As a core team member of The Bardo Group, I have been invited, encouraged, challenged to participate in the 100 Thousand Poets for Change event. For more information about this event, and to be stirred and prodded in you own artistic lethargy, click here.
I yearn to be a poet, an artist, a musician. I often find a piece that seems so right, so seemingly effortless, so fitting that I think it can’t be hard to craft a work like that…it simply lays over its theme like a glove. Not so. Listening to music on my way to work yesterday, I heard a poet’s frustration: “I don’t know why I spend my time / Writing songs I can’t believe / With words that tear and strain to rhyme.” (Paul Simon: Kathy’s Song.)
I feel this theme of Peace and Justice coursing through my life, my thoughts, my work, my hopes, and I wonder how hard it would be to write a poem about it. I talked to a young man half my age who has studied forensic justice and just interviewed for a position as a mentor, a parole partner, someone who will help perpetrators and victims get together and talk, face to face. I thought it was a great idea, for both parties, for all parties. Here’s my attempt to let that idea percolate:
Let’s Face It
Behind the veil, the dirty shroud, the black burka, the white Klan sheet,
the knit ski mask, the heavy gas mask, the transparent oxygen mask, the impenetrable death mask,
the dense fur, the redwood bark, the shiny scales, the matted feathers,
the protective shield, the official badge, the repeated slogan,
the coarse beard, the perfect make-up,
the injections, the implants,
the scars, the screen
There is a face, a viable being.
scillagrace 
Well said Priscilla, my thoughts put into words.. thank you 🙂
Thank you, dear Helen! Your effort goes way beyond mine, I know. And some day, I hope we’ll be face to face as well! 🙂
me too 🙂 I am hoping you got a long email from me yesterday ? Internet explorer shut the page down immediately after I sent it for some strange reason! let me know if you haven’t and I’ll send again 🙂
Oh, I got it and much appreciate it! You’re doing great work on all fronts.
Oh good , glad it didn’t disappear !:D
Bravo! Well constructed and so true in sentiment. I like it and the closing lines touch the heart. Thanks for participating, Priscilla, and for all your share.
Many blessings,
J.
I don’t pretend to craft, but I do feel and illustrate. Thanks, Jamie, for your encouragement!
Let’s Face It! Wow…that says so much, Priscilla.
Our little cocoons of denial shield us from the real business, I think. Take those away and the work begins!
Brings a different feeling to rending the veil! I’m glad you wrote this and offered it to the community.
Thanks, Terri. Yes, rend it from top to bottom!
You are a poet at heart, Priscilla, because you are a thinker and a thoughtful person … and at one with all 100K Poets for Change. I love the closing lines:
“When eyes recognize
kin and skin, then peace begins.
Face to face is the starting place.”
Thank you, John, for welcoming me into the group. It means a lot to me, actually. 🙂
Priscilla, can you pop this into Bardo as a draft. If you don’t mind, I’d like to post it sometime between now and the 26th to encourage folks to participate in this years event. It’s perfect. Thanks! 🙂
Sure thing!
Thank you!