L. J. Carber Poet Free verse

When the World Was Quiet

When the world was quiet 
and life moved with grace,
time measured by seasons 
and years instead of minutes,
and people saw the world as 
close by, with foreign lands 
far away, another universe, 
not quite real, not quite true--
then the mind could rest,
enjoy the simple pleasures
of family and friends and old
neighbors to share old tales....

Life was taken slowly then,
no faster than a carriage ride,
and evil belonged mainly in 
crusty books of ancient times.
There was no rancor, no bile
stirred by relentlessly biting
news that chews at the soul
like the devil's own pitchfork.
There was no magic screen 
to capture you slave-like and 
bound for barren lands filled
with children starving, babes
dying before they walked, and
War and Disease and Death all
coming through an open door.

Once we trod the earth unshod
and breathed the virgin air and 
sang love songs to God in heaven
and saw others as brothers, some
lost, others newly found, all to be
welcome, all to be heard and seen.
Now we see the other as less than,
as missing our noble sweetness--
sure we have found the truth and
those who do not march alongside,
must march against us-- we need
no god to be on our side to know 
what must be done for justice....

A poet like Emily could write in 
peace though a terrible slaughter
raged far away, its madness slow 
to reach her ears, giving her time
to let it sweep her untamed soul.
But she could not breathe today,
her spirit smothered by the loss 
of distance and time and mercy.

When the world was quiet
and life moved with grace,
we had a sense of ourselves,
our footing in this world,
our dreams of the next....

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Brenda Chiri January 10, 2020 at 7:05 AM LJ here to congratulate you on your HM!;) L. J. Carber January 10, 2020 at 9:54 AM Thank you, Brenda

Sam Kauffman January 9, 2020 at 1:23 PM Congratulations L.J.! Your words - so true. It takes a choice to dedicate time to slow down and listen to the voice of God in this world. Very nicely done. Love the way you created a framework for the poem through the use of inclusion! L. J. Carber January 10, 2020 at 9:56 AM Thanks Sam-- I always love it when there's some exegesis! It means the reader is actually thinking about the poem....

Line Gauthier June 15, 2019 at 6:25 PM Congrats on your win, LJ. It certainly is lovely to think of days when time was blissfully slow. L. J. Carber June 16, 2019 at 2:52 PM Thank you, Line-- yes, for all we've gained in ease, we may have lost in that what which waters the soul.

Agnes Krampe April 13, 2018 at 8:17 PM Lovely dreamy write - but I am not so sure life was ever that idyllic. As history teaches us, evil existed everywhere and at every time, not just in crusty books. War, disease and death brought sorrow to people's doorstep - without screens and news from faraway lands. L. J. Carber April 14, 2018 at 10:43 AM Thank you, and you're right of course, Agnes-- there has always been death and disease and evil in the world-- I was trying to picture what it might have been like in a time when there was no mass media to 'immerse' ALL of us in that ALL the time-- and yes, the poem is a bit naive in tone, but I wonder if people might have had a different 'consciousness' back then.

Andrea Dietrich April 11, 2018 at 7:03 PM Hi, I really get what you are saying here. But I guess being a baby boomer, I have seen the best of both worlds and am glad to have experienced both. I think time got super fast after the 70's!!! Great writing. L. J. Carber April 11, 2018 at 9:48 PM As a fellow baby boomer, I appreciate your appreciation-- not really sure where our brave new world is going, Andrea, but I believe ultimately it's in God's hands, one way or another. Thanks again.