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Lawrence Weiss Poem
OUR CHOICE
this is the winter of our discontent
the four horsemen ride exultant
slaughter in churches
bombed nurseries
corrupt legislators
pollinators dying for lack of forage
all the sun’s blessings can not
disguise our disintegration
small acts of gentleness
saving horses
and tiny piglets from factory farms
a touch of hands
or smile on the phone
keep the choking smoke away
we are the lucky ones
who see these distant fires
signaling from hill to hill
Copyright © Lawrence Weiss | Year Posted 2023
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Lawrence Weiss Poem
circling and sensing
a center not ourselves
we revolve around something
encompassing
relationships, causes
hunger, need
larger in cognizance of scale
and belonging
than my private universe
Copyright © Lawrence Weiss | Year Posted 2020
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Lawrence Weiss Poem
there is a quickening in the forest
robins sing to us of universal sharing
as the earth calls us
to hear again the song of life
a thin brown layer of soil
is all we have
between ourselves and oblivion
a new language is needed
drums from Africa
echoing through termite mounds
to the savanna of a loving way
I made a choice
to be vegetarian, then vegan
clearing rivers from waste
and sky from methane
fear is contagious
but so is compassion
and it begins with me
how quickly it all goes by
in this moment of light and despair
I find what nourishes me indelibly:
the touch of a lover’s hand
worlds within a plant
tears as family members in silent movies
embrace Shakespearean deaths
my poems stumble
impatient to journey
as ghosts march from the tunnel
looking to us for resurrection
I have treated life
as a problem in accuracy, balance and proportion
but my careful ordering
is not sufficiently capacious
I say these things at age 80
because I burst with things unsaid and undone
I ride the waves
but do not see the stars
until I am swept under
denial is no longer possible
as a warrior traces his exit
from literal to mythic
Copyright © Lawrence Weiss | Year Posted 2025
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Lawrence Weiss Poem
we walk alone as the time commends
as the need arises as the love fulfills
mother of each day’s world
I have engaged in intimacies before
holding a cat as he died
a child with a sore throat
sitting in court beside a scared twenty year old
going to jail for freeing a pig
what seems to be a mistake is often
a brave step into situations which
prior to this
had appeared unapproachable
but things look strange only when the full pattern is lost
chant to fear, encompassing it in wholeness
align outer with inner
and give yourself new names each day
horse-that-walks-in-darkness
spirit-who-flies-above-clouds
and become eternally new
love sits high on old crooked legs
and recycled gold paint from the dumpster
after so many years
after animal rights
after finding love
I write the Book of Hours
for life gets more archetypal at the end
and old age is not a disease
accepting this we round the circle
into the hexagram of Peace
Copyright © Lawrence Weiss | Year Posted 2025
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