Conflict Inequality and finally Peace

Poetry is relatively new to me, that is poetry that represents art.  After taking a creative writing class last winter I found  a new interest in reading and even writing poetry. What has inspired my new love is the way poetry has the ability to look inside of me and define what I am unable to say. Words line up one in front of the other and work to explain complex emotions that would not be so clear in any other format. This last year has brought freedom to my life as I have discovered I am not the only one with passionate beliefs about the world I live in. Any experience can become a thing of beauty if it written in a poem. Poetry has allowed me to grow and given me a new understanding of everything I read, not just the poems.

I have also taken an interest in the pursuit of national and global peace. What I have learned in this process is that peace is not as simple as the absence of war. There are many aspects that are ignored or neglected when it comes to solving the conflicts we face every day. We are living in a time of cautious optimism when it comes to solutions needed to solve the conflicts that surround us daily. It is a time of active war but we are also living in a time in which people are more aware about their part in the quest for peace, and more willing to act on it.

My anthology focuses on the causes of conflict and the endless search for answers as we dare to hope for a world that is more peaceful. The collection of poems are arranged in a way that takes us through the process of acknowledging what the results will be without a sustained effort towards this goal. I chose poems that stirred emotions inside of me about aggression, fear, racism, oppression, loss, conflict, inner peace and finally hope for the future.

It may seem strange to start out with a poem such as Fire and Ice but I think it is a bold statement. The line that catches my attention is, “if it had to perish twice”, I find this line so telling because often I think that we believe that we will have a second chance. It is time we take the end of our existence seriously as we will have no other opportunities once we have gone too far. As you read on there are poems that offer insight to other causes of conflict and offer answers to the problems we face looking towards a more peaceful existence.

Anger and misunderstanding are a good starting point and in The Poison Tree you can feel the man telling the story does not understand the man who is different from him in the line, I
“was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.”

It all begins with insight, looking into what is not the same as your beliefs and making an effort towards understanding. This is so important to reaching the goal.

Education is likely the second most important aspect of attaining a peaceful community. I chose The Illiterate by William Meredith because I could feel the frustration and anger of the man who could not read a letter addressed in his name. How he imagined all the wonderful things that it could have contained, these events he imagines are also the things he could have achieved on his own had he only learned to read. Now he was only, “ashamed because he has no other means.”

Relationships are instrumental to a peaceful community in The Mending Wall and The Alphabet of Ameliorating Hope relationships are represented in a way that allows the reader to stop and think about their part in making positive actions towards knowing their neighbors and in the end respecting them as well.

One of the biggest interferences to peace is the presence of fear. Often fear is something we create in our minds without any reason to do so. Charles Simic captures well the contagious nature of fear and how we allow it to control us. The last line of the poem reveals the presence of danger is not always there, “and there is no sign of wind.” Without fear in our lives it is quite possible there would be no war.

Oppression, Racism and inequality are all behaviors that should never be tolerated, and can be reversed with a simple change in the way we value people. War as well is related to the way we think about people. Just because someone lives their life differently than our does not mean they are not worthy or valuable to this world. Diversity should be encouraged and accepted by all.

In the end there is no reason to give up on hoping for and seeking peace daily in our own private worlds. As we practice mindfulness gradually we all can come to a place where we have the ability to offer solutions to the conflict they feel and the anger that it breeds. Knowledge is the beginning step from there we must take action towards all of the groups waiting for our help and support.

As you read the following poems I hope you will take the time to think about all of the ways you can contribute daily to the quality of life of another,  especially those you may not understand. It is all of our responsibility to be mindful of and to teach others that we are all in this together and its time we respond with passion needed to have a more peaceful world.

How will it end?- Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

From what I’ve tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To say that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

There are so many predictions when it comes to how the world will come to an end. Fire and Ice are two elements we depend upon to sustain our lives. They can also bring us to a quick end. Is the Fire and Ice that Frost speaks of a literal end or are they just symbols for a deeper meaning of the way we relate to our world? The love and hate we feel allows for feelings of conflict that leads to aggression and further to destruction.

Does it really matter in the end how we meet the end of the world? When Frost says, “if it had to perish twice” I can’t help but feel the reality of that statement. When discussing the end of the world we all too often are not believing in the possibility or the responsibility we hold in this prediction.

It will not happen twice, once destroyed it will be a permanent condition.

Anger and misunderstanding- A poison Tree by William Blake

I was angry with my friend:

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.

