This Peaceful Morning in Wartime

There is you, confident and strong
Your loving words telling me
“I love your short hair”
Promising that you will stay
One more day the next time

And the me
Fragile like this peaceful morning in wartime
Savagely clinging to these moments
Of burgeoning happiness
And your kiss on my trembling lips

Because we never know
When our world might shatter

There is a dancing light
On the sheets of yesterday’s love
And a new dove’s nest
In the hole of the wall

There is a single white cloud
Pinned to a disturbingly azure sky
And a shredded curtain waltzing
In the light breeze

A distant tolling of bells
A street vendor selling oranges

© Imen Benyoub

You can read Imen’s bio HERE. Photo credit: Jamie Dedes.

Author: The Bardo Group Beguines

The focus of "The BeZine," a publication of The Bardo Group Beguines, is on sacred space (common ground) as it is expressed through the arts. Our work covers a range of topics: spirituality, life, death, personal experience, culture, current events, history, art, and photography and film. We share work here that is representative of universal human values however differently they might be expressed in our varied religions and cultures. We feel that our art and our Internet-facilitated social connection offer a means to see one another in our simple humanity, as brothers and sisters, and not as “other.” This is a space where we hope you’ll delight in learning how much you have in common with “other” peoples. We hope that your visits here will help you to love (respect) not fear. For more see our Info/Mission Statement Page. View All Posts

6 thoughts on “This Peaceful Morning in Wartime”

I love this. Such a beautiful scene! The present moment…is it hope or is it simple reality?

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carolynoconnell says:

August 17, 2016 at 2:03 PM

Think its reality reminds me WW2 poems by airmen

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I love the capturing of this moment. I can picture this day.

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This is an amazing, powerful, sad, beautiful poem full of humanity. There are so many beautiful images—”a dancing light/ On the sheets of yesterday’s love” and “a disturbingly azure sky/ And a shredded curtain waltzing/ In the light breeze…” the strongest, for me. But the whole poem—thank you.

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You do such a good job of bringing the reader right to where you describe, Imen. You definitely have a gift for imagery and it shows that your words are carefully chosen. This scene you have shown us in this poem is sad, but it also shows that people *can* be living in the moment, cherishing the current day – even more so because of the real threat that it will be taken away at any time.

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