Thursday, June 15, 2006

End the War
By Don Iannone

Listen closely and you'll hear
the sounds of canon and gun fire
off in the inner distance.
Look deeply and you'll see
the maimed and the dead
left as reminders to all
at war with themselves.
Why draw battle lines and blood
when peace will come
the moment you surrender to it.

11 comments:

Unknown said...

The battle to learn more about ourselves Travis, so that we can live in peace with our neighbor while that neigbor hopefully follows the same set rules so to speak for otherwise it will be a battle for preservation in any kind of form.

It will be nature versus spirituality instead of the stability between both in a secure environment that can last for ever.

And even when a person, a people or a nation will find this stability within him-/herself, and there is one, it won't give us the security we hoped for because of those who still have not find who they are and above all the why of them living.

Thus as long as there are people who believe more in dead than in the sanctity of Life, there will always be the risk of war on the horizon because both worlds are each one's opposite.

Yes: Why draw battle lines and blood when peace will come the moment you surrender to it?

Sadly, it's often the war that had to be overcome first within the right concept of truth before the vision of peace emerged.

Let me answer this by another question, namely: What would have happened if there wouldn't have been an American civil war?

Would we have a U.S.A. or 2 republics keeping quarelling over futillities once in a while over and over again?

And here it goes solely on the matter of civil war, not external wars like World Wars thus. Maybe there would have been peace without it also, we don't know. What we know through the bottom of our heart is that man has not been created to wage war against another man. And that's for sure when you believe in Life.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Yes indeed Travis. Precisely what I had in mind when this little poem came forth. It is a inner civil war indeed, but it could also apply to Iraq and other points in the world. That's the great thing about poetry -- double meanings, loose associations construed as truth, and so on and so forth...

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Bernadette...thanks for stopping back and commenting.

"Peace born of struggle" is what comes to mind in reading your comments. It's all one in my way of thinking; that is peace and war are all part of one whole.

My focus is more toward the "war-torn heart," and how it can survive and grow stronger in love.

As for Israel, my deepest wish is peace and an end of suffering.

Namaste,

Don

Darius said...

Nice evocation of both inner and outer war - and its futility.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Thank you Darius. I left a follow-up comment for you on your blog this am. Hope you're feeling better this morning.

gautami tripathy said...

Great qustion asked Don, But it does not have immediate answers. For those who go into war, it is futile to make them see reason. Nowadays wars are for personal benefits rather than Global Peace. How does one define peace? And who are we to say, he is evil , thus needs to be destroyed. Why don't we set our own house right before barging into others?

Soory for the outburst, but your poem made me think!

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Gautami,

Your outbursts are always welcome here and very good points you make. Thanks.

To experience real peace is often the only way to get people to move afway from anger, violence, and other ways they abuse themselves and others. May the blessings of peace fall upon us all.

gautami tripathy said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Bob said...

The trouble is, despite our claims to the contrary, we tend to enjoy the battle.
Stupid aren't we?
:(

CE said...

Yes, war and peace start in the mind. It's too bad that war is sometimes the result of religious beliefs and spiritual ideas.

Don Iannone, D.Div., Ph.D. said...

Yes Imemine...it is too bad. All of us must do our part to not let that happen in our own lives.

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