When they torture your father
plant a tree
When they torture your brother
and your sister
plant a tree
When they assassinate
your leaders
and lovers
plant a tree
Whey they torture you
too bad
to talk
plant a tree.
When they begin to torture
the trees
and cut down the forest
they have made
start another.
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(You supply the pictures!)
in a chair!Or against the wallwith my legsstretched out!(Or even in bed!)I get to seemaybe halfof what I’m looking at!(This changes everything!)I get to dancelike the tipsy old menI adoredwhen I was an infant!(They never dropped me!)I get to spend time with myselfwhenever I want!I get to ride a bicyclewith tallhandlebars!(My posture improves!)I get to…
Let other leaders
To play golf& writeMemoirsAbout bombingVillagesThey’ve never seen.Growing oldPresents a perilThey may notExpect.It is to loseOne’s soulIn trivia& irrelevanceThe nerveEndingsBluntedBy the constantPressureOf moralIndifference.Growing oldA curse:Not evenGenerally speakingAbleTo relateTo whoeverSharesYour house. Not the mansionYou inhabitOn theLovely stolen hillAbove the seaOr the interior one:The darkenedDesolateShack.You want to grow oldLikeThe Carters;Curing blindness&Building housesForThe Poor;Making friends of thoseWho believeThey must…
When the people
whether smallor largedo you ever wonderat that momentwhere the martyrsmight be?They who sacrificedthemselvesto bring to lifesomething unknownthough nonetheless more preciousthan their blood.I like to think of themhovering over uswherever we have gatheredto weep and to rejoice;smiling and laughing,actually slapping each other’s palmsin glee.Their blood has driedand become rose petals.What you feel brushing your cheekis not…
When you see water in a stream
water;When you see water in the riveryou say: oh, this is waterof the river;When you see oceanwateryou say: This is the ocean’swater!But actually water is alwaysonly itselfand does not belongto any of these containersthough it creates them.And so it is with you.
Word reaches us
Dismayedwe have turned to the sea.We encounter among otherswalking therea sense of what we have lost:the broad expanse of humanity’ssensitivity to the oneness of itself.Gabrielle,while you sleep, resting your nimblebrain, we think of walking with youin the valleyof the shadow of death; holdingyou up.We hope you can feel our grief;our sorrow vastlike the ocean that…
Don’t be like those who ask for everything:
limousine. They ask for everything but never offeranything in return.Be like those who can see that my feet achefrom across a crowded roomthat a foot rubif I’m agreeablenever mind the staringis the best way to smile& say helloto me.