Seattle Participants

Nancy Peacock
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DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS THROUGH POETRY




Seattle Participants

Nancy Peacock
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SILENT DAWN
Against the odds but, in a
Universe of infinite
Potential, not mathematically
Impossible, for things to happen
All at once; and so it may,
By chance, that independently
Of one another, all the people
Everywhere, would stay in bed
One morning and a silent dawn
Would ripple west across the sleeping
Faces of assassins, thieves and
Babies, carried on a crest of peace.

Until that blessed day, while we
Wait for mercy, chance or fate,
Let us act!  And so subtract
Our voices from the din, be still
And stay in bed and there await
Another voice within; if there
Be peace, by peace it must begin.
                       -Donald Kentop

WORDS REFERRING TO UNSPEAKABLE
EVENTS

This night of smoke and flame -
the tiny bones
of tender feet
turned to ash -
let us return to chants and songs,
to our first loves.
This murderous night -
in Ballard a woman stabbed -
let us return to birdnest,
storybook, pillowtalk.
Let us speak to one another
from our heart. Let us hold
the bereft in the temple
of our soul, and fill our soul
to overflowing
with their emptiness.
Let us speak to the dead
that walk among us.
Let us write them poems
that smoke and flame.
                    -Priscilla Long


                       


DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS THROUGH POETRY WEEK

in Seattle, WA.      
Monday 18 March 2002
Seattle Public Library, University Branch
hosted by
It's About Time Writers Reading Series
In conjuction with:
DIALOGUE AMONG CIVILIZATIONS THROUGH POETRY WEEK



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