I was angry with my foe:

I told it not, my wrath did grow.

And I watered it in fears

Night and morning with my tears,

And I sunned it with smiles

And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,

Till it bore an apple bright,

And my foe beheld it’s shine,

And he knew that it was mine,--

And into my garden stole

When the night veiled the pole;

In the morning, glad, I see

My foe outstretched beneath the tree,

A poison tree is about the anger we feel towards another that we are unwilling to forgive. I chose this poem because it communicates our unwillingness to understand another person’s point of view especially when they are different than us. What makes an enemy? Beliefs different than our own? Color of skin? Or maybe they worship a God other than ours?  The writer of this poem speaks about anger that is planted a small seed that grows into something bigger and bigger until it consumes his thoughts. Destruction of a human life is result of this uncontrolled anger that never considers forgiveness or gaining an understanding of his neighbor. Once he is gone the opportunity to learn about a man that could have been a loving understanding relationship is gone forever.

Learning about what we don’t understand is significant to a more peaceful world.

Education- The Illiterate by William Meredith

Touching your goodness, I am like a man

Who turns a letter over in his hand

And you might think this was because the hand

Was unfamiliar but, truth is, the man

Has never had a letter from anyone;

And now he is both afraid of what it means

And ashamed because he has no other means

To find out what is says than to ask someone.

His uncle could have left the farm to him,

Or his parents died before he sent them word,

Or the dark girl changed and wanted him for beloved.

Afraid and letter-proud, he keeps it with him.

What would you call his feeling for the words

That keeps him rich and orphaned and beloved?

Education is probably the most significant factor in the pursuit of peace. With knowledge of a problem we can then begin to make efforts for change. The Illiterate focuses on individual education.  The quality of life for a person is dependent on what they know about their world. Quality of life is crucial to inner peace and satisfaction.  Living in a world where people can take care of themselves and their families will naturally lead to a society with more peace.

As easy as it seems education is not the focus of the powers that be, it is up to us to make it the priority. Those who have been lucky enough to receive a basic education need to make it our responsibility to ensure others who have been overlooked are offered opportunities to learn and in the process open up opportunities that would have otherwise not been available to them. Knowledge is the key to a more peaceful world.

Relationships- Mending Wall by Robert Frost

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That sends the frozen-ground-swell under it,

And spills the upper boulders in the sun;

And makes gaps even two can pass abreast.

The work of hunters is another thing:

I have come after them and made repair

Where they have left not one stone on stone,

But they would have the rabbit out of hiding,

To please the yelping dogs.  The gaps I mean,

No has seen them made or heard them made,

But at spring mending-time we can find them there.

I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

And on a day we meet to walk the line

And set the wall between us once again.

We keep the wall between us as we go.

To each the boulders have fallen to each.

And some are loaves and some so nearly balls

We have to use a spell to make them balance:

“Stay where you are until our backs are turned!”

We wear our fingers rough with handling them.

Oh, just another kind of outdoor game,

One on a side. It comes to little more:

There where it is we do not need a wall:

He is all pine and I am all apple orchard.

My apple trees will never get across

And eat the cones under his pines, I tell him.

He only says, “Good fences make good neighbors.”

Spring is the mischief in me, and I wonder

If I could put a notion in his head:

“Why do they make good neighbors? Isn’t it

Where there are cows? But here there are no cows.

Before I built a wall I’d ask to know

What I was walling in or walling out,

And to whom I was like to give offence.

Something there is that doesn’t love a wall,

That wants it down.” I could say “Elves” to him,

But it’s not elves exactly, and I’d rather

He said it for himself. I see him there

Bringing a stone grasped firmly by the top

In each hand, like an old stone-savage armed.

He moves in darkness as it seems to me,

Not of woods only and the shade of trees.

He will not go behind his father’s saying,

And he likes having thought of it so well

He says again, "Good fences make good neighbors."

Does nature approve of barriers?  Given the chance it seems the power of nature would destroy the lines we draw between ourselves and others, these lines claiming what we perceive to be our own. As the neighbors meet to rebuild the fence between them, it is the only time of year they are together and the purpose is to create separation from the other. As one of the neighbors realizes the absurdity of this work and suggests the labor is unnecessary as neither wishes to take anything from the other that is not theirs. The apple tree says to the Christmas tree we have no need for what you claim and yet the Christmas tree guy still says, “Good fences make good neighbors” Frost questions the cliché, is it something “good?”  He considers the placing of barriers between people and recognizes them as an obstacle to building trusting relationships. As he considers asking the neighbor, “Do you even really know me or better do you know who I could be to you?” Not just the man who borders your property I could prove to you people can be trusted and valuable in your relation to it. As he thinks it over he is once again met with the saying, “Good fences, make good neighbors.” Do they? I think Good fences make good strangers, create mistrust and seperate us from what could be some of the best human experiences in life.

