We Are The World Blogfest #WATWB in April

Welcome to the second post – yep, back again! –  of the We Are the World Blogfest #WATWB!  You can sign up here.

Our special lead co-hosts for this month are Belinda,  Peter, Mary, Inderpreet, and Simon  and they are committed to stories about peace, love and joy.  Please visit their blogs as well.

Some other participants to check out include….  Damyanti Biswas, Emerald Barnes, Eric Lahti, Kate Powell, Lynn Hallbrooks,  Michelle Wallace, Roshan Radhakrishnan, Susan Scott, Sylvia Stein, Sylvia McGrath and many more besides.

So… on with the story.

I don’t blame anyone for the situation, said  Sankalpa Mahatara.

There is too much anger in this world. Why do we need more?
Mahatara was innocently stabbed during what appeared to be a rampage of youths through Canberra and Queanbeyan. He just happened to be there at the time. Mahatara is a carer for his mother and was stressed that this incident affected his ability to provide for her.  All he wanted to do was go back to helping his mother and working his job.

More of this story can be read in The Canberra Times. Queanbeyan, a regional  NSW city near Canberra, has its share of joys and woes. But this event shocked the region.  So many asked why these young people did such a thing and what sort of home life were they raised in?

What is interesting for us is Sankalpa Mahatara’s response.  He did not want to react to violence and hate with more of the same. He did not want to spread hate.  He saw the value of the simple things in life. An honest day’s work.  Care for family.  Courteously considering our neighbours in the human family.  He is a man of basic nobility, in its truest sense. May he, and his mother, know more peace in their lives.

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We Don’t Pass On The Hate

(In honour of Sankalpa Mahatara and his Mother)

We don’t pass on the hate,

We pause and breathe and wait,

There’s already enough hate.

We don’t point the finger of blame,

Our role is not to shame,

Nor is it to defame.

We don’t pass hurt around,

Ears pain upon its sound,

There’s enough hurt to be found.

We speak and act for peace,

From violence we seek release,

We give our lives for peace.

We seek the truth in love,

Open hand, not fisted glove,

Of goodness lived in love.

So spread some cheer along,

We thrill to hear its song,

Among friends and to the throng.

Simon C.J. Falk 28 April 2017

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Please SIGN UP for WE ARE THE WORLD BLOGFEST in the linky list below:

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~~~GUIDELINES~~~

1.  Keep your post to below 500 words, as much as possible.
2. All we ask is you link to a human news story on your blog on the last Friday of each month, one that shows love, humanity, and brotherhood. Something like this news, about a man who only fosters terminally ill children.
3. Join us on the last Friday of each month in sharing news that warms the cockles of our heart. No story is too big or small, as long as it goes beyond religion and politics, into the core of humanity.
4. Place the WE ARE THE WORLD Badge on your sidebar, and help us spread the word on social media. Tweets, Facebook shares, G+ shares using the #WATWB hashtag through the month most welcome. More Blogfest signups mean more friends, love and light for all of us.
5. We’ll read and comment on each others’ posts, get to know each other better, and hopefully, make or renew some friendships with everyone who signs on as participants in the coming months.
6. To signup, add your link in WE ARE THE WORLD Linky List below.

Can you help us on a team of Co-hosts?  Contact Damyanti on atozstories at gmail dot com.

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Rambled Writing from a Distracted Attentiveness

 

As a young lad in a little country town I first encountered Kenneth Graham’s book “The Wind in the Willows” in the Year 5 classroom.  Then I thought it tremendously boring!  Later, when studying literature at uni, I encountered the tale again.  That time I was captivated.  Recently, I heard an audio version while travelling along the highway.  This was a time when I was not in a good space personally.  The aside into the ravings of the riverbank and words on the wild wood brought me great solace. I heard an alliteration in some of Graham’s sentences that I’d not heard before (https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5659.The_Wind_in_the_Willows ).  It reminded me, as I mused with pencil and page today, that those of us who love poetry, literature and writing often go there to get away.  It is our escape into a world that takes us to horizons that turn our faces from the treadmill of our days.  In some ways it is escapist.  But it helps us do the soul-work we need to do.  The poem that emerged is dedicated to all of us would-be literary lovers who need to get lost in our words!

 

 

Rambled Writing from a Distracted Attentiveness

 

Ratty messed about in boats,

He traversed moats

And fought with stoats,

As he paddled in his desire

With the Mole.

And as we face the life we’re in,

Searching for stillness amidst the din,

Boxing temptations into sin,

We seek a quiet spot within,

To stop

And still

Our soul.

So I trawl and troll through sites and blogs

On written things and our “Black Dogs”,

Wordy steps in encompassing fogs,

To fill the empty hole.

The hole that seeks its cavernous fill,

Tossing and jostling our tendentious will,

Tales and verses gristly in our mill,

From our pate down to our sole.

Sole of the feet that beat a retreat,

From all that troubles us in our street,

And pain displayed in the eyes we greet,

As we cast ourselves in our role.

A role that says: “do your job!”

And cop tough jabs of life upon your gob,

Only the silent shadows permit a sob,

As you lean upon your pole.

The pole that draws you into words,

Of verses and stories and loaded verbs,

And risks pinning on of labels like: “you’re all nerds!”

Living in a cage.

A cage of image, story and phrases,

A dreamy world of passing phases,

Attracting only certain praises,

From those of similar whim.

Yet to the written word we stand,

In narrative and verse we try our hand,

Joining together in the writers’ band,

For it does sustain our soul.

 

Simon C.J. Falk     26 March 2014