After darkness comes light.
After light, darkness again.
This is the way of things.
Cold turns hot,
hot turns cold.
This is the way of things.
All that arises
fades, collapses,
and is taken up again
in another form.
Can hate turn to love?
Yes.
But how?
Our brains are not written with emotions
our minds are.
Perceptions, conditioning, bias;
illusions by default.
To turn hate to love
we must examine the mind.
Where did hate begin?
Not the hate of runny eggs
or rival teams
but the deeper kind.
Is the one we hate
truly so different from us?
Who taught us to despise?
We are not born with it.
Does it sprout from greed,
from envy,
from selfishness?
Keep asking the mind.
Keep pressing for the root.
Eventually, truth reveals itself.
“We must love one another or die.” — Auden
hello dearest Benny lines are drawn and free speech is dangerous these days where if the tolerance and love for each other well said❤
Thanks for taking the time to comment
💋
If we find the root. Yes, easier said than done. I believe many prejudices we may hold come from our parents.
We are not born with them. Kids play with other kids, all other kids. And then later on as they grow older, they see and copy.
Can we ever go back to that innocence? that acceptance of everyone who is different from us?
I believe in this poem. And if we can figure it all out, maybe we can first understand ourselves and then understand and accept others. This poem sent me on a journey of introspection. Thank you.
j.
Thankyou for reading and the time put into your comment.
This is a very powerful and meaningful writing, dear Peterl!
In my opinion, love and hatred, darkness and light and other counterparts are the two sides of the same coin. Without darkness we were not able to recognize and appreciate the light. Both sides come from the same divine source and are equally important. But it is up to us which side we want to feed energy and establish it this way. We have to BE the love and the peace we want to see in this world!
🙏and 💋