d.ellis phelps, managing editor
Rachel Aguirre, Associate Editor
Gardens Heal(War Kills)
~Spirit Thom
Balloons and Bubbles against War
Trees for Peace. Spring Sunshine for Peace. Artists For Peace!
Happiness,Friendship,Festivals for Peace. Frogs and Lizards For Peace!
Being @Peace is for Peace. Music for Peace.
Cats for Peace. Pyramids for Peace. Feng Shui/Tai Chi for Peace.
Yoga and Meditation for Peace. Poverty and Prosperity for Peace.
Refugees and Migrants for Peace. Language and Imagery of/for/by/with Peace.
Children for Peace. Elders for Peace.Magicians and Goddesses for Peace.
Geometry and Astronomy and Bird-Watching for Peace. Hugs for Peace.
Birds for Peace. Colors for Peace. Poetry, Spells, Incantations for Peace.
Silence for Peace. Time for Peace. Renewable Energies for Peace.
Parks and Libraries for Peace. Parties for Peace. Invocations/Affirmations for Peace.
Prayers for Peace. People for Peace. Peace, Please. Gently requesting..
For Earth needs Rest. Air needs no more exhausts nor exhaustion.
Water needs to Spring Pure and Fresh in Abundance. Fire needs to warm us, not kill.
Life asks only this of us. Peace,Please..(Asking for a friend...)
embrace your weirdness!
says Rohn Bayes in his essay, “clouds are not spheres.” Click the link in the image below to read more…
May we be rescued by love in the middle of the storms!
As I wandered through the Cimitero Monumentale di Staglieno in Genoa, Italy, a beautifully sculpted angel was encountered. How would I portray this emotional and inspiring moment? My paintings are a response to life, and it is moments like this that contribute to my next steps artistically! A canvas with a painted abstraction in the corner of my studio was summoned to the easel. This dramatic figure was superimposed into the existing composition. I wanted the space to feel vast, yet intimate. Using a limited palette, paying attention to values, shapes, and every transition, the angel was placed intuitively within the turquoise haze. Line was added to portray energy which transforms and renews. In the end, amidst the chaos and demands of this world, an angel rests…
Wind-Rider
~Gloria Nixon-John
tree jumper
mud surfer
hitch hiker
you hold tight
tumble flutter
throb…
preordained
designed to
roll with the tide
hold tight
explode
Invade
give breath to those
who crawl, walk, fly
give color and color
buzz and buzz
unassuming
life giver
Seed.
Cool Jay (a rap)
~Gloria Nixon-John
Blue Jay
who dig
you
with your show-off
pompidou?
Your squawk-squawk
makes haste
of all but me.
(The red-tailed hawk
he watch.)
Then, with unfettered aplomb
you fluff puff zoom,
who digs you
cool Jay
so blue?
I do.
Years before
I mourned
the fallen leaf
the barren branch
etched on a
stone colored sky.
Now I have
a different eye—behold
both trunk and limb
unencumbered
shine doubled
in the moonlit mire
reach upward higher—higher
like arms of the
Alleluia Choir.
This Box Contains My Heart
~Carol Knight
its histories and songs,
the soft breath of lullabies hummed
to my son in a bentwood rocker.
if there is purpose,
let it wake me early
let the sun gather me
for the day, and for its setting.
this box is rough, rusted.
at each opening, my blood
reddens with exposure
to the wounds of living.
listening for its slosh and pound,
the miracle of its beating
sustains me.
to open, beat, pulse, draw breath —
creating a life in my own way,
I have ridden the arrow of time.
The Blue Steps
Naumkeag Gardens
~Theresa Wyatt
Give me the beauty
of your pure white birches
vaulting skyward in silence
without restraint
my jealousy grows untrimmed
like these grasses
within your leafy grace
and solitude
oh, if I could but be a gardener here
in search of daytime slumber,
do hedge me in then,
close and tight
"The Blue Steps Naumkeag Gardens" was previously published in Beyond Bones, Vol II, 2010
The Space in Between
~Maria Kelley
Maria’s multidisciplinary practice intertwines East-West Psychology with art to map the delicate boundary between life and death. Through color, light, and narrative, Maria channels the experience of being a late-stage cancer warrior, inviting viewers to witness resilience, vulnerability, and the intimate magic she finds within the body and the world around her. Her work is a compassionate dialogue about consciousness, embodiment, and transformation, offering a vivid, hopeful lens on the human condition.
~Maria Kelley
From a Meadow
~Ken Gierke
edged with bay trees,
madrones, and mighty oaks.
Into the heart of the redwoods,
past stone outcroppings
covered in moss, on a carpet
of age-old needles.
Listen.
Who would speak above a whisper,
when The Land whispers
in a voice heard by poets?
Cazadero, that expansive house
of nature. Each meadow or glade
a room. The air of redwood
and fir a cathedral of contemplation.
Who could pass through here
and not become a poet?
"From a Meadow" first appeared in Art as Compliment, a micro-chapbook from Origami Poems Project.
Water Lilies
~Ken Gierke
Water Lilies
I move beside the shore,
water creased by the bow before me,
caressed by the paddle beside me.
Startled, a heron takes flight
from a fallen tree at water's edge,
its wings a faint whisper in the silence.
Paddle still, I drift past a willow
into a floating carpet of green.
Pink and white lilies nod as they part.
I pause in the stillness,
Monet's vision spread before me.
At peace, amid peace.
"Water Lilies" first appeared in Nothing Divine Dies, a poetry anthology from Vita Brevis Press.
thoughts take flight
~Ken Gierke
iridescence hovers
darts left, right
seemingly random
pauses beside me
my thoughts
seemingly random
move here, there
pause, coalesce
dragonfly takes flight
my thoughts follow
words trailing behind
iridescence
Find more poems, etc. for peace here.
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Namaste,
d