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Arlene Weiner: Ghazal
When parting or meeting we wish each other peace.
We show with every greeting that we are lovers of peace.
Isn’t the use of force defeating peace
and the spirit of peace?
In dreamless sleep, however fleeting,
You have a foretaste of death—is that peace?
Kibbutniks prepared to fly kites praising peace
on the day men in kites flew in to break the peace.
I saw a mother embracing a bundle of sheeting.
How can she ever again feel peace?
Shulamit, salaam and shalom.
You are longing for — work for – peace.
~~~~
Author’s note: Shulamit is my Hebrew name.
~
Arlene Weiner’s publications include City Bird and Escape Velocity, both published by Ragged Sky Press. She lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Poem copyright 2024 Arlene Weiner
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Thank you, Arlene. Just a 12 line poem and yet it says so much, so deftly. And I agree wholeheartedly. I wonder if we should remove all male leaders and just give women a go at running the world: it would have to be a less aggressive place…
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Thank you, Arlene Weiner. Maybe repeating the word “peace” will make a difference.
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how do we create the institutions of peace (along with safe places to collectively mourn) among the entrenched institutions of force and scapegoating, gaslighting and bombing?
poems like this are pointers to the need to find a way out of the cycles of violence. not just in theory, but in here-and-now practice. in loving, and ultimately forgiveness instead of revenge.
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Forgiveness instead of revenge… yes. Thanks, Jim.
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I actually meant the woman embracing sheeting to be Palestinian. But this works.
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Thanks, Arlene. Both sides are grieving… But the American military has put its heavy thumb on the scale, so the Palestinians are suffering much greater losses.
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Powerful!
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yes, it is.
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Peace.
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Fierce and kind at the same time, thanks Arlene.
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