Peace Mountain

 

Climbing takes a thousand steps, then
another thousand, then beyond counting.

Sometimes someone placed the stone steps

here for you, carried them from the valley

and set them firm for your feet to find.

Sometimes no one made a path for you,

so you follow where the deer stepped,

pushing through. Descending into war

is easy—a few short syllables in anger

or fear, and the killing begins. It is a fire

that feeds itself, hungry for a nation,

a city, a child. It burns the hands of

those who make it. To climb Peace

Mountain takes a thousand steps,

then a thousand more, then beyond

counting. The trick is to begin.

--Kim Stafford 

[Photo of Kirkjufell Mountain in Iceland].

Pretty Soon

 

Over your shoulder turn

to study the past, a story

woven of shadows. Back

there walk the ghosts of

good intention. Now raise

your head to the far future,

a blur of hope and fear.

Out there walk monsters

of imagination. But here,

before you, you can love

this tiny arena of pretty soon

where with hands and heart

we may practice kinship.

--Kim Stafford

Citizen of Dark Times

Agenda in a time of fear: Be not afraid.
When things go wrong, do right.
Set out by the half-light of the seeker.
For the well-lit problem begins to heal.

Learn tropism toward the difficult.
We have not arrived to explain, but to sing.
Young idealism ripens into an ethical life.
Prune back regret to let faith grow.

When you hit rock bottom, dig farther down.
Grief is the seed of singing, shame the seed of song.
Keep seeing what you are not saying.
Plunder your reticence.

Songbird guards a twig, its only weapon a song.

—Kim Stafford 

[Bluebirds in our garden]