WAGE PEACE
by Mary Oliver
Wage peace with your breath.
Breathe in firemen and rubble, breathe out whole
buildings and flocks
of red wing blackbirds. Breathe in terrorists and
breathe out sleeping
children and freshly mown fields.
Breathe in confusion and breathe out maple trees.
Breathe in the fallen and breathe out lifelong
friendships intact.
Wage peace with your listening: hearing sirens, pray
loud.
Remember your tools: flower seeds, clothespins, clean
rivers.
Make soup.
Play music, learn the word for thank you in three
languages.
Learn to knit, and make a hat.
Think of chaos as dancing raspberries,
imagine grief as the outbreath of beauty or the
gesture of fish.
Swim for the other side.
Wage peace.
Never has the world seemed so fresh and precious.
Have a cup of tea and rejoice.
Act as if armistice has already arrived.
Don't wait another minute.
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