The Last Word by Danna Faulds

Take all the fear in the world

and bring it here.

Throw it in a heap.  Now

find insecurity and doubt.

Locate shame and anger,

hatred and depravity.

Add them to the pile.

Find every obstacle to

love.  Bring denial and

defiance, guilt, lies and

sighs of desperation.

What does all this amount 

to?  How much is truth,

and how much is illusion?

If the whole world’s

suffering can’t asphyxiate

your love, then there is

hope for us. Hold your

love aloft in the gathering

darkness and watch peace

spread its white wings wide.

If you can keep your love

alive, then war and madness

won’t have the last word.

Even now, the dove is flying.

Opening poem chosen and read by Amy W.

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Held and Released

All manner

of flotsam and jetsam

gathers in corners.

Inlet just off the river

its wall of pilings, bank, holds 

rafts of dried spartina come undone

a blanket of burgeoning algae

 

unless 

 

a current strong enough

intervenes, to release it, usher in 

a new direction

no longer stagnating, resigned,

not knowing how or when or if

it can flow

to water unknown, moving with hope,

and still,

water hyacinth tries for another season

just where it is

anchored in muck

not wishing itself unmoored.

 

I find in me, too,

places like these.

 

Photo and poem by Amy Webb

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Photos by Nancy B.

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JOY

 

LIGHT

As I walked I thought about the characteristics that will help us keep the dove flying… love, joy, compassion, kindness, forgiveness, gratitude and light. 

Photos and reflection by Nancy L.