Voices
A Call To Mindfulness While Incarcerated
I hear their voices…daily
So present, so near
Voices that attempt to interrupt the search for peace…freedom
I hear their voices….
So familiar by virtue of time
Yet I know them not,
For their voices are not mine…or are they?
Voices of hate, breed separation, despair, and self-destruction
Birthed for the tenets of social construction.
Those voices I hear cause me to itch,
For those voices can lead us like lemmings over a cliff.
There are voices I hear that cause me to frown,
Voices demanding Got your cell; Lock it up, alarm and get down.
Those voices sound off from an unjust authority,
That would have me to believe I have no reason to be.
But where is the voice of intimacy,
That declares with compassion – into you I see?
It is still, it is small, that voice must be sought
In the midst of voices so tense…so taught.
It comes from withing, not from without
Are we not all one in this divided space?
As we live out separations in this divided space?
As we live out separations established by an unseen face..that we see
Yet we hold fast to these empty truths,
No wonder so many chains of the mind are not yet loosed.
Voices dear voices
Let us change what we say,
And let love lead the way,
Voices, I feel them so close, so new
My family, all family
Let us change what we hear.
