Peace Poetry - Ali

What is peace? Can it only be defined in relation to war or is it more than that? People can look at peace in many different ways. It could be a time without war, freedom from disturbance or more simply a quietness or tranquility. I could go on forever describing peace and each individual has a different peace whether it be yoga, religion, sports, etc. When Philip Metres writes, poetry is “great & unobtrusive, a thing which enters into one’s soul”, I feel this is a true definition of peace poetry. Considering everything that could be incorporated into peace, I do not think there can only be only a shelf to show what peace is. What does a measly shelf say about our country? That we are aggressive, violent, dominant, and do not really seem to know what peace is...To me there seems to be no balance.

I think we need to keep this broad definition because if peace was only a magic instance between wars, no one would know what peace is. As the author said, countries like the United States are either in a war or preparing for one. When is it time to stop and really see the beauty of all people being together in harmony? It could be said our country is never in a time of peace, therefore we have to rely on ourselves to define peace; find peace within ourselves. Is this not one of the main reasons of writing poetry? Can a computer room or a t.v. area not be a sanctuary for people to write? Do they not release emotions and thought so they can achieve this inner peace? Each poem an author writes can give an author peace. I feel that Audre Lorde especially did this in her poem entitled Power. As a reader, I feel she is purging all these thoughts and emotions about society so she can get a clear head, a quietness. This poem is a wrath of emotion that may have given her peace, but for me it was quite disturbing and upsetting. It left me wanting more, more of an answer, more justice, more morals. How can something this upsetting be considered peace poetry? I think poetry like Power is almost acting as a piece of activism. It causes the reader these feelings so they can take the lesson in this poem with them and spread its message so our country can come closer to peace. This is a reason why I also think that Monday Morning could be a peace poem instead of a war poem. The underlying message in this poem is there is no beauty in unnecessary death. The persona is showing the destructiveness of violence through a boys death which brings up an uneasiness in the reader as did Power. Going back to the poetry shelves, how can there even be a poetry shelve when an intangible concept like peace is defined on such an individual level? I believe there cannot only be a shelve but a whole store of peace poetry. Therefore, I think anyone can go into any discourse community and relate it to peace.