Static In The Air

Never again7 OfirAsif

Photo: Ofir Asif

 

There is static in the air,

Discord at what can no longer

Remain unchallenged.

There’s a buzz

To hold accountable

The hate and prejudice that has no space

Among the truly civilized.

 

There is hope amidst the noise:

The march of feet and hearts

That will not stay silent

At disrespect and bullying.

The sparks of light

That multiply to pull aside

The medieval darkness

Some wish to blanket over progress.

 

There is static in the air.

It crackles with potential.

May it smother ignorance

With wisdom.

May it end violence

Through empathy

And tolerance.

 

 

P.S. Since several of you had contacted me to ask about the photo: my nephew took this photo at the Gas Chambers in Auschwitz. The staining on the ceiling is from the Zyklon B poison. I thought this photo was an apt backdrop for the evils of racism and why it cannot be allowed to rise, no matter where or against whom or by.

For The Daily Post

Do Not Feed The Gremlins

Nightmares of old

Photo: A. Asif

 

Do not feed the gremlins,

The worries

The woes

Do not feed the problems,

The myriad of “No”s.

Feed instead shoots of hope

Tender hearts

Ways to cope,

Feed the thanks

And the kindness,

Feed the soul

Evermore

With all things

Grateful

For.

 

11/27/2017 Update: This poem has been put into music by the talented composer Maggie Bell. Enjoy!

 

For The Daily Post

Transformed

transformation

Photo: Na’ama Yehuda, Central Park

 

The moment where the seasons

Shift.

The transmutation

Of the summer

Into fall

Already final

Even if not

Entirely

Complete.

 

 

For The Phoneography Challenge

Fluff’s Preamble

dandalion AmitaiAsif

Photo: Amitai Asif

 

In a huff

It is easy

To dig in one’s heels

In rebuff and fumble,

When in truth

Fluff can

Just as well

Signal

New concepts

Awaiting

A draft’s timely

Arrival.

 

 

For The Daily Post

Recreate 101

Peru Hostal AmitaiAsif

Photo: Amitai Asif

 

Recreate not what shouldn’t have happened

Yet had

But what should have taken place

And hadn’t

Or not quite as planned,

The seeds of which

Hold promise

To what may truly be

Worth recreating

When time

Once more

Comes around.

 

 

For The Daily Post

Structured

bulb AmitaiAsif

Photo: Amitai Asif

 

At first glance I wasn’t sure what had made my nephew stop to snap this photo of a monochromatic, drab dry bulb laying on the ground. Then I took another look and understood: in it lay the promise; the potential stored; the strength of tender yet tenacious tendril roots that had worked to nourish the more glamorous aspects of whatever plant this had been and maybe still was. Curiosity raised my eyebrows for the few seconds it took me to realize which side of this natural structure was ‘up’ or ‘down.’ I found myself pondering the mysteries and histories held by this brown bulb – now bare and barren on dry dirt – in the rain it had drunk and energies it had generated and the earthworms that had undulated around it … in the story as it would be told by the few leaves still left clinging, dry but home.

How incredible. How incredibly mundane. How marvelously so.

 

 

For The Photo Challenge

Edible Blessing

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Prickly Pear; Photo: A. Asif

 

May you find ample nourishment

In unforeseen places

And may your palate discern

True potential

Even amidst

Prickly spines.

May the sun warm your heart

Like a rain in the desert

To ripen fruits so refined

That they feed

All your needs

And your soul

Once again

Realigns.

 

 

For The Daily Post

A Hope To Quicken

energy

 

There’s a quickening of energies around the world.

Like all currencies, energy itself is neutral–it is what’s attached to it and how it is used that qualifies it into positive or not so, into what builds or what destroys, what mends or inflicts more wounding.

The Earth itself still rotates in the same general blinding speed it had for millennia too numerous to grasp. It hurtles through dark space with indescribable abandon, tethered by invisible forces to the star that keeps us all alive.

The overall mechanics of life and gravity hasn’t changed. Our awareness of it may have. Should.

With energies accelerated, we feel the rushed pulse of days, sometimes of mere moments. We sense the rotation of possibility, the immense power that can be harnessed, the twirl of time.

All is moving, quickened by both ignorance and understanding.

What we do with it–with the potential–is up to us.

Do we let slip down the slippery slopes of power-hunger, fear, and divisiveness … or do we harness good to raise our mutual consciousness, our moral compass, our social empathy to the reality that we are and always have been, One?

Do we take the historically familiar roads of vilifying those we do not care to get to know, of quantifying suffering of others as less painful and less necessary to end … Or do we truly recognize that hunger is still hunger, pain is pain, sorrow is more sorrow, that hate and violence beget only more of same? Do we resolve to do differently, not ‘again’ but in new ways?

Life has quickened. Bits of information spin around the globe in speeds now faster than the Earth itself. We are no longer separated by illusion.

Open eyes see clearly now.

We can, should, understand:

All. Is. One.

 

 

For The Daily Post

Find Freedom

freedomdoor
Photo: http://www.countryliving.com/gardening/garden-tours/

 

Find freedom in whatever small measures of peace you can.

It is yours for the freeing, yours for the making, your for the taking:

Freedom from stress, from strain, from hand-wringing worry;

Freedom from old tapes and older boxes;

Freedom from stale words and staler habits;

Freedom from harsh realities;

Freedom from histories repeated;

Freedom from bloated egos, punctured dreams, blame, sorrow;

Freedom from more-to-do-than-possible; unrealistic expectations;

Freedom from judgment–inside and out and in between;

Freedom from hate–it is not of you, never was.

Find freedom

In each breath. Each perfect petal of a flower, each song of bird;

In every new life born; all promise, all potential;

In everything you are, and everything you always had been,

but maybe forgot.

Find freedom in whatever small measures of peace around you.

It will grow.

For freedom expands like light in a mirror; multiplied.

You know.

spacornerapril12no1

Photo Credit: A.Asif