May 13, 2004
Into the Mother's Heart
poems by Janine Canan
Crying for the World
Today I am crying.
Crying for the chimpanzee who lives in a cage,
for the tree whose limbs are sawed off,
for the painful joints of my body,
for the women blown-up by soldiers,
for the babies starving in their mothers' arms.
Hot tears fall down my cheeks onto the ground
praying, May everyone in the world
be peaceful, may everyone be happy.
Guernica, Springtime
The sky is crying!
The war has begun.
Everyone on earth throws
their wad of fear onto the fire.
And prayers, prayers
for the salvation of the innocents.
The sky is crying.
The war is starting again.
*
Now that the sky
has drenched the earth,
the sun comes out.
White clouds dot the blue
and spring resumes her flowering&emdash;
yellow, purple, orange and pink.
Peace cannot be stopped,
(filling us with faith.)
Little mind falls into a moment of pure joy.
Friends callsout to friends.
Life is innocent and has no eyes for hate.
Let the war be over soon.
Iberian Pieta
The sorrow of creation
is so heavy in Iberia,
the weight of masculine power --
wave upon wave --
Romans, Carthaginians, Germanians, Africans,
Vaticans, French, Fascists -- across her lands --
invasion, torture, death.
Not until this oppression ends
will she dry her tears.
*
Even through the iron bars of Spain --
immovable,
intimate with every heart --
shines our Mother.
*
She really is everywhere --
in every cathedral, mosque, temple and museum,
in every human being, animal, plant, planet and star.
This is not a point to be proved but to be lived.
How do we live Her?
JANINE CANAN is the author of twelve collections of poetry. Her work has been widely anthologized and performed. Her most recent volume is Changing Woman. She authored a collection of short stories illustrated by Cristina Biaggi, Journeys with Justine. A Stanford and NYU School of Medicine graduate, Dr. Canan is a practicing psychiatrist in Sonoma, California.