Relationships- The Alphabet of Ameliorating Hope By Brian Aldiss

The Alphabet of Ameliorating Hope By Brian Aldiss

Angelic voices speak of a utopia which will soon come about

                once the secret research in Wisden, Ohio, is completed.

Basically, existence of a ‘circumstance-chain’ in human

               relationships will be established, proving causality

               between mental activity and the external physical

               world.

‘Circumstance-chains’ are operative in all human lives; for

                instance, the child deprived of love develops into

                being who finds difficulty in establishing loving

                relationships in adulthood.

Directly the research is complete, we shall view the world

                anew.

Example: terms like ‘loser’ or ‘the guy who has all the luck’ will

                be seen as  labels for those who are bound, favourably or

                otherwise, by circumstance-chains.

For clarity, this revolutionary aspect of the human

                condition will be termed ‘transpsychic reality’; a new

                sanity will prevail on earth.

Going mad will no longer be necessary.

Horror will vanish, fear will never strike.

Intellect will never more be scorned.

Joy will visit rich and poor alike.

Keeping faith in love and life will be an easier thing.

Love will not be just a theme people sing.

Madge Winterbourne was the hero in Wisden, Ohio; she had

                originated the anti-catastrophic hypothesis.

No one who met her doubted she was the modern equivalent

                of seer or saint.

Or an Einstein of the female sex.

Plans were hatched to release details of transpsychic reality

                to the whole world on the same day, the first of a new

                century.

Qualitative tests on volunteers in Wisden suggest that once

                people understand the pattern of their lives, they can

                be taught to take command of them.

Reality will then change; those who are malicious will see

               the root causes of misery provoking their malice,

               and be able to expunge it.

Some criminals, and power-seekers may prove more difficult

                to readjust, may indeed form a core rebellion

                against the new utopia.

Tranpsychic reality will see them gradually phased out.

Utopia, once on the move, will prove as irresistible as a

                glacier.

Very soon, a golden age- long dreamed of in the hearts and

                minds of men and women- will be established,

 which the animal kingdom will share with humans.

Wonder will grow like cedar,

Xenophobia will die without voice.

You too will prevail, dear reader.

Zygotes themselves will rejoice.

From A to Z Aldiss speaks of the cause for and effects of a more peaceful world.  Peace must begin with a fundamental focus on human relationships which he calls circumstance-chains. The key is seeking the knowledge needed, the result reacting in a way to bring positive change to our world. The human race will be happier, healthier and live without fear. Everyone will be entitled to this life without divisions created by those who desire more than their share.  If we began to live in peace it will be contagious, and we too will live in harmony with one another as the natural world intends for us to do.  Those who do not agree will eventually fade away as we teach others to live life in love. The changes required are not difficult we only need change what we accept as reality and start believing in a beautiful existence.

Fear- Fear by Charles Simic

Fear by Charles Simic

Fear passes from man to man

Unknowing,

As one leaf passes it’s shudder

To another.

All at once the whole tree is trembling

and there is no sign of wind.

Fear is all too often the cause of unnecessary conflict. It is the starting point of misunderstanding that leads us into a fight that will cause the loss we originally fear. Driven by fear is no way for an individual to live but once we are in it our eyes become blind and ears deaf to the truth. Simic captures very well how fear can be something our mind creates without our permission. It is not always our own, but rather, something another gives us. Fear can be contagious spreading from one person to another without rational thought to validate the feeling. The danger lies in our lack of awareness about our reality. Creating chaos that harms our mind, our environment and even our bodies in the right circumstance. Often when are afraid without any cause the harm done can be avoided by simply trusting the environment and the world as it presents itself to you. Living in honesty using your senses, taking a moment to stop and see that “there is no sign of wind”

Oppression- Aunt Jennifer’s Tigers by Adrienne Rich

Aunt Jennifer’s tigers prance across the screen,

Bright topaz denizens of a world of green.

They do not fear the men beneath the tree;

They pace in sleek chivalric certainty.

Aunt Jennifer’s fingers fluttering through her wool

Find even the ivory needle hard to pull.

