Wage Peace:

Here is my adaptation of a poem written on 9/11/2001.
Please see the original below.
Please click here to see the original on BareWitness.com.

Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in emergency response and rubble,

breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in fear

and breathe out sleeping children and freshly planted organic fields.

Breathe in confusion

and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen

and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Imagine grief

and remember love

with an outbreath of beauty.

Wage peace with your listening:

hearing sirens, pray loud.

Wage peace with your actions:

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music,

Swim in the deep end and reach the other side.

Wage peace with your words:

Learn to say, I am sorry, please forgive me

memorize the words for thank you in three languages.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,

bearing a new beginning that is sweet and delicious.

Remember who you are.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice,

send out a message of peace

as you release what has been and what is

and breath life into new dreams of what will be.

Act as if balance and harmony have already arrived.

Celebrate today.

Here is Judyth's poem:
Judyth Hill

September 11, 2001
Judyth Hill is a stand-up poet and teacher of poetry, living in amazed and grateful beauty where the Rockies meet the Plains, in Northern New Mexico. Her six published books of poetry include Presence of Angels, Men Need Space, and her collection of poems of her land, Black Hollyhock, First Light, from La Alameda Press. She was described by the St. Helena Examiner as, “Energy with skin”.

Wage Peace


Wage peace with your breath.

Breathe in firemen and rubble,

breathe out whole buildings and flocks of red wing blackbirds.

Breathe in terrorists

and breathe out sleeping children and freshly mown fields.

Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.

Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong friendships intact.

Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray loud.

Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothes pins, clean rivers.

Make soup.

Play music, memorize the words for thank you in three languages.

Learn to knit, and make a hat.

Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,

imagine grief

as the outbreath of beauty or the gesture of fish.

Swim for the other side.

Wage peace.

Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious:

Have a cup of tea and rejoice.

Act as if armistice has already arrived.

Celebrate today.