CONQUERING THESE STORMS

“Everyone wants to go to heaven
but no one wants to die.”
**Peter Tosh

Today is so Spring-like,
the air, smooth with freshness,
the grass seems greener
stretching to reach your touch.
And the sky, so azure
it tastes like mountain running water.
Today it is difficult to realize
winter’s hold still beats so strongly.
Today is one of those days
that lulls you into complacency,
a false serenity
that you can manage somehow
to ride out the storms
and great turbulences
unleashed by wild,
blind ambitions.
Storms generated by global
deeds and necessities,
by heartless cruelties.

~~~

Often it is said
that it is heroic
simply to weather these storms;
to bend like the Willow
and survive another day.
Maybe.
For some this is all they
see or imagine cause
life will usually find a compromising path.
Even some survived Death Camps,
middle passage holocausts, or
the trail of tears.
But what if more was possible?
What if our focus was to
reach bravely into this storm
and rip out its eye.
Wouldn’t that also alter
the course of human events?

~~~

A sober consciousness
is an urgent requirement
as this cyclone juggernaut rolls on
whipping up its evil songs.
A tightly held grip
that understands sharply
it is only in the midst
of these destructive winds
a new world we can win.
And Earth life can breathe
a collective sigh of relief
as we repair our Mother
and ourselves,
working hard, sweating, sharing
a blue sunny afternoon
steeled, tempered, ready
to conquer any further storms.

“So many deeds cry out to be done
and always so urgently…”
**Mao Tsetung