The Perpetual Peace Jam!

[Doreen Peri]

PEACE


Welcome to the 48-Hour Peace Jam
which began on August 25th - 27th, 2006
Thank you for bringing your peace energy to this Jam.

The Jam is now extended to go on PERPETUALLY!

___________________________

You are here because you are tired of the fighting.
You are here because you want to ignite a spark of serenity.
You are here because you wish you could release
the world from its hostilities. You are here because
you desire tranquility, you who weep for those who
have given their lives needlessly, you who pray
for those with enmity you who desire no enemies,
you who understand the power of love and who,
above all, desire to witness the evolution of our species
to the point where weapons are not wielded, but instead
love is revealed as the unconcealed might.

You are here because you know that what is right
is not something which includes murder and war.
You are here because you have more ideas to share
because you care so very much about the human race.

Thank you for being here.
___________________________

Join the Peace Movement.
March in the Peace Army.
Wear your Peace Hat proudly.

Listen to Peace music by Barry Gremillion

Peace Hat

An Instrument of Peace
I was honored to design the CD cover. It was pretty easy to do since Danielle LoPresti is gorgeous!
___________________________

"Peace is for the brave."
– http://peacehat.net

"Better than a thousand hollow words is one word that brings peace."
– Buddha (560-483 B.C.)

"Peace is the only battle worth waging."
– Albert Camus (1913-1960)

"If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies."
- Moshe Dayan (1915-1981)

"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
- Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

"We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power.
Then will our world know the blessings of peace." - William Gladstone (1809-1898)

"There was never a good war or a bad peace."
- Ben Franklin (1706-1790)

"We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but on the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war. Somehow, we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race, which no one can win, to a positive contest to harness humanity's creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all the nations of the world. In short, we must shift the arms race into a peace race. If we have a will - and determination - to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto tightly sealed doors of hope and transform our imminent cosmic elegy into a psalm of creative fulfillment."
-Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)

[Dave The Dov]

Peace of mind
Peace in the world
All we want is Peace
Peace
Peace
Peace
Let it be the word that is spoken
Let it be the thought process that is on everyone mind
Peace
Oh Peace
Peace a five letter word
Peace
Peace
Yes Peace

[Doreen Peri]

Yes, peace is possible!

Michael Bonanno also wrote a song about it.

You can read the lyrics and listen here

http://www.studioeight.tv/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=7613

_______________

I get down on my knees for peace.
I plead with the universe for peace.

I watched a man running down the street.
He screeched to a halt in front of a yield sign,
shook the damn thing hard until it broke from
its concrete mount, pulled the whole post out
and hurled it across the street where it landed
on the orange do-not-pass line, passersby staring
at him jaw-dropped like he was a maniac, which
he was, and the good Lord looked down from above
shaking her head, glad the javelin didn't cause any deaths.

What was he so angry about?
Sexual frustration, no doubt. Stresses he couldn't deal with
but wished he lived without. A violent chemical reaction
to the world he couldn't control. He sold himself to a lost cause,
put the tape on pause and lost his grip, except for the one
he put on the spear!

Can you hear me, friends?
Why does ire set in? What makes the fire
inside surface? It's hard to tell but the dude
shoulda quelled his fury!

Where does anger come from?
Good thing he didn't have a gun!

[Doreen Peri]

What causes war? What is it for?
Is war for the purpose of population control?
Is war based on money? Does it stem
from anger or power?

War is a coward, a bully, a punk.
It is hooked on control-freak junk.

What can we do to cut off its supply?
I await the day when I can watch
War die.

[Doreen Peri]

Where is everyone?
Out making peace?
Out making love?
It's always so great
to make up after fighting.

Is that why the world is at war?
So after the bloodshed,
we can all go to bed
and make love better
than we ever did before?

[firsty]

it's quiet today. i have a cricket in my basement tho. i'm down here, just spent an hour watching spike lee's part I of katrina documentary and had to take a break.

i wonder where the peace is.

i cant take this shit anymore sometimes. a plane flew out of control over my head today coming home from work, maybe just something strange on the way to the runway. this is fucked. i worked half a day today. all my taxes are going to be laundered by my government and then used to kill a little boy whose grandfather lost his legs to a mine thirty years ago and theres nothing any of us can fucking do about it.

we got to do something to rile these people up. nobody gives a shit about peace. high rent thiefs. middle class thiefs. welfare thiefs.

thieves, it should be. but thiefs sounds better.

[Doreen Peri]

Nobody gives a shit about peace?
Could it be true? Damn! That's so
fucking sad it makes me want to cry.
Every day people die. We live in a country
that bullies the planet, dammit, you and I
work hard all day to have our taxes taken away
to send our sons and daughters off to kill
and they come back in body bags, fill
up morgues, it makes me ill!

Nobody gives a shit about peace?
Please tell me this isn't so!
Makes me wanna go out and shake 'em,
wake 'em up, yeah, take away their blinders,
dare 'em to see, yanno? We've gotta go
to the inside of their brains somehow,
show 'em the stats, escort 'em to the funerals
perhaps. I donno, but GI Joe, he's comin' back
with nightmares while he's awake, nothin' much
different than vietnam, for god's sake!

1, 2, 3 what are we fightin' for?
"Don't ask me I don't give a damn"?
Same shit, different day man oh man,
could it really be? Nobody gives a shit about peace?
Tell me it isn't so, wouldja please?

Gotta see that Spike Lee piece.
Govt sat by watched people drown.
'Bout time somebody brought the cameras down,
did a Katrina dedication.

Damn dollar's in inflation.
Cost me $40 to fill my tank an hour ago.
Stupid idiots invade a country to control their oil
then whaddya know? Can't count the dead,
they're in bed with the oil cartels and hell,
all our pocketbook's are empty.

