One Million Poems for Peace

One Million Poems for Peace began in 2015 to celebrate the UN’s International Day of Peace. Pablo Neruda said, “Poetry is an act of peace.” Through poetry, all over the world this week, we are inviting one another to reflect on what it means to be human, and how to live together as one human family.

In the village of Ajijic in the state of Jalisco in the wondrous country of Mexico I now call home, Poets for Peace this year is an online event taking place Friday September 25 at 10 AM CST. You are welcome to attend! Here is the link:   meet.google.com/ytt-qbjs-hjy

Following is one of the five poems from my new book, Poems for Flourishing, which I will be reading for our Ajijic Poets for Peace event.

A Thousand Years of Healing

From whence my hope, I cannot say,
but it grows in the cells of my skin,
in my envelope of mysteries.
In this sheath so akin to the surface of the earth,
it whispers. Beneath
the wail and dissonance of the world,
hope’s song grows. Until I know
that with this turning,
we put a broken age to rest.
We who are alive at such a cusp
now usher in
one thousand years of healing.

Winged ones and four-leggeds,
grasses and mountains and each tree,
all the swimming creatures,
even we, wary two-leggeds
hum, and call, and create
the Changing Song. We remake
all our relations. We convert
our minds to the earth. In this turning time
we finally learn to chime and blend,
attune our voices; sing the vision
of the Great Magic we move within.
We begin the new habit,
getting up glad
for a thousand years of healing.

©Susa Silvermarie 2000