tuscan fire

Don’t think for a blue minute
peace lies in dreamy eyes of smiling Buddha
blinking across fields of pink blossoms.

Peace is no quaint scene,
no warm aroma of homemade cookies.
Nor sound of luggage placed on holy ground.

Peace is constant motion,
careful balance, endless vigil,
rush of a purposeful journey.

Peace is not the people who sit quietly by
as civic injustice, office politics,
and environmental degradation
unfold before them.

Peace is the courage to speak out,
shatter comfort, demand justice.

Peace is not the people around you
suddenly linking arms and taking up song.
Peace is the cumbersome process
of controlling your own temper
so you can smile at ornery colleagues
and small children who contradict you.

That Buddha is not napping
in his field of delicate blossoms.
He’s resting from a conflict resolution conference
with his roommate.
He is considering the next move he will make
to stir petals into beauty.

Wake up to the people around you, he calls.
Steady yourself for a long life of patience,
sincere communication, bravery, love.

When you hear him
you will note
the vital peace of an artist’s hand
working paint onto huge canvasses.

– Kimberly Wilder NYC