Tag Archives: peace

A Buffeting Wind

A buffeting wind lashes at my person;

Crashing waves spit salty spray, soaking me to the skin,

I’m cold…much colder than this July day

This is freedom…sugar sand liberating my calloused soles.

~

A dream of floating out to sea,

Bare chested–bronzing in the noonday sun.

Drifting past jetty and buoy on my way to shores unknown.

Modern distractions left unguarded shoreside

To be gathered by the random wayfarer.

I have no need for these where I go.

How peaceful without ring or correspondence.

~

Hello jailbird gull, my only companion,

Keeping watch whilst the coast fades to a distant memory.

Farewell my feathered friend as I drift on gulf stream current,

Nothing but the gentle slosh of waves

To subdue the rejuvenating silence.

~

I never noticed the elegance of the virginal cumulus above me,

The pearl blue backdrop sky,

So much is lost to the rigors of our daily commune.

~

As day retreats from the night,

I am consumed by the star lit blanket.

So vast is the sky, so numerous the stars

All but lost amongst civilization.

In a moment of clarity I could almost see the man-on-the-moon,

Smiling at me in his mad-dash from crater to crater.

~

The chatter of the gentle humpback wakes me from my slumber,

Gracefully arching above the surface

For a life-giving breath.

Taking his waiting fin, we converse telepathic;

No fear, no anxiety do we impart.

~

Could there be anything more tranquil on this ravaged earth?

Awakening from this waking dream, so many times envisioned,

I long for it’s solitude,

It’s raw beauty,

Where I’m free.

~

~Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

~

AUTHOR’S NOTE: I wrote this one over the summer while I was reading Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass…he inspired me,  I just love Whitman’s style.

In Simple Beauty (Haiku)

In simple beauty

Peace and fullness can be found

Draw on its power

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

As We Near Our End (Tanka)

As we near our end

Do we find any comfort

Letting life go dark

Heaven awaits its next Saint

May you pass in peaceful sleep

~

~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~

 

Out of Fear

Worshiped out of fear,

Afraid of divine retribution.

One which allowed murderers,

One which allowed adulterers,

With an apology,

To be King.

You toyed with creation,

Becoming angry as a child

Throwing tantrums

When deprived of your will.

Does death and destruction,

To all but the chosen

Sound reasonable and sane?

With Lucifer as a playmate perhaps.

“Here take my servant,

Do what you will with him,

But do not touch.”

Inflicted with relentless torment,

Sores, anxiety, persecution,

Fear of death,

The game is permitted to continue,

All with your blessing,

To see if he can be broken.

Is this how mercy is shown,

Torturing those that love you?

Finding sport in war and death

Both are waged eternally,

Some with your blessing

Some without,

Either way, surely with a smile.

Sending those in your image to their end

As pawns for your amusement,

This seems to be your sadistic way.

As a final act of brutality,

You offered your son up to despots,

Torturing and degrading him until death,

All to uphold your way of life

And save the monsters which you created.

Would a kind and merciful parent do this to his child,

Instilling them with fear,

Instead of promoting goodness and love?

This question must be answered!

Faith alone does not absolve you of responsibility

For the adulterated state of our being.

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

War (Nested Landays)

Each stanza within this poem is an individual landays which I nested with other individual landays to make a longer poem focusing on a single topic.

~

~

I am drawn to your crystal clear eyes

For its there I find truth, peace and love in abundance

,

Were it not for you I would perish

Swallowed up by the worlds lack of humanity

.

Your tender touch is a reminder

That goodness surely does exist in spite of our faults

.

My hope is for better days ahead

Where man finally faces the error of his ways

.

Would not a lasting peace serve us all

Ending our torrential thirst for never ending war

.

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

~

Authors Note: A landays is form of folk poetry from Afghanistan. Meant to be recited or sung aloud, and frequently anonymous, the form is a couplet comprised of 22 syllables. The first line has 9 syllables and the second line 13 syllables. Landays end on “ma” or “na” sounds and treat themes such as love, grief, homeland, war, and separation. See Eliza Griswold’s extensive reporting on the form in the June 2013 issue of Poetry, in which she explains how the form was created by and for the more than 20 million Pashtun women who span the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

~

The ending on “ma” or “na” sounds applies to the Pashtun language and was disregarded in English.  Each stanza within this poem is an individual landays which I nested with other individual landays to make a longer poem focusing on a single topic.

The Answer

The answer…easy!

Truth in a four letter word,

That’s what love is.

Dissolving hate and conflict

Were it not for our innate flaws.

There never was any other key

To pick our lock of despotism.

We held it all along,

But are either too afraid

Or too self-absorbed to us it.

This is the root of our evil,

Leading to our ultimate demise

Unless we insert key in lock

And turn it to the right.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Through The Window Of Time

An old fading brownstone,

For many a decade it has not been alone.

~~

If only we could see what it’s eyes must have seen,

Maybe then we would know where we’re going and where we’ve been.

~~

The cobblestone streets that lead past it’s front door,

Crumbled from the weather and travelers burdens I’m sure.

~~

It’s residents present and long ago past,

Have seen what this world has offered to the last.

~

The carriage, the train, the automobile,

All graced this place whether wood, iron or steel.

~~

From street lights of gas or electric lights glow,

They lit up the sights of another nights show.

~~

So great a loss of life fighting wars on two fronts,

A choice to drop the bomb would end hostilities at once.

~~

Parades and floats to the sailors joyful kiss,

Soldiers home from war we gratefully would not miss.

~~

Then a plea to the cops into Korea we did go,

But our hands were handcuffed by the reluctance we did show,

~~

A stalemate was called that we live under till this day,

Neither a win nor a loss could be granted either way.