The massive weight of Uncle’s wedding band

Sits heavily upon Aunt Jennifer’s hand.

When Aunt is dead, her terrified hands will lie

Still ringed with ordeals she was mastered by.

The tigers in the panel that she made

Will go on prancing, proud and unafraid.

Aunt Jennifer created a bright and beautiful scene with brave and fearless tigers. They do not fear men, they do not fear anything living their lives with the freedom to roam and choose. Aunt Jennifer is creative and talented but is only allowed to express this as she sits under the power of a man. Suffocating her, heavy and powerful is the oppression she lives in, even in her own home. What could have become of Aunt Jennifer’s talent had she been able to go out into the world and share it? So many women are never allowed to reach their potential because they are living in a controlling relationship. When she is gone the beautiful picture she created will live on, the tigers will never change who they are.  She will never be anything but a woman who lives in fear under the control of a man who couldn’t stand to see anyone own a part of her other than himself.

Domestic Violence- I love the way you Lie by Eminem

Just gonna stand there
And watch me burn
But that's alright
Because I like
The way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
But that's alright
Because I love
The way you lie
I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie

I can't tell you what it really is
I can only tell you what it feels like
And right now there's a steel knife
In my windpipe
I can't breathe
But I still fight
While I can fight
As long as the wrong feels right
It's like I'm in flight
High of a love
Drunk from the hate
It's like I'm huffing paint
And I love it the more that I suffer
I sufficate
And right before im about to drown
She resuscitates me
She fucking hates me
And I love it
Wait
Where you going
I'm leaving you
No you ain't
Come back
We're running right back
Here we go again
It's so insane
Cause when it's going good
It's going great
I'm Superman
With the wind in his bag
She's Lois Lane
But when it's bad
It's awful
I feel so ashamed
I snap
Who's that dude
I don't even know his name
I laid hands on her
I'll never stoop so low again
I guess I don't know my own strength

Just gonna stand there
And watch me burn
But that's alright
Because I like
The way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
But that's alright
Because I love
The way you lie
I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie

You ever love somebody so much
You can barely breathe
When you're with them
You meet
And neither one of you
Even know what hit 'em
Got that warm fuzzy feeling
Yeah them chills
Used to get 'em
Now you're getting fucking sick
Of looking at 'em
You swore you've never hit 'em
Never do nothing to hurt 'em
Now you're in each other's face
Spewing venom
And these words
When you spit 'em
You push
Pull each other's hair
Scratch, claw, bit 'em
Throw 'em down

Pin 'em
So lost in the moments
When you're in 'em
It's the rage that took over
It controls you both
So they say it's best
To go your separate ways
Guess that they don't know ya
Cause today
That was yesterday
Yesterday is over
It's a different day
Sound like broken records
Playin' over
But you promised her
Next time you'll show restraint
You don't get another chance
Life is no Nintendo game
But you lied again
Now you get to watch her leave
Out the window
Guess that's why they call it window pane

Just gonna stand there
And watch me burn
But that's alright
Because I like
The way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
But that's alright
Because I love
The way you lie
I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie

Now I know we said things
Did things
That we didn't mean
And we fall back
Into the same patterns
Same routine
But your temper's just as bad
As mine is
You're the same as me
But when it comes to love
You're just as blinded
Baby please come back
It wasn't you
Baby it was me
Maybe our relationship
Isn't as crazy as it seems
Maybe that's what happens
When a tornado meets a volcano
All I know is
I love you too much
To walk away though
Come inside
Pick up your bags off the sidewalk
Don't you hear sincerity
In my voice when I talk
Told you this is my fault
Look me in the eyeball
Next time I'm pissed
I'll aim my fist
At the dry wall
Next time
There will be no next time
I apologize
Even though I know it's lies
I'm tired of the games
I just want her back
I know I'm a liar
If she ever tries to fucking leave again
I'mma tie her to the bed
And set the house on fire

Just gonna stand there
And watch me burn
But that's alright
Because I like
The way it hurts
Just gonna stand there
And hear me cry
But that's alright
Because I love
The way you lie
I love the way you lie
I love the way you lie

Eminem’s Love the way you lie is a raw powerful look into a relationship that has love that is channeled through anger. The line between love and hate can be a thin one when people do not learn a respectful kind of love that does not include physical or emotional abuse. The obsession, the intense feelings are apparent as this relationship begins. It is likely the woman in this story has only experienced a love that is painful. Not only does she accept it, she welcomes this love any way she can get it. Hurting is how she feels, it how she knows she is alive. Physical abuse is the way she has been touched her entire life. She must learn a new kind of love and we must be the one to teach her. Her life in danger, she stays until the final abuse takes her life. Peace can never happen in the world until it happens in the home.

