Bloggers4Peace – May Edition

Theodore Roethke (1908-1963)

This month, Kozo at  has set the following Peace challenge:

He says – ‘we will focus on art. I believe that art has the ability to transform the soul. If art can change a soul, then it can change the world.’ What piece of art makes you a more peaceful person?

We can use one of the following options:

• Create a piece of art that brings peace to the world and post it on your blog.
• Publish a photo, painting, film clip, poem, sculpture, music video, dance video, or book excerpt that brings peace into your life. Explain how the art makes you a more peaceful person.
• Use a photo or piece of art as the catalyst for a short story of 100 words or less. I stole this idea from Rochelle’s Friday Fictioneers.
• Be creative. That’s it. I know you guys are pro-peace, so whatever you do that is creative will meet the challenge.
• Post anything about the intersection of art and peace.

Or, if the need takes you, just write whatever you feel on the subject of Peace. I’m sure Kozo wouldn’t mind, in fact, I’m sure he’d love it if you took part. That said, it’s time for me to share my thoughts on this month’s subject matter.

I’ve chosen a poem by Theodore Roethke called The Dream. I love this poem, so much so that I’m going to use an excerpt for Waiting… Poetry has always held a place in my heart since I was a little girl, and it is always poetry I go to when I need to escape. Don’t get me wrong, I love art in all forms, but poetry just has the edge, the ability to calm my ravaged mind when the need arises. A place to lose myself amongst words of beauty laid down years ago by the masters. Poetry to me, is peace.

So, without further ado…

The Dream by Theodore Roethke

I met her as a blossom on a stem
Before she ever breathed, and in that dream
The mind remembers from a deeper sleep:
Eye learned from eye, cold lip from sensual lip,
My dream divided on a point of fire;
Light hardened on the water where we were;
A bird sang low; the moonlight sifted in;
The water rippled, and she rippled on.

She came toward me in the flowing air,
A shape of change, encircled by its fire.
I watched her there, between me and the moon;
The bushes and the stones danced on and on;
I touched her shadow when the light delayed;
I turned my face away, and yet she stayed.
A bird sang from the centre of a tree;
She loved the wind because the wind loved me.

Love is not love until love’s vulnerable,
She slowed to sigh, in that long interval.
A small bird flew in circles where we stood;
The deer came down, out of the dappled wood.
All who remember, doubt. Who calls that strange?
I tossed a stone, and listened to its plunge.
She knew the grammar of least motion, she
Lent me one virtue, and I live thereby.

She held her body steady in the wind;
Our shadows met, and slowly swung around;
She turned the field into a glittering sea;
I played in flame and water like a boy
And I swayed out beyond the white sea foam;
Like a wet log, I sang within a flame.
In that last while, eternity’s confine,
I came to love, I came into my own.

I hope you enjoyed it as much as I do still. But for this month, Peace out people.

Oh, but don’t forget to check out these before you disappear:

Unhappiness – (peacewisdomprosperity.wordpress.com)

When you are in… – (writewireless.wordpress.com)

Art thou peaceful – (yaussiechick.wordpress.com)

Float Upward – (cardcastlesinthesky.wordpress.com)

Recreationist Theory – (carondann.com)

May Post For Peace – (grandmalin.wordpress.com)

Peace is like a river… – (theseeker57.wordpress.com)

the art of peace – (bodhisattvaintraining.wordpress.com)

Thursday Tidbits: The Art of Peace – (kmhubersblog.com)