trying to find some words #NaPoWriMo 04/15/2014

Posted on April 15, 2014

hate be gone
hate be done
for we renounce you
we deny you

and the death
in which you revel
will never be
victory

hate
you have no hope
you birth
no future

we will
withstand you
we will
outlast you

when you are
a sick memory
a stain
upon our past

we will sing
a new song
beyond
your prison

because walls
of hate
will not stand
for long

and the peace
for which
we pray
will come

sung
upon the strands
of the love
we share

neighbor
friend
human
beloved

dark hatred
will be scattered
weak and undone
before love’s flame

I always begin things like #NaPoWriMo with high expectations and lots of energy – but it’s never long before I run out of words. So I start to strain to make some poems and my frustration mounts. Usually I end up a bit indignant that I would so arbitrarily be asked to make a poem a day. But that’s just silliness. I volunteered to be part of the exercise, I just didn’t think I’d have so many days of dryness when no words come to me when called.

And then the news comes on, and I see things like the hateful shootings, the murder of our Jewish neighbors in Kansas, a hateful crime I suppose was meant to stain their holiday. I want to scream. I want to deny that this still happens. I want to deny that anyone can be so broken as to choose such hate and it’s bile, it’s loss, it’s theft, it’s shame.

Words came back to me, today, after a week or so of not answering my call. Today, I protest the hate. I deny the killing stupidity and waste. I renounce any and all of the ignorant paranoia and fear. I call out to the humanity that is buried under the weight of such darkness.

I pray for the families affected by that hateful touch. I mourn with them, though not as them. They have been broken apart and touched so forcefully by the killing hatred. May their peace be restored and love wrap them in the divine embrace.

AMDG, Todd