"Peace on Earth" - Bahamas AI Art
©A. Derek Catalano
Together In Harmony
In the corridors of history, where the ancient shadows lie,
We have built up mighty fortresses beneath a heavy sky.
We’ve carved the world in segments, drawing lines upon the sand,
With a prejudice for borders and a claim on every land.
We have looked upon our neighbor with a cold and wary eye,
Letting differences of color or of creed become a lie—
A lie that says we’re separate, that we’re cast in different molds,
While the story of our common heart remains a tale untold.
But the winds of change are stirring in the valley of the soul,
A whisper growing louder that we finally must be whole.
For the steel of every weapon and the fire of every war,
Has never brought the solace that our weary spirits implore.
We have marched through centuries of grief and bitter, hollow pride,
With a chest of heavy secrets and no place for them to hide.
Yet the morning light is breaking on a vision wide and vast,
Where we lay the heavy armor of our prehistoric past.
Imagine now a kingdom not of silver or of gold,
But a commonwealth of kindness where the truth is finally told.
Where the language that we speak is not a tool of sharp deceit,
But a bridge of understanding where the mind and spirit meet.
Where the labels we’ve inherited—the "them" and then the "us"—
Are dissolved like morning mist beneath a light of mutual trust.
For the skin is but a garment, and the faith a different song,
In a choir where every melody has always did belong.
It may seem a fleeting fantasy, a dream within a dream,
A ripple on the surface of a fast and frozen stream.
They will tell you it is foolish, that the world is built on greed,
That the hunger for dominion is a dark and primal seed.
But the power of a people who have put aside their hate,
Is a force that moves the mountains and can turn the hand of fate.
It is not a gift of destiny that falls down from the blue,
But a choice that we must carry out in everything we do.
To live as one in harmony requires a steady hand,
To pull the weeds of bitterness from every fertile land.
It means to see the suffering of a stranger as our own,
To realize that no soul on earth was meant to stand alone.
It’s the father in the city and the mother on the plain,
Recognizing that we share the same capacity for pain.
It’s the laying down of sabers and the turning of the blade,
Into tools that help the harvest in a garden we have made.
We can build a better world today, a temple for the sun,
Where the race for mere survival is a race that’s finally won.
Not by treading on the fallen or by climbing on the weak,
But by lifting up the humble and the words they dare to speak.
Let the halls of every nation ring with laughter, not with cries,
Let the scales of ancient judgment fall away from tired eyes.
For the good of all of mankind, for the children yet to be,
We must break the heavy shackles of our own hostility.
So let us start the journey, though the road be long and steep,
With a promise to our conscience that we finally mean to keep.
Through the valleys of our prejudice and over hills of fear,
Until the path of brotherhood is beautiful and clear.
For peace is not a resting place, but a way in which we move,
A testament to all the things that human hearts can prove.
Together in this harmony, beneath one vast, vaulted sky,
We can make this world a paradise, if we only truly try.
©A. Derek Catalano/Gemini
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