This is another
one of the calendar poems inspired
by random, or not so random, coincidences of dates, usually discovered as I am
in a mad scramble for a blog entry.
Tomorrow will be
the first day of Autumn and here in McHenry County it feels perfectly like
it.
Today is the International Day of Peace, so
proclaimed by the United Nations every year since 1982. Since 2001 the date has been fixed to
September 21 instead of the original third Tuesday of the month, which was also
when the UN General Assembly begins
its annual session. Among its grander visions which must have seemed distant
even to the founders of the event, was at least a call for an annual one day cease fire of on-going
hostilities. I can recall no armies ever
standing down, but perhaps I missed something.
International
Day of Peace/Autumnal Equinox Eve
September 21,
2013
The immanent equinox
advertises itself
this morning with crack crisp air,
elderly maples beginning to rust at
the crown,
a touch of gold on borer doomed
ashes,
mums and marigolds,
hoodies up on dog walkers in shorts,
all under a prefect azure sky—
you know the one from
the Sunday song
reminding “skies
everywhere as blue as mine.”
The globe teeters
on the edge of equanimity,
ready to balance for an instant
between night and day,
seasons, yesterday and tomorrow,
a perilous, promising, moment.
The poor
creatures swarming over its surface,
fancying ourselves somehow its
masters,
alas, bereft of any balance….
From the Wishful
Thinking File,
institutional division—
Festooned with
doves and olive branches
brave words on blue banners,
a speech here, a lovely little vigil
there,
an earnest strumming of guitars,
litanies sung, mantras chanted,
kind hearts and gentle people…
The creatures go
about our brutal business,
blithely ignoring it all—
proclamation and equinox
alike.
—Patrick
Murfin
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