Release your fears of this world

"Healing" by Autumn Sky Morrison

Release your fears of this world!
Angry men carry guns
and everywhere they shoot,
enraged, they shoot,
carrying away women, children,
everyday people.
Far from feeling remorse,
they shout all the more,
proud, swollen with hate.
“We should all carry guns,” they cry,
meaning them, or men like them,
as if this world had somehow slighted
the muscular, the Caucasian, the loud.

If you are not afraid, you are somehow tired,
hearing of these senseless acts
day after day after day.
Like the bully on the block,
they take all the attention,
voracious for your gaze.

Thousands of years, we have found ways to live
integrated into Earth life, warm, colorful,
artistic, joyfilled, unique to each place.
Each corner of this perfect globe
has its arts, its languages,
its people ingrained in the life of that place,
seeds sprouting in native soil.
Yes, we were born for this!
A daily life of magic, of ingenuity,
creativity, days spent unearthing
the gifts of our soul’s being.

Now I hear, “protect yourself,
shield yourself, be on your guard,”
warnings that seem to make sense
for these crazy times,
a natural response
to the ugly, the unwarranted,
the cruel, the violent, the unjust.

But here I sit beside the quiet waters,
pen in hand,
life still churning within me,
joy bubbling up from nowhere,
and I am on notice:
“I am coming,” She cries,
“and you will see...
Soon I will bring the spring flowers to bloom,
the migrating birds to return to your window.
Regenerate! is My call,
all you who are heavy laden.
Rebirth is our watchword, all we ever are.
Look to the East with me,
the bright burst of sun in the sky,
and call out to Her with your urgent voice,
your ancient joy and pleasure,
with all the pure love you can wield.”

Annelinde Metzner
January 30, 2016

Another mass murder. It is said, "Hate is on the march." Once again I call on the Goddess, regenerate this world, make us new!

"I Feel Like a Big Person"

Dr. Mukwege with Congolese family

Dr. Mukwege sews and sews, 

hunting for the pieces of Alfonsine’s bladder.

Dark circles lengthen under his eyes, 

that yang look, hardened really,                     

born of living closely with viciousness every day.

     “Sometimes you go on your best guess,” he says.

Alfonsine is newly arrived to Panzi Hospital.

After her rape, 

the perpetrator blew his shotgun into her body.

How could she survive?

But then, one day, lifting one tired and jaundiced eye,

Dr. Mukwege glimpses her on the hospital grounds.

This is the day she sang and danced!

She lifts her face and looks Dr. Mukwege in the eye.

     “I feel like a big person in my community,” 

      states Alfonsine.

     “I can do something for my people.

      Women must lead our country.  They know the way.”

Congo,  emerald jewel of Africa’s plenitude.

Dr. Mukwege raises his head from sewing,  sewing,

the intricate patching of torn flesh.

He hears the song that joins the women’s power 

to the earth and sky:

     “I will never be ashamed.

      God gave me a new heart that I can be strong.”

Annelinde Metzner

September 2, 2007 

   Thanks to the work of Eve Ensler for introducing me to the work of Dr. Mukwege, who has just been granted the Nobel Peace Prize.

     Out of their work arose the City of Joy, a safe community for survivors of violence in the Congo.

Dr. Mukwege at Panzi Hospital (V-Day)