense.

© 1996, Janis Elsbergs
From: Rita kafija
Publisher: Apgads Daugava

Is your island and the briny

Coming not to rendezvous more

Is talk of gazing sight vacant

Is it missing gaia’s vision

Near to Skyros

Bailing never outs the boat enough

Why you are so divided

Man pecks at prizes caught

Yes, yes it’s stygian saki

Yes, yes it’s the lotus

stygian

Saki

Actual translation

I’m walking and wondering
why I leave no footprints.
I went this way yesterday.
I’ve gone this way all my life.

I won’t look back.
I’m afraid I won’t find my shadow.

‘Are you alive?’
a drunken gentleman suddenly asks me.

‘Yes, yes,’ I answer quickly.
‘Yes, yes,’ I answer
as fast as I can.

Ravens soaring over the wasteland

Screaming cacophonous woeful calls

I swore to never move again

but find now never ending falls

NaPoWriMo’s prompt was to write a Pantun

And now our (again — totally optional) prompt! Today, I challenge you to write a pantun. Not a pantoum — though they are related. The pantun is a traditional Malay form, a style of which was later adapted into French and then English as the pantoum. A pantun consists of rhymed quatrains (abab), with 8-12 syllables per line. The first two lines of each quatrain aren’t meant to have a formal, logical link to the second two lines, although the two halves of each quatrain are supposed to have an imaginative or imagistic connection. Here’s an example:

I planted sweet-basil in mid-field.
Grown, it swarmed with ants,
I loved but am not loved,
I am all confused and helpless.*

The associative leap from the first couplet to the second allows for a great deal of surprise and also helps give the poems are very mysterious and lyrical quality. Try your hand at just one quatrain, or a bunch of them, and see how you do!

* It’s been pointed out that the example doesn’t rhyme, and its syllable count is suspect. All I can say is that it is a translation from a poem in Malay. A transliteration of the original is below–

Tanam selasih di tengah padang,
Sudah bertangkai diurung semut,
Kita kasih orang tak sayang,
Halai-balai tempurung hanyut.

——————————-

Day 14  prompt. Today’s should be fun — I hope. I challenge you to write a persona poem — that is, a poem in the voice of a particular person who isn’t you. But I’d like you to choose a very particular kind of person. How about a poem in the voice of a superhero (or a supervillain)? Comic book characters are very much like mythological characters — they tend to embody big-picture values or personality traits. Good or bad. Loyal or disloyal! (Heck — some comic book characters are mythologial characters — think of Thor). And like mythological characters, superheroes and supervillains let us tap into deep-seated cultural tropes. So go for it. Whether you identify with Batman, Robin or – gulp – the Joker, let’s hear your poems in another voice. Happy writing!

The prompt said a poem to write

A verse that doesn’t come from you

Not your voice or even like

But from another point of view

A superhero they suggest

Or a villain, someone bad

I can’t live in Joker’s vest

Batman? Robin? That’s just sad

Maybe I could crawl inside

Wonder woman’ s golden shield

Swing a lasso far and wide

Causing all the men to yield

I’m afraid that I must wait

Superman will have to hide

Day 14 is not too late

To be myself, no hero’s pride

I am a day late.  Here is an attempt at Day 13

NaPoWriMo prompt for today (April 13)  is “simply to take a walk. Make notes — mental or otherwise — on what you see on your walk, and incorporate these notes into your poem. A bit more serene and observational than yesterday, and hopefully a nice, calming poem to begin your weekend with.”

Looking South to Half Moon Bay

I walked along the ocean cliff

Looking south to Half Moon Bay

Turquoise water laps the shores

Whispering its siren’s call

Even though behind me close

Enough to feel the wind of

Lines of cars

Moving down Highway 1

When I look forward

All is now

I breathe a breath

Of freedom