WRITE.... EDIT.... PUBLISH APRIL CHALLENGE - PEACE AND LOVE

Here is my contribution to this wonderful blog hop hosted by Denise and Yolanda who do wonderful things for the WEP community, thank you both for all your hard work.

The theme this month, as you can see, is Peace and Love, it is also Poetry month and also in the month of April runs another fantastic blog hop of the A-Z challenge.  So Peace and Love fits in with poetry and with the P post for the date of 19th April for those who have taken on the A-Z challenge.

I have a poem followed by a short flash fiction.

GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL

Born too late to be a hippy

Incense sticks of Patchouli

The smell of musk

From dawn to dusk

Fringes and bells

Long skirts a tripping hell

The mantra of peace and love

A symbol of a pair of doves

Free spirited non-conforming

Tall tales and story telling

Still needed to earn a crust

Paying rent was a must

Never mind finding food

For me not the starving in the world

A chance in a lifetime of a trip

An adventure can’t be missed

Three days in a field of grass

A flimsy tent pitched in a morass

Of people, unwashed, unclean

But proud to be seen

PEACE AND LOVE

They said the words peace and love

Far out man, out of sight, white dove

Music played fierce and loud

Rocking out over the crowds

They smoked the peace pipe

Looking like the stereo type

Unwashed, long haired hippies

Bell bottom jeans covered idiosyncrasies

PEACE AND LOVE

The sights and sounds, smells

Hell and jingling bells

She wanted to go home

Where she belonged

She couldn’t pretend anymore

She didn’t want to score

It wasn’t her scene

She wanted to be clean

*************

PEACE AND LOVE

Several decades later a dim and distant memory

Growing hazier as life crowds her story

The elusive peace and love

Striving for the two white doves

Letting go, giving in, standing strong

So much that went wrong

Everyone makes mistakes

It is life’s outtakes

Learn and move forward

Chin up, don’t be a coward

***********

PEACE AND LOVE

Some people find peace and love from spirituality

Some find peace and love from Christianity

Or other forms of worship and beliefs

They bring comfort and relief

A creed, a tenet to live your life by

Sometimes you stray

The path meanders

The lines blur

You become an actor

Scrabbling for an anchor

Holding back the pain of the past

Looking for forgiveness at last

You take a wrong turn

You should have learned

To slow down and consider

The pros and cons before you answer

Before you jumped or leapt

Maybe you should have sidestepped

Not backwards but sideward

Before moving pieces on the chessboard

**********

PEACE AND LOVE

The wind blows through the trees as she steps on the cushioned carpet of bluebells, her hair whips around her face, sticking to her lips with their protective covering of lip salve on them.  The breeze lessens as she walks in to the lee of the copse.   The air hangs and hovers, a feeling of peace envelopes her, stilling her mind, calming her heart.  She becomes one with the earth, grounding herself in to the soil.  The smells of the wood, the iron musky odour of moist undergrowth assails her nostrils. She breathes even deeper, ingesting the power of the ancient world.

She touches the gnarled bark of the closest tree.  Her palm feels the roughness of the wood, she watches a battle of man against beast, spears are flung; they find their mark grievously wounding the animal.  A horde of men dismember the flesh, inner organs a delicacy before they remove the carcass to their womenfolk.  The meat will feed the tribe for many days.

She places her other hand round the side of the tree, pressing her body against the girth of the tree, through her outer garments she becomes aware of another scene, this time the birth of a young child and her heart is filled with joy and love.  It is a precious boy, long awaited to take his rightful place, in due course, as leader of the clan.

She presses her cheek against the bark, it scratches her, marking her skin.  She pulls back, recoiling at the sudden shock of the pain.  Where did the peace go?

Stepping back she looks around her.  There.  Movement at the edge of the wood.  The shrill notes of a mobile phone disturbs the air, discordant, dissonance sounds, a baritone voice answers the insistent instrument.

‘I’ve found her.  Yes, I’ll bring her back to the car, don’t worry, she’ll be fine.’

Michael steps in to the line of her vision, he holds out his hand, encouraging her with a smile to come forward in to his embrace. 

Jane shakes her head.  ‘I’m not ready,’ she whispers, ‘I need more time.’

Michael pulls her gently away, he strokes her arms, strokes her hair, pushes strands behind her ears, kisses her forehead.  ‘I’ll stay with you.  You know I love you so much my darling.  I’ll always love you but you know we need to get back.  The doctor is waiting for you.’

Jane nods in acknowledgement.  They think she needs help.  They think she is going mad, maybe she is but she knows what she feels is true.  She does see things.  She does feel things.  Michael thinks all he has to do is to love her more each day and she will get better.

She knows his love will help her to find peace, she knows she will love him until the end of her days.

Another vision fills her mind.  It is too abstract to make any sense of.  She starts to tell Michael she needs to go back to the tree.  He is firm in his hold as he leads her to the car park.  He seats her gently and straps her in.   Jane feels as though the seat belt is strangling her, she pulls the webbed strap becoming more and more agitated. 

She wants to go back.  She wants to feel calm.  She want to feel peaceful.  She wants to feel love surrounding her.

The doctor greets them both at the entrance to the home.  He welcomes Jane with his kindly demeanour.  He knows how hard this is for her and for Michael.  A nurse settles her in her room as Jane curls up in to the foetal position on her bed.  

Michael’s tears flow as he watches his wife succumb to the drugs the medical profession deem necessary to bring her back to an ordinary life.