Poetics of Peace

Lon A. Rycraft

Corvallis, OR

Plato is calling folks,
dialing their cell phones
in a cave with their shadows
dancing along the walls.

Socrates is drunk on hemlock,
Aristotle's dominoes are falling over,
Baudelaire is waking up
on the green grass of a ditch.

Time to cast a foundation of peace,
pour some footings
of future eggs and sperm
remodel our nurseries.

Compassion and peace poke along a path,
old growth filters the light,
deep roots tap waters that roll
like an ever-flowing stream.

Peace parades proudly with life,
together they dine with hope,
playing with their food
and drinking too much wine.

Tomorrow peace and life will start over
painting cave drawings in France,
hemlock is in our fields,
will we survive?

Is the grass green enough, Charles?
Who we gonna call
to give peace a chance?
Hey John, hey John.

Fire the peace keepers,
feed the peace makers,
open peace bars,
imagine collateral peace

satellite peace cells, phone home Plato,
children start telling peace stories
the rumors of peace
waging peace.

Blessed are the peace makers,
Inherit the peace
How about peace pie, peace boots,
We could elect peace puppets,

create covert peace treaties
underground peace movements
What if the price of peace hits the bottom?
What if the price of peace is the best deal in town,

with platforms of peace floating the North Sea,
we are capping peace wells in Iraq,
a wall of peace running between Israel and Palestine
just give peace a chance!

Peace machines plowing ADM's fields,
fence row upon fence row peaced together,
peace vegetables, peace fruit, peace nuts
peace buds blooming all year long.

Peace radio
Peace stars
Peace trees
Tons of peace mail
peace plants
peace camps
gigantic windows of peace
peace bubbling up in La Brea Tar Pits.

Fossilized records of peace
Mesozoic peace
ontological peace
peace planets
solar systems,
universes,
universities of peace
child care peace
peace for K to 12
peace barons
masters and mistresses of peace
nonviolent peace
volcanic peace
sedimentary peace
metamorphic peace

spirit and imagination, the pigments of peace
bind us together and set us free
thick and runny
like honey.

© Copyright 2006, Progressive Theology

Progressive Theology