A stand against inequality- Ballad of Birmingham by Dudley Randall

“Mothers dear, may I go downtown

Instead of out to play,

And march the streets of Birmingham

In a freedom march today?”

“No, baby, no, you may not go,

For the dogs are fierce and wild,

And clubs and hoses, guns and jails

Aren’t good for a little child.”

“But, mother, I won’t be alone.

Other children will go with me,

And march the streets of Birmingham

To make our country free.”

“No baby, no, you may not go,

For I fear those guns will fire.

But you may go to church instead

And sing in the children’s choir.”

She has combed and brushed her night-dark hair,

And bathed rose petal sweet,

And drawn white gloves on her small brown hands,

And white shoes on her feet.

The mother smiled to know her child

Was in the sacred place,

But that smile was the last smile

To come upon her face.

For when she heard the explosion,

Her eyes grew wet and wild.

She raced through the streets of Birmingham calling for her child.

She clawed through bits of glass and brick,

Then lifted out a shoes

“O here’s the shoe my baby wore,

But, baby, where are you?”

In the fight for equality the innocent victims lost add fuel to the fire and create bitter relations between the races. Every mother wants her young daughter to be valued as equal to the races that hold the power. Does that mean she is willing to put her in harm’s way? Instead of allowing a little girl to demonstrate for freedom she sends her to a safe haven, the place she defines as most peaceful a world filled with conflict. How can this be possible? A church is bombed and children the most innocent of victims are killed. You feel the fear in this poem, the loss. Those out on the streets demanding equality know that without resistance to inequality the world can never experience a positive peace. There needs to be a continuation of what they started so many years, there needs to be a stand against senseless violence that takes the lives of children. Peace cannot be weak.

Racism and inequality- Power by Audre Lord

The difference between poetry and rhetoric

is being

ready to kill

yourself

instead of your children.

I am trapped on a desert of raw gunshot wounds

and a dead child dragging his shattered black

face off the edge of my sleep

blood from his punctured cheeks and shoulders

is the only liquid for miles and my stomach

churns at the imagined taste while

my mouth splits into dry lips

without loyalty or reason

thirsting for the wetness of his blood

as it sinks into the whiteness

of the desert where I am lost

without imagery or magic

trying to make power out of hatred and destruction

trying to heal my dying son with kisses

only the sun will bleach his bones quicker.

The policeman who shot down a 10-year-old in Queens

stood over the boy with his cop shoes in childish blood

and a voice said “Die you little motherfucker” and

there are tapes to prove that.   At his trial

this policeman said in his own defense

“I didn’t notice the size or nothing else

only the color.” And

there are tapes to prove that, too.

Today that 37-year-old white man with 13 years of police

           Forcing

has been set free

by 11 white men who said they were satisfied

justice had been done

and one black woman who said

“They convinced me” meaning

they had dragged her 4’10” black woman’s frame

over the hot coals of four centuries of white male

           Approval

until she let go of the first real power she ever had

and lined her own womb with cement

to make a graveyard for our children.

I have not been able to touch the destruction within me.

But unless I learn to use

the difference between poetry and rhetoric

my power too will run corrupt and as poisonous mold

or lie limp and useless as an unconnected wire

and one day I will take my teenage plug

and connect it to the nearest socket

raping an 85-year-old white woman

who is somebody’s mother

and as I beat her senseless and set a torch to her bed

a greek chorus will be singing in ¾ time

“Poor thing.   She never hurt a soul.   What beasts they

           are.”

It’s amazing how those in power can change their perception of the difference between right and wrong when it comes to the color of skin.  Racial discrimination contributes to the ability of those in power to take the life of a child and defend themselves with words like, “I didn’t notice the size or nothing else only the color.” The white policeman is set free on those words. How can a black man feel anything but anger at this explanation?

A world dominated by white men disregards the death of a child and even convinces a black woman to relinquish her chance to exercise justice in a jury system stacked against her own race. The tragedy of this story cannot be denied yet white people become so enraged at black on white crime.

Until we make a connection that allows justice between all races violence will continue to take the lives of innocent people and peace in our society will remain out of reach.