Sound bites and the lone voices...

Recently lone voices have carried across the digital expanse. Voices carrying the questions and sentiments of peace in a time of great conflict. Voices that serve to remind us that we have a choice. Voices that urge us to choose. Voices that extol the virtue and morality of peace.

Hearing those clear voices I reflect back upon a piece that I wrote many years ago in a time when we faced conflict and social turmoil. It was the time of the birth of the sound bite. It was the time of media polarization. The sound bite sorted us all out, for or against, pro or con, left or right, hawk or dove. The 20-second message was on point. There could be no room for dissenting perspectives. Soon there was no room for humanity...

Amid Warring Cries

Amid warring cries for peace

we have heard the lullaby

and succumb to the dreamless sleep

rocked in the handmade cradle

of the eternal holocaust.

We drift a warm bed made

when half the world away

a mother cries, “My Sargent son

of only nineteen years is dead;

laid aside his hero father.”

To enter the maternal void

of wedding white she bespeaks

the seed of new cries, she carries

tears to his shroud, accepting

his honor within a folded flag.

There alone to join as one:

we have laughed and loved,

and now fought and died,

all in the name of freedom,

it's golden chariot to ride.

As the one, another yet becomes,

amid warring cries of peace

we drift a warm bed made

to enter the maternal void,

there alone to join as one,

as the one, another yet becomes,

rocked in the hand made cradle

of the eternal holocaust.

Struggling with my 20-second sound bite polar disorder I seek to hear the message of my heart. There the lone voices resonate.

upon the canvas
in my kitchen
the meal I prepare
to paint
is to nourish
as bright image for the moment of the eye
and sadly if simply left then to rot and return.