-------With a Flower-------
Turning away
as the world is burning
or when another is being hurt
Allows the violence
to spread
like fire
And endangers
all
of us.
Peace is not indifference
nor is it the absence
of confrontation
It is those
who refuse
to turn away
Guided by spirit
and doubtless
in their direction
Resisting as a means
to bring each other
home
Like dandelions
breaking through concrete
with a flower.
-------
-------Knotweed-------
I
prefer not to think
of
the knotweed
as
menace
But
imagine their persistence
as
a reflection
of
some need
Like
a deep
welling
thirst
that
draws me to water
I
dig
and
I
listen
To
what this wise
and
generous plant
is
sharing.
-------
-------Unlearning-------
One
among
the
many gifts of plantain
Has
been their
willingness
As
a guest here
to
adapt
To
not take over
like
others have
But
to find a place
among
the grasses
And
the herbs whose home
this
has been
For
a time
much
longer.
I
too
am
a guest here
A
great grandchild
of
the european conquest
Taught
to follow
in
the white man's footstep
But
slowly
now
Unlearning
myself
from
that path.
-------
-------Chickweeds-------
When
the shame
rises
up
and
tempts me with silence
I
remember
how
the chickweeds grow
Attending
to
the unattended,
the
abandoned and mis-treated
Where
the plow has torn
and
the earth left bare
I
can hear them
in
their sweet way
saying,
"You
are not wrong,
my
love,
Please
trust me
that
my
being here
Is
affirmation
of
your worth".
-------
