Zen Oleary

=zen o=
Irish-American lyric and haiku Poet and Painter - contributer to SufiMystic
Poetry at:
*http://groups.yahoo.com/group/zen-poetry/
*http://homepage.mac.com/zenpo
*http://www.angelsinc.com/ZenO/
Painting and Photos at:
 
*http://pbase.com/zenpo
*http://homepage.mac.com/zenpo
To honor or work for peace, we first
have to learn to dance.
 This Dance Beyond Ourselves
 
 There are endless questions, 
 but I don’t want questions 
 this morning. I want to feel 
 soft earth under my feet, 
 want to pad down well turned soil 
 heavy with awakening seeds, 
 their roots barely a 
 curved comma pushing outward. 
 I want to smell earth and clay 
 and the ripeness of life, 
 the subtle warmth of small bodies 
 hidden in nests under bushes 
 or in beds of wildflowers 
 or abandoned burrows.'''
 I want to see 
 with the eyes of a fox, 
 listen with the ears of an owl to 
 hear the first stirrings of thought, 
 the intimations of intent. 
 I want to feel with the strong skin of 
 a snake who senses every indentation, 
 every bump and ripple on the path. 
 I want to wrap myself in the dark 
 like an opossum at home 
 in this sunless world. 
 I want to slit the edges of my mind, 
 these walls made of thought and words. 
 I want to walk as a ghost would, 
 leaving no tracks, become the song 
 singing through the swamp, 
 through the roots of mangroves, 
 the feet of frogs, and 
 bellowing gator breaths. 
 I want to rumble and twirl 
 and writhe to the drum notes 
 of the universe, this dance 
 beyond ourselves that never ends.'''
=Peace Poems from a 12 year old in Tehran=
Zen posted this at my group ...<BR>
and i thought it appropriate for this Peace wiki ...<BR>
so I'll place it here on his page. -ts-<BR> 
He says:<BR>
"The poems are from 12 year old Soufie who lives in Tehran.<BR>
They are amazing." 
They are included in an open letter from Sam Hamill<BR>
as part of a new year's message encourage all to come<BR>
together in this new year as Peace Warriors ...<BR>
to Be Elements of Peace.<BR>
the full letter can be read at http://poetsagainstthewar.org/ 
 
this is his closing ...<BR>
followed by young Soufie's poems.
"This winter solstice I will close with a handful of poems by Soufie, who is 12 years old and lives in Tehran and likes haiku and wants to learn Japanese and live in Japan. The translations are by the Iranian editor Ali Samavati (with a little help from me)."
Namaste.
Sam Hamill
poetsagainstthewar.org/
---- 
Soufie’s poems (no titles):
:How poor are the children!
:All the time,
:they have to learn
:they have to be careful not to be blamed
:and they have to fear God’s punishment
:Even on Fridays when nobody works
:children have to work
:they have so much to do
:that they don’t realize
:when they are dreaming
:or when they are awake
:Lucky are the trees
:who have nothing to do
:but to turn yellow and green
:At night, they are not afraid of the dark
:They don’t die like grandfathers
:and they have many good friends
:like the wind, rain and sunshine
:And a friend like the dew
:who always puts its head
:on the shoulder of their leaves.
:Sometimes I get a chocolate
:and sometimes I get a beating
:and I never know
:when I’m asleep or awake
:But now I’m very depressed
:And I wish I were like angels
:or I didn’t exist at all
:then I wouldn’t always need to say "Hello."
- - -
:I wish we would never lose each other
:but could be lost in one another.
- - -
:In children’s eyes
:a park is nothing but a green lawn.
:In old men’s eyes
:a park is nothing but a few yellow benches.
:Children should run in the parks
:so the trees would not see the canes
:and leaves
:would not fall from their eyes.
- - -
:God, with all his light,
:walks in the darkness!
:On the trail of his shoes,
:trees grow.
:And on the trail of his thoughts,
:autumn appears.
- - -
:On the streets
:You see eyes with clouds inside
:of wrinkled faces
:And the faces of the mournful
:are full of heavenly tears.
:And those black, heartless clothes
:that have nothing to do with poems.
---- 
Publish your poem against the war. Since August 1st, <BR>
over a thousand new antiwar poems have been added to the <BR>
Poets Against the War web site.<BR>
Go to http://poetsagainstthewar.org/submitpoem.asp.
Back to Peace Poets
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