Peace

“Sheets Wet with Absence”

Dr. Celucien Joseph Peace, Poetry

“Sheets Wet with Absence”

I do not grieve because love fails.
Your love carries my healing, my restoration.
I do not miss you for want of love;
I miss you because your love is absent from my life.
I do not cry for love lost;
I wet my sheets at night for your absence.

There was a time I believed loving you was enough.
There was a season when our passion was inseparable.
There was an era when our souls merged as one.
If it is gone now,
it is because our love could not withstand the trials of life.

I do not blame you for leaving.
I grieve that you did not believe my love was enough,
that I could complete your life.
I mourn what is lost and cannot be repaired.
And yet…
if it was once enough to love each other,
it is now enough to love again,
to forgive,
and to begin anew.

“Shadows and Names”

Dr. Celucien Joseph Human solidarity, Humanism, Identity Politics, Islam, Justice, Justice as Love, Kindness, Love one another, Peace, Poetry, Police brutality

“Shadows and Names”

When it’s not Jews, it’s Arabs.
If it’s not Muslims, it’s Mexicans.
When it’s not Mexicans, it’s Haitians.
If it’s not Haitians, it’s Somalis.
After Somalis, it will be a new shadow,
a new name,
a new narrative,
but the same fear.

Someone is always the other.
The “uncivilized” is always to blame.
Fear changes faces:
geography, location, cultural identity,
but never leaves the room.

When we see ourselves in them,
when empathy comes first,
until love triumphs over the face of evil,
when repentance breaks us,
until reconciliation rises over division,
until we recognize our humanity in others,
until we see the face of God in their experience and pain,
the next scapegoat waits.
The cycle of violence and dehumanization never ends.

The “Shooting-Back- At the Police Method” is Wrong!

Dr. Celucien Joseph Peace, Police brutality, Social Justice, Uncategorized ,
The “Shooting-Back- At the Police Method” is Wrong!
The “Shooting-Back- At the Police Method” is a dangerous strategy for the peace-making and racial reconciliation process in America. The way of violence or violent retribution is always  a serious threat to the way of love, peace, and social justice, and a deadly attack on the sanctity of life. As a nation, we do not humanize life by taking away the life of another individual; we can’t move forward toward national peace and celebration of life by dehumanizing some lives and preserving the life of other individuals simultaneously. As a people and nation, we need to confront the implications and meaning of human existence and affirm that any life is worth living, preserving, and defending. The “Shooting-Back- At the Police Method” is not only wrong; it is a dehumanization of life and the denial of peace and love.

God does not take pleasure in the death of anyone, even the wicked; therefore, we should not rejoice over the death of anyone–even our supposedly enemy.