~~

A call for equality from the King did he shout,

With hoods and with nooses the cowards tried to drive them out.

~~

Watching as a President is taken before his time,

Paying respects in a long and somber funeral procession line.

~~

The brownstone’s broad eyes did shed tortured tears,

As a people came to terms with an unsure nations fears.

~~

Ducking behind window boxes from the riots we did hide,

From tear gas and protesters we kept our children safe inside.

~~

Then there’s the hell of this little place Vietnam,

Over 58.000 lost never to return home.

~~

To this day we don’t know what it all was all for,

A chapter we’d prefer to lock behind a locked door.

~~

Then cries for peace and love in song did they roar,

Long hair, love beads and bell bottoms they adorned.

~~

Three days of love from a Woodstock would live on,

Though Jerry Garcia, Janis and Jimmy are now gone.

~~

A gas crisis, Beirut and the hostages in Iran,

Oil, our Marines and our citizens held in foreign lands.

~~

Then along came the Gipper to rescue us from us,

Bringing our people back without much muss or much fuss.

~~

The economy turned around while trickle-down became law,

Taking twenty plus years to find out there was a flaw.

~~

In 2001 we were brutally attacked,

By suicide bombers that should have been tracked.

~~

Our World Trade and Pentagon, the heroes in a Pennsylvania field,

So many had died, so many have been killed.

~~

In retribution and revenge we invaded Iraq,

To topple Saddam and push the Revolutionary Guard back.

~~

Into Afghanistan we marched as others had before,

With an uneasy partner in Islamabad and Lahore.

~~

An attempt to democratize third-world tribes,

Costing our mothers their sons and daughters sacred lives.

~~

Osama Bin Laden is dead at the hands of the Seals,

One more terrorist down knocked back on his heals.

~~

All to what end I don’t think anybody truly knows,

We’ll wait for history to say, to see how it goes.

~~

Our economies in turmoil, our politics a disaster,

Compromise and diplomacy no longer can they master.

~~

Fiscal cliffs and debt ceilings in our sights looming large,

It’s hard to tell if anyone in D. C. is in charge.

~~

Where we go from here is anyone’s guess,

Raise a glass and make a toast and hope for the best.

~~

Our past world glories seem far and away,

As we long for that time to be ushered in today.

~~

Our yesteryear’s are pocked with our failures and successes,

Hoping cooler heads prevail and our virtues to protect us .

~

O’ the good and bad this old brownstone must have seen,

The lessons taught through history, I’m hoping we did glean.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

How Joyous The Day Equality Overcame Hatred

How joyous the day equality overcame hatred,

Though with sadness I ask, “Why was it even necessary?”

We had not…no we have not moved beyond prejudice!

Replacing one group of brothers and sisters with another does not absolve us!

Oh yes! The faces are different, but the name is the same

And this–we call this progress?

Do not think me ungrateful…I am proud,

Though disheartened by so slim a margin,

Yet this is a triumphant day to be sure.

Still–there is so much softening to be done to the callous heart.

“All men are created equal” so proudly declared by so many

Is still, but a dream should you not fit their mould of convention.

Speaking as though preference of the heart is chosen

Shows their narrowness of mind.

It is not choice, it is ingrained by nature!

It is not a flaw nor is it an abomination,

It is who they are, just as you are how you were born.

That which you do not wish to understand should not draw ire,

But instead your silence…with our profound appreciation.

The time of state sanctioned intolerance is in it’s death throes

Though this alone will not change those ignorant of mind.

Yes, this battle will rage on,

For many, long after they are gone,

But know dear friends that bigotry and hate can not prevail

In the presence of humanity and love.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

 

Authors note: I had been debating whether to write this poem firstly, because I am not a member of the LGBT community and secondly, because I don’t pretend to speak for or have any first hand knowledge of what they have gone through, but then I thought why not, we are all human beings, we all came into this world in the same way and we will all leave it the same way. I have been an observer of this struggle for equality for a very long time and quite frankly found it disgusting that it ever existed in the first place. To add to the distastefulness is the fact that public polling, for the longest time, showed that more than 50% of those polled were in favor of continuing state sanctioned discrimination. In America, we struggled for our freedom from oppression and proudly proclaim in our Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal” and yet this freedom from oppression and equality only held true if you were a God fearing heterosexual apparently. This ideal was an absolute disgrace. So long as the parties are adults, what right does any human being have to prevent another human being from marrying the one that they truly love? Religious institutions may choose not to marry same sex couples before their altars, but they surely have no standing to prevent them before the law. Of course this is simply one man’s opinion, but I stand behind it wholeheartedly. Congratulations to all of you, it has been a very long time coming and you justly deserve this landmark win.

 

Retreat – A Tanka

Blocking out the world

Retreating into my mind

Hoping for quiet

Pulling back from the chaos

So hectic and destructive

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~

Meandering Brook

Serene the gentle trickle of meandering brook,

Over pebbles smooth from run of time,

Coolness washes over these tired soles,

Filling lungs with fragrant breath.

How free the feeling of babble-chilled numbness,

Drifting north on travel weary limbs.

Entranced by suns leaf scattered dance,

Diamond shimmers twinkle like neon marquis,

Mesmerizing and comforting and invigorating,

Taking me places far, far away from this time.

So distant the bustle of city street and automobile,

Haze of industry, rubbish strewn waterways,

Man’s inhumanity to man,

The corruption of modernity.

Hearkened back to this simpler place,

Of brooks, pines, the sprawling fern,

Whitetail deer and paddle tailed beaver,

Blue jay and spotted owl,

Amongst these our spirits are freed.

~

~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~