the nine-fold peace

peace, nine-fold.

peace to all on earth, especially those
who want to live on into the next year
(those who do not, in pain, hunger or strife,
desire their own peace so much they don’t need ours).

peace to all those who keep searching the sky
for a way to go beyond mars, venus or pluto;
forgetting the ungraspable black, may they find
calm, chastity and deathlessness on earth.

peace to those who sincerely believe their god
is ordering gold, myrrh and incense for breakfast;
let the coal softly ebb out of their censers.

peace to the shepherd who guards his sheep,
peace to him who helps where he can’t understand
and loves beyond reason; peace to the mother

who gave birth without knowing how, and peace
to the child left to make his way from the straw
chewn by the warm-breathed ox, and also to the donkey

peace.