Words and Peace: A reflection
Touch, pull forward, cut away
Spoken rendition of “Words and Peace”.
Inspiration
There is a peace that you are part of is a line that came to me while I was on a morning walk in my St. Louis neighborhood some time ago. I pulled out my phone and added it to my Poetry Concepts file I keep in Evernote, a place where I store thoughts, ideas, quotes and other forms of inspiration that appear, so I can tap into them at a later time. When I go back to this file, it is common to see lines that make me wonder why I ever decided to capture them, but this line felt different even as I typed it quickly to the file. These words kept coming back to my head throughout the weeks and months that followed and seemed to settle throughout my body.
Peace being available at any moment is a felt concept that has been new to me in the last few years. It was something that was present in the teachings of the religious tradition that I participated in during my childhood and younger adult years, but it was taught on the side stage and certainly was only for people who were part of the defined in-crowd. Interestingly as well, many entrenched in the crowd did not seem to exhibit much from this place of peace and managed to warp a teaching of peace into a teaching of judgment.
My more recent lived experience, informed by meeting new and unique people, different spiritual practices and taking a new look at the texts I was raised with, has resulted in a knowledge and knowing that we can step into a peace that is deep, regardless of whatever the external is. It is always present and available for everyone with no exceptions. Periodically I am fortunate enough to just land there through my body transporting me to that place, but more often than not it is something I have to remember and consciously step into. The remembering is the step of power and freedom, and something that while to some extent we can train, paradoxically a step that is entirely out of our control when it comes to each moment when it appears.
There are many ways to contemplate this type of peace. Perhaps it is deep in the core of all of us. Perhaps it is something outside of us that binds us together. Perhaps it is the part of our consciousness that exists prior to any thought or sensation. Perhaps it is Buddha nature, the Holy Spirit, Christ consciousness, or Atman. Regardless, it is something that we can each touch at any moment if we learn to recognize it.
Structure
Each stanza of the first half of the poem describes an event, day, or experience that we all touch at some point, from internal dialogue to relationship, from work to rest, from expectation to belief. The images are depicted among a group of different people by using various stories, places and pronouns with the hope that a reader finds themselves in the felt turmoil and confusion of the first half of the poem. Struggle is found as the strong theme.
The second half of the poem shifts abruptly, an intentional choice with the purpose of drawing a clear line between the very real and difficult situations, experiences, abuses and sufferings every human finds themselves in, and this peace that I am claiming exists even around those very situations. This peace is depicted through the linguistics by repeating the same stanzas in the same order as the first half, using only a few of the words to produce a very different theme and even a surprise when the common stanzas are read together. When I wrote this I felt as if I was pulling the source of each stanza forward, into the new verse. However, as I reflect, I think some readers (including me on some days) will resonate more with a picture of cutting away, starting with the full verse and striking words from the stanza to leave what remains. Perhaps that is just a nuance, but it is one that changes a core question about experience. What do we pull forward, or what do we cut away?
The last stanza is a nod to the phrase that inspired this poem. Initially it ended with the full phrase (There is a peace that you are part of), but it felt right to edit the statement to be in line with the last half of the poem in its brevity. In addition, since the rest of the poem spoke specifically to different people (her, your, his, I, their), it felt fitting to change the final pronoun from singular to collective. Afterall, peace that you and I find and live from trickles through to benefit all who we come into relationship with.
May we all learn to touch peace in a way that is real to us. May that peace benefit all whom you encounter.
Brian
If you missed the “A Poem” post of Words and Peace, you can read it here!