What's it all about, man?
Nobody gives a shit about peace?
They must have some damn short
attention spans. What DO they care about, then?

Save this planet...
AMEN.

[jimboloco]

peace in every step
says thich nhat hanh
an peace pilgrim walked the highways
a mendicant who could,
an when i went to th vietnam memorial,
sat up on th hill tearing out fistfuls of green grass in nervous intensity
and saw another fellow who had ridden his bike from montana,
a pilgrim, which way did he go?
he was a door gunner on choppers,
then a biking pilgrim
with peace pilgrim's little book, yes, it's true,
a real fellow, transformed, broke,
the wall or bust, way back in '87,
i gave him 50 dollars, still had a few hundred left,
made him promise he'd find connections
(more for my self), we shook on it,
no idea where to go, went to the ccco in philly,
conscientious objector for a day,
then split west,
wanderings and wanderings,
homeless, bewildered and afraid.

many years later,
having survived th abyss,
i've come to this,
a sanctuary
or two to call my home.

(kudos on michael's song and well done!)
(and thankyou for this peace jam, ma'am)

[Doreen Peri]

I went to the Vietnam War Memorial
one Sunday afternoon last fall.
There were a row of us standing
so small staring into the names,
our faces reflected on the stone.
Many tears fell like an atonement,
a baptism of cheeks, and the dignified
graves of brave men were represented
only by etched letters and the witnesses
who stood by each other, shoulder-to-shoulder
strangers, one family, unable to embrace,
eyes staring into the tragedy
at sunset.

Many names etched in a row,
and I thought of their headstones
welcoming semi-annual sprays of garden
displays as the mothers march on,
the brothers get sent to yet another
location, armed to kill and still they
play the minstrel's song and long
for the day before they were sent away,
recalling mornings on the front porch
sipping coffee. He liked his black. And she,
who pleaded with him not to go, preferred
a bit of cream and a half teaspoon of sugar
to help the bitter taste go down
more easily.

[Doreen Peri]

we take little pieces, slight pieces pieced together,
build a storyline, deciphering plot and underlying subplot.
we work to dot each i, insert commas, pauses,
try to complete incomplete sentences lost on us,
move away from original plans, alter previous diagrams
and outlines which don't work.

there is random Justice when chapters are lost.
Liberty is created with cost.

we attempt to please,
ease through, cease opportunity, undo, redo,
see through missing moments, stolen cold.
stories unfold,
bold stories told.

there will always be critics. we are our own worst.
forgiveness is a terse argumentive child
requiring supervision, acceptance.
revisions of documents
cannot be made, once printed.
circular mistakes awaken.

too late to edit.
too late to edit.

scenes stun in flashbacks
after necessary fast forwards. we move on.
we move on toward conflict resolution.

petty, minute, wee, trite,
we slight our owned errs, climb
stairs backwards in dreams.
ghost wishes insist on streams
of conscious renewal. Time dies
with each exhale.

pages turn, fires burn out -
were they miniscule, brief, lillipution,
narrow, dwarfed? we attempt to morph memory
with responsibility. we challenge guilt,
climb on stilts, look down on ouselves beneath.
we race with relief from self admonished blame.

our reward?
slight pieces spaced
between slight peaces.
slight peaces.
slight peaces.

nothing written can ever be erased.
each statement placed, historic,
each spoken word heard, recorded.
stories constructed, foundations poured,
steel erected girds - words and rewards,
stirred insurrections, rejections, acceptances,
letters documented.

we spend our days in wonder,
thunder, the brash tactic of
a storm. morning arrives,
headlines, reported, published.
we write reviews, read op-eds,
often resort to cancelled home delivery.

what is the price
for this subscription?
slight pieces of wisdom.
slight peaces, solemn.
forgiven.

solemn peace.
solemn peace.

[e_dog]

Declare war on war.
Declare a War on War.

Peace You.
Peace, you.

Peace the hell out of it.
Peace you very much.

Well, peace me.
Peace this!

God peace America.
Peace my peace.

Please peace me.
If you peace.

Even if you don't peace.
We're here to peace.

[mousey1]

I saw peace fly in
circle the planet
smile
you know the way it does
throw some flowers
scatter some love
good vibes raining down
sprinkle sprinkle
bask in hope

watch it die

It's all about the money man!

I saw peace fly in
palms up
sunny side down
swoop
beaming expectation
mercy in hand
shot down
crash land
refuse of regret

Peace

There's no money in it man!

Peace

believe in it

Peace

reach for it

Hope

you won't always come up empty

Hope

You won't always come up empty!

Peace.

[bohonato]

I'm tired of the fighting.
I'm tired of the killing.
I'm tired of the hatred.
I'm tired of the fear.

Fear for my family.
Fear for my friends.
Fear for complete strangers.
Fear of being incinerated.
Fear of breathing my death.
Fear of a mushroom cloud.
(And these are the least of my fears)

I'm tired of crying every 11th day of September.

"You know what I'm tired of?
I'm tired of my cousin being dead."

"Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they will be called sons of God"
-Matthew 5:9 NIV

[Michael]

I'll sing the songs of history
unitl the sound of war
becomes historic poetry
and peace no longer waits.

[Michael]

Peace

Hums like a perfectly tuned engine.
Phenomenon, yet attainable.
Song of wind chimes
played by sweet summer breeze.

Waits for perplexed, penetrating perception,
human angst for direction.
Laudable goal we need to achieve.
After John, still deserving a chance.

Embraces sojourn, seeks to be settler.
Evaporates rubicund pools
with warm winds of love.
Defrays acrid smoke with melodious spice.

Breathes truth into slippery speech.
Lifts entrenched misery from tired bones.
Owns penchant for purpose.
Guides us towards paradise, here and now.