War and Peace

Take Heart

Take heart
for the tragedies of war
cannot last
for unlimited years
unless we nourish
the pain and the fears
and the sorrow
and the tears.

Each season
heals the earth
with soft mist
and drenching rain
renewing and building
with the passing sun
the seeds of rebirth
day by day.

The forces of time
and the force of new life
erode and transform
the relics of strife,
erase and restore
the wounds and the scars
and the ruins of battle
in village and shore.

A walk in the fields
may now bring peace;
the soft bells
of grazing sheep
as they nestle in craters
where once armies face to face
threw missiles of anger and hate
in screams and in fear.

Monuments of pain,
dark shadows in time,
where now fresh faces
bring light and joy
to old hulking engines
while laughter and play
cast spells of innocence
on make-believe toys.

Take heart
for the cold, unthinking
tools of war
succumb to time
by nature transformed,
and may bitter memories
if human nature permits
be freed to forgive and to forget.

© 2002 Richard Sidy