Poetry and Musings by Others
take me home
take me home and leave me there
think I'm gonna cry, don't know why
think I'm sing myself a lullaby
feel free to listen
feel free to stare
rockaby baby
in the tree top
when the wind blows
the cradle will rock
when the bow breaks
the cradle will fall
and down will come baby
cradle and all...
©lyrics by ani difranco 'Cradle and All' from _Not a Pretty Girl_
I met a man who called me.
I heard his name unfold.
I met a man who called me.
I heard his spirit told.
I heard the music in me.
I heard a sound inside.
I heard a man remind me.
Of what lived inside....
©lyrics by toni childs, 'I Met a Man' from _The Woman's Boat_
Taking My Son Off The Cross
You breathe in. You breathe out.
You breathe in. You breathe
out.
As you breathe in, you breathe in the life force, the power that
is our birthright. As you breathe out, you exhale powerlessness, exhale
victimization. As you breathe, you breathe in power, the power of life and
of love. You exhale despair, exhale self-hatred. Inhale self-love,
self-knowing, wisdom.
And with that power, and knowing and wisdom
that is your birthright - imagine all over the world, all over this globe,
that the people of this earth finally, finally take my poor bleeding son
off that cross. Pulling out the nails, finally. He's been up there for so
long, they never leave him alone. He's always bleeding there, tortured in
our psyches.
Let's take him down. Pull out those nails. Gently,
lovingly lift him off the cross and lay him at last in the earth, in the
fertile earth. And together with the cross that has been used for his
torture, bury them together in the sacred womb of the fertile earth; never
to be seen again, around anyone's neck as a little gold charm or anywhere
at all. No longer are the symbols of torture and suffering and
victimization what energize the psyche of the human race. That symbol is
never to be seen again.
Instead the human family is united, never to
be manipulated into violence or annihilation by the politicians and
religious leaders. And in that place where we have buried these symbols;
see a tree growing, Watch it grow, watch it burst from the earth. This is
the tree of life. This is the wisdom of the Goddess, that life is sacred.
It's our bottom line, it's what we know.
Let truth be born in this
place, so that all of our spiritual symbols we use are of life. All of
life; the rock, the star, the tree, the womb, our bodies, are all
religious symbols. These are our symbols. Let this image permeate human
consciousness, so that the people of this planet will finally stop
torturing themselves and others.
As we will it, so it is done.
©lyrics by Ruth Barrett, 'Taking My Son Off The Cross'
The Great Peace March
Ancient eyes are watching in the night
The stars come out to guide the way
The sun still shines despite the clouds
And the dawn is dusk is dawn is dusk is day
Farmers rise and dream to feed the world
The world awakes to feed the heart
Hearts beat while a thousand flags are waving
And the farmer sees a dream has played a part
Chorus:
We will have peace,
We will because we must,
We must because we cherish life.
And believe it or not,
As daring as it may seem,
It is not an empty dream
To walk in a powerful path,
Neither the first nor the last
Great Peace March.
Life is a great and mighty march,
Forever for love and for life
On the Great Peach March...
Are you black like night, or red like clay?
Are you gold like sun, or brown like earth?
Gray like mist? Or white like moon?
My love for you is the reason for my birth.
Peace can start with just one heart,
From a small step to leaps and bounds.
A walk becomes a race for time,
And a brave child calls out from the crowd...
Chorus:
We will have peace,
We will because we must,
We must because we cherish life.
And believe it or not,
As daring as it may seem,
It is not an empty dream
To walk in a powerful path,
Neither the first nor the last
Great Peace March.
Life is a great and mighty march,
Forever for love and for life
On the Great Peach March...
©lyrics by Holly Near, 'Great Peace March'
I was trained to be numb, I was born to be numbered and pegged, I was
bred and conditioned to passivity, like a milk cow. Waking is the
sharpest pain I have ever known. Every barrier that goes down takes part
of my flesh, leaving me bloody. How can I live wide open?
©Marge Piercy, _The Moon is Always Female_
What if we smashed the mirrors
And saw our true face?
What if we left the sacred books to the worms
And found our True Mind?
What if we burned the wooden Buddhas?
Gave the stone Buddhas back to the mountains?
Dispersed the gurus with a great laugh
And discovered the path we had always been on?
©Elsa Gidlow, _Sapphic Songs_
