03/02/2022
This poem was written on September 11, 2004, the third anniversary of 9/11, in anticipation of an event for the Imagine Peace Foundation at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado. It was updated in lieu of the events today. My heart aligns with the families in Ukraine and Russia who ache for, and deserve, peace.
The Journey Home
The song of peace echoes, entices
Throughout the land today.
Like a drum…it thumps, thump, thumps
Loudly and resonates in our hearts.
We can hear the urgency of peace
in a baby's frightened, hungry cry; a teen’s
angry gunshot as his search for self
is left empty-hearted: a mother’s screech
as she bears the news of another soldier lost
in the battle for peace; a soldier she used to
rock to sleep as she hushed lovingly those once urgent cries.
That baby lives in the minds of
mothers and fathers in Iraq, Africa, Ireland,
Afghanistan, Israel, America, and now Ukraine.
Their dream is a dream united in love;
a parents’ dream of health, joy, prosperity and
freedom, all bathed in the light of peace.
Peace, peace, peace...
is the beat that calls to us,
as we reach inside ourselves
we can choose to look
mundane,
beyond our fears and the
barriers we have created in
our hearts and minds.
Reflecting in our communities today.
Today, we can build a bridge to peace;
A bridge that is joined through
A connection with ourselves,
In turn opening to our oneness to all.
The path has been powerful and important
To get us to this place, a place of understanding
That hate will always divide us and leave us empty
and longing. Appreciation and acceptance
will begin the process of assembling
A bridge that will lead us on our long
anticipated journey home.
Though the towers have fallen,
we can rise up and grasp the possibilities
knowing that peace…peace…peace,
is possible one nourished,
thoughtful, cherished and
transformed, heartbeat at a time.
Aleta Antoinette,
author of Imagine Peace: A Year of Gifting
