Under the auspices of my position as Chair of my spiritual community’s National Cultural Wing, SICA-USA, for 15 months (& two years before that as Secretary) I have been involved in creating programming consistent with the mission of fostering “true human culture for and from all of mankind in all manner of human endeavor, focusing on local culture in a global community.”
On Thursday, February 17, 2022, I was the featured poet for the Zoomuse Poems for Peace. It is difficult to speak of how a poetry practice, or poems themselves, can foster peace. I do not believe that rhetoric, no matter how rhythmic or artful, comes from as deep a place as true poetry and most of what passes as poetry for peace in our world is rhetoric. I don’t believe rhetoric is what the world needs right now. We’re drowning in rhetoric from just about every angle imaginable and certainly from each angle that’s commodifiable.
The video from my reading says it all and I insert it below. Huge thanks to Adelia MacWilliam, Chair of SICA-Canada for co-curating this series with me and to Andrew Hall, the Executive Producer.
That 80 years of peace in Europe would be shattered on February 21 by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed all the more clearly that we do not think enough about peace in this world. The USA has a Department of War, now known as the Defense Department, but forgotten is the idea by Congressman Dennis Kucinich to have a Department of Peace. This demonstrates the value USAmericans put on force and how little they value peace. We must all do what we can to make peace in our own lives, in our families, communities and concentric circles from there, going to the entire planet. Here is my modest contribution: