Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST March 6th 2023

Thank you to everyone who joined us for this session!

For this session we read a poem “Let There Be Peace” by Lemn Sissay, posted below. 

Our prompt was: “ Write about My dreams of peace are.

More details will be posted on this session, so check back again!

Participants are warmly encouraged to share what you wrote below (“Leave a Reply”), to keep the conversation going here, bearing in mind that the blog of course is a public space where confidentiality is not assured.

Also, we would love to learn more about your experience of these sessions, so if you’re able, please take the time to fill out a follow-up survey of one to two quick questions!

Please join us for our next session Friday March 10th at 12pm EST, with more times listed on our Live Virtual Group Sessions.


"Let There Be Peace" by Lemn Sissay

Let there be peace
So frowns fly away like albatross
And skeletons foxtrot from cupboards,
So war correspondants become travel show presenters
And magpies bring back lost property,
Children, engagement rings, broken things.

Let there be peace
So storms can go out to sea to be
Angry and return to me calm,
So the broken can rise up and dance in the hospitals.
Let the aged Ethiopian man in the grey block of flats
Peer through his window and see Addis before him,
So his thrilled outstretched arms become frames
For his dreams.

Let there be peace
Let tears evaporate to form clouds, cleanse themselves
And fall into reservoirs of drinking water.
Let harsh memories burst into fireworks that melt
In the dark pupils of a child’s eyes
And disappear like shoals of silver darting fish,
And let the waves reach the shore with a
Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Credit: Lemn Sissay. communitypublishing.org

16 thoughts on “Live Virtual Group Session: 6PM EST March 6th 2023

  1. al3793

    My Dreams of Peace

    I dream of a day when all the world agrees
    to put an end to war
    when swords become plowshares and
    spears pruning hooks.

    I dream of a world that has come to its senses and decides
    there is a better way to resolve conflict
    better than training our young and strong
    to aim a gun at another citizen of the world
    and kill them.

    I dream of the day when the poet’s sweetest words will
    fill the ears of every citizen of the world and
    like Franz Marc’s Blue Horses
    heeds the poet’s admonition
    to lay down rather than tell another what war is.

    afl 03_06_2023

    Liked by 1 person

  2. About my dreams of peace~~~

    The air is still, the waves calm, the sky blue

    What if one could lay a comforting blanket across all the peoples of the world…
    one that would soothe all the angry souls?

    What if we could smile at each other instead of casting words of hatred?

    What if our hands are extended out to give help instead of trying to take things away?

    What if… what if… are these only pipedreams??

    Liked by 1 person

    • Andre Lijoi

      Michele
      You speaker suggests hope in the series of “what ifs”. They also remind me of the poet’s repetition of shhhhhh at the poem’s end.

      Your soothing blanket reminds me of Isaiah’s mantle that is joyful regardless of what happens. cf David Steindel Rast.

      Liked by 1 person

  3. Dreams of Peace

    Quiet quiet quiet
    So I’ll know when the coast is cleared
    Dreams of absence
    Absence of cacophony
    Absence of invective
    Absence of deafening impact
    Even the echoes undulating away
    Until peace lies at the surface
    Even my own breaths unheard

    Like

    • al3793

      “Quiet…so we will know when the coast is clear…” and peace lying at the surface are two ideas that you speaker sends to my heart…”even breath unheard.”
      It might be difficult to attend to such a silence, but worth trying out. Andre

      Like

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