Memories After a Decade

Photo: Tuning Fork

I don't usually post drafts of poems on my blog, since that makes them generally unpublishable in any other medium. But this one has been living in my files in one form or another for ten years, obviously, and I think today I'm going to put it right here. 

Listen

Anywhere
on the skin of the planet
if you put your head down
and try to rest, you can hear it.
The prongs of a tuning fork
suddenly struck; a note rumbling
deep into the earth
rumbling into the core
of the earth,       rumbling.
It’s the sound of millions
of hearts, pounding like
the feet of an army
going to off to war.

This was how I felt at the time. Restless and afraid. Unable to sleep, and hearing a rumble like war. It was actually war, of course. This kind of hatred made no sense to me. It still does not. When I write science fiction or fantasy, I wonder, is this condition a human one, or will my 'alien' people suffer from it, too? Often the answer is yes, since it is through them as a lens that I see and expound upon my own perception of humanity.

Although after ten years, my personal focus has changed. I'm glad to see it, too. To use this as a means of seeing what is positive in our species, and our planet. My facebook status said this:

My tribute today is to think of friends and family, concentrate on the present, and remember that even mountains eventually fall. Today, sitting on a lanai in view of the Pacific, I breathe. "You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty." - Gandhi

Nothing else to be said.  Once you've played the Gandhi card, you better be done talking :)

Image Credit:  stimmgabel on flikr via Creative Commons, CC 2.0