As I sit here in Toronto looking out my window at my slice of peace, my mind and soul is hovering over the war in the Ukraine and the millions of people affected by tyranny and the mental illness of an individual who places no value on human life. All of me is screaming at the injustice.
None of us will get out of this life's journey alive...but surely if we know better, we must strive for that in every breath we breathe, in every decision we make. War must stop, selfishness on such a global scale must be thwarted. I can only make this music...a symbol of good over evil...of the fight of everyday citizens of the Ukraine, arming themselves and fighting for their sovereignty.
My music is a way of fighting...stop the war and find a way to limit the deaths and upheaval of hundreds of thousands of refugees who are fleeing. This is unconscionable...every war is...all violence towards another fellow human being is...
This music started out as this poem...after watching Russia invade the democratic Ukraine 5 days ago...and finished as a call for a miracle and honouring the bravery of the citizens who are staying to fight as the bombs keep falling.
“I No Longer Pray For Peace”
On the edge of war, one foot already in,
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.
I pray that stone hearts will turn
to tenderheartedness,
and evil intentions will turn
to mercifulness,
and all the soldiers already deployed
will be snatched out of harm’s way,
and the whole world will be
astounded onto its knees.
I pray that all the “God talk”
will take bones,
and stand up and shed
its cloak of faithlessness,
and walk again in its powerful truth.
I pray that the whole world might
sit down together and share
its bread and its wine.
Some say there is no hope,
but then I’ve always applauded the holy fools
who never seem to give up on
the scandalousness of our faith:
that we are loved by God……
that we can truly love one another.
I no longer pray for peace:
I pray for miracles.
Poem by Ann Weems