JwJ Readers,

In light of the terrors in Israel and Gaza, here are 14 poems for peace. They offer us both pastoral comfort and prophetic challenge.

Yehuda Amichai, The Place Where We Are Right. "… From the place where we are right…"

Wendell Berry, The Peace of Wild Things. "... When despair for the world grows in me…"

Wendell Berry, Questionnaire. "… State briefly the ideas, ideals, or hopes / the energy sources, the kinds of security, for which you would kill a child. Name, please, the children whom / you would be willing to kill."

Walter Brueggemann, Dreams and Nightmares. "… Last night as I lay sleeping…"

St. Francis, The Peace Prayer. … "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace…"

Langston Hughes, Kids Who Die. "…This is for the kids who die…"

Jane Wilson Joyce, Crazy Quilt. "… Dear Lord...quilt us together…"

Denise Levertov, Making Peace. "… an energy field more intense than war…"

Sarah Lubala, Portrait of a Girl at the Border Wall. "… how to write / the girl by the roadside…"

Czeslaw Milosz, A Nation. "… The purest of nations … Ready to offer their lives to draw Heaven's wrath on their foes…"

Martin Niemoeller, First They Came. "… First they came for the Communists…"

Wilfred Owen, Dulce et Decorum Est. The most famous poem of World War 1.

Warsan Shire, Home. "… no one leaves home unless / home is the mouth of a shark…"

Chaim Stern, Prayer for Overcoming Indifference. "… For the sin of silence, / For the sin of indifference…"

—Dan Clendenin: dan@journeywithjesus.net