Elusive Peace

“Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.” - Baruch Spinoza

The sea never seeks its raison d’ etre;
Neither desire nor intent splashes up
Amid white foam when waves roll
To shore and crash; no hopes and no fears drift
Upon salty breezes. The ocean effortlessly and incessantly
Expresses every facet of her complex simplicity
In each immortal moment of eternity.

Run as far and as fast as you can,
You’ll never catch a rainbow;
Search through every corner of the Earth,
No fountain of youth appears;
Travel in the fastest jet made,
Horizon’s edge remains elusively equidistant.

Roadmaps to peace weave imaginary
Tapestries, manipulative fantasies,
Resembling webs, spun by black widows
Trapping their prey.

Peace exists or crumbles
In violence’s grasp!

No real peace exists merely in:
Absence of conflict,
Cessation of hostility,
Suspension of suspicion,
Or mutual toleration.

Peace only and always reveals:
Understanding and acceptance,
A calm, unfettered mind,
Mutual trust and respect,
The joy of self-expression,
A full tummy,
A warm, dry place to sleep,
Meaningful, fulfilling employment,
The security of universal healthcare,
The wisdom of a sound ecology,
Balance and moderation in consumption,
And the serenity of unqualified love shared.

The sacred name of peace remains:
The duty of every responsible government,
The aspiration of any moral society,
The ideal of all compassionate cultures,
And the goal of each conscious conscience.

Utopia will not spontaneously generate,
Through devises of any human
System or doctrine.
The smoke and mirrors
Of human invention
Cannot materialize,
Abracadabra,
Any life arrangement
Superior to natural order.

So, daily,
While humans:
Kill one another,
Deface and destroy nature,
Pollute the environment,
Bomb and pillage, rape and loot;
Wave after wave continues to was
Upon nature’s sandy shores.

Lingering in pregnant pause
As eternity constantly re-etches coastlines,
Moonsets induce sunrises and noons
Yield to midnights, each wave ticks
Another millisecond from the celestial hourglass
And every tide beats another heartbeat
From Mother Earth,
Who waits patiently
For humanity to leave adolescence behind.