Pause for Peace: Aftermath

A poem by Paula Gordon Lepp

Photo by Amritanshu Prajwal on Unsplash

I hope you enjoy this Midweek Pause for Peace. Each Wednesday, I pair an image with a poem—a little something for your heart and your nervous system.

—Laura

It’s easy to focus on the horrors and stresses and violations occurring daily in our current circumstances, but we rarely stop to think about what might come after. That’s why I love this poem and chose it to share with you.

Aftermath

after Jim Moore

—Paula Gordon Lepp

When the empire finally crumbles,

and the ruler has fallen, in that first

deep breath of silence just before

re-birth, please let us choose to dig

each other out of the ruins, hand

clasping hand, stranger lifting stranger.

Let us know that when everyone

has dust in our lungs, sand in our eyes,

dirt on our faces, we are all the same

person. Let us begin the first step

of each of us placing one stone on top

of another stone on top of another,

all of us part of a building, the rising

rubblework a testament to what can be.

Paula Gordon Lepp is a Charleston, West Virginia poet who is “just trying to do my part to make the world a tiny bit better.” You can find her on Facebook.

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