Three Poems Published in An Anthology of Love, Hope and Peace,World Poetry Movement.
Here is the link to the publication:
https://worldpoetrymovement.org/2021/10/06/poems-of-love-hope-and-peace/
The World Poetry Movement is a coordination of organizations and poets, international poetry Festivals, educational projects and poetry publishing houses, and more than 2000 poets from 150 nations on all continents.
Its task is to coordinate and give effectiveness and permanence to the conjunctions of international and local projects in all continents, projected towards a multicultural humanity, acting in a synchronized way, through actions whose axis is the social projection of poetic expression.
Show of A Lifetime (nature)
In spring, rhododendrons
offer us alluring red and cream buds,
display
their splendor.
Buds
open, petals slowly blossom
to
greet the world and
put
on the show of their lifetime.
Then
we watch them prepare to depart.
They
tease and slowly strip
under
the sun shriveling gaze
as
they steal away,
drop
shrinking petal upon petal
onto
stems, branches,
and
a cushioned bed of leaves.
I
relive their grandeur again and again
on
my memory’s wall,
and
in countless photos taken.
I
relive this show of a lifetime,
season after season.
©
Althea Romeo-Mark. 2021
The Selflessness That is Peace
Peace is a coveted prize
that test our will.
It is a challenge to which
all humans should rise.
Peace is not an abstract notion.
We cross mountains, traverse deserts,
sail treacherous oceans, climb walls,
break norms and barriers
in search of its universal call.
There is no peace
in the absence of freedom.
Without it, there is turmoil,
a selfish existence
from which all should recoil.
Peace demands sacrifice.
It asks that we be selfless in its seeking.
© Althea Romeo Mark 2021
(On loving, losing and moving on)
I have taught myself
not to look back at lost loves,
not to dwell on pain,
not to cling to the past.
not to succumb to
dark clouds crossing my moon.
I have learned that lesson
from Sarah, the wife of Lot,
who dwelled on
what she thought she’d lost.
Do not become a pillar of salt.*
Note:The
Bible mentions that Sodom and Gomorrah were purified with salt. Sinners
were changed into pillars of salt and we can send off evil and deter
unwanted strangers by spreading salt. 2. Salt was used as
medium of punishment. One of the people who was turned to
a pillar of salt was Lot's wife.
© Althea Romeo Mark 2021
Born in Antigua, West Indies, Althea Romeo-Mark is an educator and internationally published writer who grew up in the US Virgin Islands and lived and taught in the USA, UK, and Liberia (West Africa). She now lives in Switzerland. Her last poetry collection, The Nakedness of New, was published in 2018. She has participated in Literary conferences in the Caribbean and in International Poetry Festivals in Romania, Kenya and in Colombia. Some recently published works include Personal Essay, “Sunrise in the Afternoon,” https://voxpopulisphere.com/2021/04/06/althea-romeo-mark-sunrise-in-the-afternoon/comment-page-1/#comment-127285;
Second Impression
of Grandfather,” published in Fragua de preces, published by Abra
Cultural, Spain, 2020 and Poems, “The Returned,” “Photoshoot,” “Guayaberra,”
“Pockets Empty, Head full of Stories,” and the short story, “The Remnant,”
published in The Caribbean Writer, vol. 34, 2020. https://www.thecaribbeanwriter.org/product/volume-34
OMG, my dear Althea, how surprised I was to discover that Lot's wife's name was knows. You say she was called Sarah. I just Googled and found this: "In the Bible, Lot's wife is a figure first mentioned in Genesis 19. The Book of Genesis describes how she became a pillar of salt after she looked back at Sodom. She is not named in the Bible but is called "Ado" or "Edith" in some Jewish traditions." Oh how I love and envy the tranquility out of which your poems come. These three are like three more gems that you have places in the world. THANKS!
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