Re: Re: Cross-Border Peace Talks, by Kathy Galloway

[Guest guest]

Hi Eve:

I think she'd be honored. These are words that seem to connect us in a

universal longing for peace. Perhaps a fitting tribute on veteran's day.

Suzanne

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day, I can

hear her breathing.

--Arundhati Roy

[Guest guest]

Do you think she would mind if I posted it on my peace list? It is so

beautiful!

Eve

On Tuesday, November 11, 2003, at 11:56 AM, Brita44@... wrote:

> This is a beautiful poem I received from a friend and fellow student of

> international peacebuilding. She is currently working for an NGO in

> Palestine.

> Suzanne

>

>

>

> Cross-Border Peace Talks, by Kathy Galloway

>

>

> There is a place

>

> beyond the borders

>

> where love grows,

>

> and where peace is not the frozen silence

>

> drifting across no man’s land from two heavily-defended

>

> entrenchments,

>

> but the stumbling, stammering attempts of long-closed throats

>

> to find words to span the distance;

>

> neither is it a simple formula

>

> that reduces everything to labels,

>

> but an intricate and complex web of feeling and relationship

>

> which spans a wider range than you’d ever thought possible.

>

>

> The place is not to be found on the map

>

> of government discussions

>

> or political posturings.

>

> It does not exist within the borders

>

> of Jewish or Muslim,

>

> Israeli or Palestinian,

>

> male or female,

>

> old or young.

>

>

> It lies beyond,

>

> and is drawn with different points of reference.

>

>

> To get to that place,

>

> you’d have to go

>

> (or be pushed out)

>

> beyond the borders,

>

> to where it is lonely, fearful, threatening,

>

> unknown.

>

> Only after you have wandered for a long time

>

> in the dark,

>

> do you begin to bump into others,

>

> also branded,

>

> exiled,

>

> border-crossers,

>

> and find you walk on common ground.

>

>

> It is not an easy place to be,

>

> this place beyond the borders.

>

> It is where you learn that there is more pain in love

>

> than in hate,

>

> more courage in forbearance than in vengeance,

>

> more remembering needed in forgetting,

>

> and always new borders to cross.

>

>

> But it is a good place to be.

>

>

>

>

>

>